In the tragedy of Euripides, Hippolytus is our hero in the story who rejects the concept of woman entirely, he devotes himself entirely to the goddess Artemis and is chastised. Phaedra, his stepmother, is manipulated by Aphrodite and is made to fatally fall in love with Hippolytus. She accuses him after he refuses sheer. The gender roles in this Greek tragedy, while following a similar theme of the heroic and virtues man rejecting the tempting woman, there is a much heavier and thought-provoking concept of Hippolytus and his masculinity being defined negatively due to his anti-woman and sheer arrogance towards them entirely.
Linguistically, the dialogue shows the fragility of humans and the unyielding power of impulsive gods, Greek langue is full of tragic diction and figurative langue that shows the male virtue and one female's guilt and shame that on both ends of the spectrum can either be heroic or destructive. The tragedy critiques patriarchal norms with Hippolytus’ downfall being his hubris and rejection in something such as feminine human nature, and in comparison, to all four stories, Hippolytus has the most critical views of gender among them all.
