Two Kinds of Love on Fire: A Comparison and Contrasting Essay on the Representation of Love in Euripides "Hippolytus" and Sappho's Poetry
Both Euripides' drama "Hippolytus" and the poems of Sappho take as one of their major dramatic themes the ideal of thwarted love. Both ancient Greek works use metaphors of burning and longing to express various speakers' desires for objects of affection he or she cannot obtain. But while the emotional intensity of both works may be equally heart rendering, Sappho's poetry adopts a more balanced, and ultimately healthier perspective of love in relation to the divine and human words than do the protagonists of Euripides' tragedy. Both Phaedra and Hippolytus feel unbalanced and unwholesome affections for people they desire on earth or in the heavens, and this become their undoing.In "Hippolytus," the title character's stepmother pines for her stepson. Not only is their sexual union prohibited by Phaedra's marriage to Theseus, Hippolytus' father but Hippolytus is also a sworn adherent of the cult of Artemis. He refuses to impinge upon his chastity for any woman's sake. He is particularly horrified at the prospect of flaunting the honor of the father whom he loves. Breaching filial devotion was a great transgression for the ancient Greeks. Phaedra's desire only makes him more revolted at the prospect of sexual relations. Hippoly
Because the two individuals who are single-minded acolytes of a singles goddess in "Hippolytus" are so zealously narrow-minded in their conception of love, they come to an inevitable clash personally, and to an inevitable misunderstanding of the divine, the need to honor all the great Olympians. Eventually Phaedra falsely accuses her stepson of rape and committees suicide, although not before causing a breach between Theseus and Hippolytus, which results in Hippolytus' own demise. Thus, Sappho takes a more philosophical attitude towards her impossible love than the dramatist's portrayal of Phaedra's impassioned, nearly hysterical obsession for her stepson. "Ah me! alas! what have I done? Whither have I strayed, my senses leaving? Mad, mad! stricken by some demon's curse!" cries Phaedra. Sappho burns with love like Phaedra, and rages with hate and love, but Sappho's poems always come to a rational conclusion in the sense that the poet realizes the transient nature of human life and the human world, and thus of human affections. Sappho invokes the goddess Aphrodite, but with respect, rather than with impassioned demands as does Phaedra, or to the exclusion of other gods and goddesses as does Hippolytus. Sappho knows her love must end, and she does not act immorally to prevent her lovers from achieving happiness in the arms of others. The poet Sappho is a woman who also pines for a woman she cannot have-or, rather a series of women over the course of her many poems. In contrast to Phaedra's single-minded affections, Sappho pines for the young women w
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Approximate Word count = 1055
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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