PHÆDRA (fab. hist.) was a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae; she married Theseus, by whom she was the mother of Acamas and Demophon. They had already lived for some time in conjugal felicity, when Venus, who hated all the descendants of Apollo, because he had discovered her amours with Mars, inspired Phædra with the strongest passion for Hippolytus the son of Theseus, by the amazon Hippolyte. This passion she long attempted to stifle, but in vain; and therefore, in the absence of Theseus, she addressed Hippolytus with all the impatience of desponding love. He rejected her with horror and disdain. She, however, incensed by the reception she had met, resolved to punish his coldness and refusal; and at the return of Theseus she accused Hippolytus of attempts upon her virtue. He listened to her accusation; and without hearing Hippolytus's defence, he banished him from his kingdom, and implored Neptune, who had promised to grant three of his requests, to punish him in an exemplary manner. As Hippolytus fled from Athens, his horses were suddenly terrified by a sea monster, which Neptune had sent on the shore; and he was thus dragged through precipices and over rocks, trampled under the feet of his horses, and crushed under the wheels of his chariot. When his tragical end was known at Athens, Phædra confessed her crime, and hung herself.
Phædruſſelf in deſpair, unable to ſurvive one whoſe death her extreme guilt had occaſioned. The death of Hippolytus, and the infamous paſſion of Phædra, is the ſubject of one of the tragedies of Euripides and of Seneca. She was buried at Træzene, where her tomb was ſtill to be ſeen in the age of the geographer Paufanias, near the temple of Venus, which ſhe had built to render the goddess favourable to her inceſtuous paſſion. Near her tomb was a myrtle, whoſe leaves were full of ſmall holes, which, it was reported, Phædra had done with a hair pin, when the vehemence of her paſſion had rendered her melancholy and almoſt deſperate. She was repreſented in a painting in Apollo's temple at Delphi, as ſuſpended in the air, while her ſiſter Ariadne ſtood near to her, and fixed her eyes upon her.