When the title character, Hippolytus' stepmother, receives false information that her husband, Theseus, is dead, Phedra reveals a passionate love for her stepson — an act that eventually spells doom for both characters.
In this volume of Racine's plays we find "The Thebaid," the first of twelve plays by the author. Racine draws upon Sophocles' "Antigone" and Euripides' "Phoenician Women" for this drama.