Source Verification: Phaedra

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

Why did Aphrodite curse Phaedra?

In Euripides's Hippolytus, Aphrodite has no quarrel with Phaedra at all. Her anger is aimed at Hippolytus, who calls her the vilest of the gods and refuses love and marriage. Phaedra is simply the means of punishing him. Aphrodite says openly that Phaedra will die, with honor but still die, because her suffering matters less than repaying the goddess's enemies. Phaedra herself sees a pattern in her family, recalling her mother Pasiphae's love for the bull and her sister Ariadne's fate.

Source: Euripides, Hippolytus 40-50

Was Phaedra in love with Hippolytus?

Yes, in every ancient version, though the sources differ on where it began. Euripides and Diodorus Siculus say she first saw him at Athens when he came for the Mysteries. Euripides adds that she built a temple to Aphrodite in his honor. The Troezenians told Pausanias instead that she first saw him at Troezen, when Theseus went there for purification. In Euripides she fights the passion and hides it. In Apollodorus she openly asks Hippolytus to sleep with her.

Source: Euripides, Hippolytus 24-40

Why did Theseus marry Phaedra instead of Ariadne?

Because Ariadne was already gone. Apollodorus's Epitome says Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne at Naxos and carried her off after she fled Crete with Theseus. Homer's Odyssey tells a different end, in which Artemis killed her on the island of Dia. Theseus married Phaedra later, receiving her from her brother Deucalion. Diodorus Siculus presents that marriage as the seal on an alliance between Deucalion's Crete and Athens, not as a romance.

Source: Apollodorus, Epitome 1.17

What is the curse of Phaedra?

There is no single named curse in the ancient sources. In Euripides, what destroys Phaedra is a passion Aphrodite sends to punish Hippolytus. Phaedra reads it as an inherited misfortune, naming her mother's love for the bull and her sister's unhappy love before calling herself the third. The only formal curse in the play is spoken by Theseus. Believing her letter, he calls on Poseidon to kill his own son, and the god fulfills the prayer.

Source: Euripides, Hippolytus 310-352

Where Accounts Differ

how Phaedra accused Hippolytus
when and how Phaedra died
where Phaedra first saw Hippolytus
Euripides's two Hippolytus plays

How Phaedra accused Hippolytus differs by source. Euripides has her leave a sealed writing tablet on her body. Apollodorus has her break open her chamber doors and tear her clothes to stage an assault. Diodorus Siculus has her accuse him in person to Theseus. Seneca, in Latin, has her produce the sword Hippolytus left behind.
When and why Phaedra died is also disputed. In Euripides she hangs herself before Theseus returns, once the nurse's betrayal makes exposure certain. Apollodorus places her hanging after Hippolytus's death, when her passion became public. Diodorus Siculus says she hanged herself before Hippolytus could be examined. Seneca has her confess and die by the sword after his death. Pausanias read the swing in Polygnotus's painting at Delphi as an allusion to hanging.
Where Phaedra first saw Hippolytus is told two ways. Euripides and Diodorus Siculus place it at Athens during the Mysteries. The Troezenians told Pausanias it happened at Troezen, where Theseus had gone for purification.
The surviving Hippolytus is Euripides's second play on the subject. An earlier version, now lost and known as Hippolytus Veiled, appears to have shown Phaedra declaring her love to Hippolytus directly. The ancient summary of the surviving play, attributed to Aristophanes of Byzantium, says what was unseemly in the first version was corrected in the second. This rests on secondary scholarship and fragments, not on a text this site can check line by line.

Sources

Primary sources

Euripides, Hippolytus 24-40
Euripides, Hippolytus 40-50
Euripides, Hippolytus 198-265
Euripides, Hippolytus 310-352
Euripides, Hippolytus 373-430
Euripides, Hippolytus 565-600
Euripides, Hippolytus 715-730
Euripides, Hippolytus 776-802
Euripides, Hippolytus 856-885
Euripides, Hippolytus 1296-1310
Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2
Apollodorus, Epitome 1.9
Apollodorus, Epitome 1.16
Apollodorus, Epitome 1.17
Apollodorus, Epitome 1.18
Apollodorus, Epitome 1.19
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 4.62
Homer, Odyssey 11.321
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.22.1-1.22.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.32.3-2.32.4
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.25.1
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.29.3
Plutarch, Life of Theseus 28