But for his sins against me, I will this very day take vengeance on Hippolytus; for long ago I cleared the ground of many obstacles, so it needs but trifling toil. For as he came one day from the home of Pittheus to witness the solemn mystic rites and be initiated therein in Pandion's land, Phaedra, his father's noble wife, caught sight of him, and by my designs she found her heart was seized with wild desire. And ere she came to this Troezenian realm, a temple did she rear to Cypris hard by the rock of Pallas where it o'erlooks this country, for love of the youth in another land; and to win his love in days to come she called after his name the temple she had founded for the goddess.
In this passage the goddess makes her case for the eventual penalty leveled against Hippolytus by the wrathful goddess. The audience is presented with the transgression as well as the intended punishment. Just as Greek society had a strict code of laws regarding civil responsibilities they also had a moral code from the Gods. The reiteration of these standards in this form promotes general acceptance among the masses.