THE GREEK MYTH OF HIPPOLYTUS AND THE MIDDLE EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

Abstract

The article is an answer to the point of view expressed by a number of authors (J. Frazer, W. Burkert, F. Karahashi and C. Lopez-Ruiz), according to which the Greek myth of Hippolytus has roots in the Middle Eastern myths about the goddesses of fertility (Cybele, Ishtar, Astarte) killing masculine characters. While analyzing the sources, the author comes to the conclusion that only in two sources (Euripides’ "Hippolytos Stephanephoros” and Athenaeus’ "Deipnosophistai”, the latter being clearly and directly dependent on the former) appears the motive of Aphrodite’s intention to kill Hippolytus on purpose. All the other numerous sources either do not mention Aphrodite’s role at all or portray it in a completely different way (it is not Hippolytus but his stepmother Phaedra who is the object of Aphrodite’s revenge as she is Helios’s descendant). The motive of Aphrodite’s revenge on Hippolytus appeared most probably as a result of Euripides’ rewriting his earlier tragedy and does not have even Greek folk roots, let alone the Eastern ones.