HIPPOLYTUS, in Greek legend, son of Theseus and Hippo lyte, queen of the Amazons (or of her sister Antiope), a famous hunter and charioteer and favourite of Artemis. His stepmother Phaedra became enamoured of him, but, finding her advances rejected, she hanged herself, leaving a letter in which she accused Hippolytus of an attempt upon her virtue. Theseus, to whom his father Poseidon had given three wishes, then prayed for the destruction of Hippolytus and banished him. While Hippolytus was driving along the shore at Troezen (the scene of the Hippo lytus of Euripides), a sea-monster sent by Poseidon frightened his horses; Hippolytus was thrown out of the chariot, and was dragged along, entangled in the reins, until he died. According to a tradition of Epidaurus, Asclepius restored him to life at the request of Artemis; later, he was represented as having been removed to Aricia (see VIRBIUS). At Troezen he had a cult, and girls used to dedicate a lock of hair to him before marriage (Eurip. Hipp. 1423 ; Paus. 32, I) ; a local cult-legend said he was not dead, but turned into the constellation Auriga (Paus.
ibid.). Well-known classical parallels to the main theme are Bellerophon and Antea (or Stheneboea) and Peleus and Asty damia. The story was the subject of two plays by Euripides (the later of which is extant), and a tragedy by Seneca. Trace of it has survived in the legendary death of the apocryphal martyr Hippolytus, a Roman officer who was torn to pieces by wild horses as a convert to Christianity.
See Roscher's Lexikon, art. HIPPOLYTUS ; L. R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults (1921) .