Indeed throughout the tragedy the traditional beliefs are treated with powerful irony. When Phaedra is filled with shame at the passion for her step-son with which Aphrodite has inspired her, the nurse tempts her to yield, quoting ancient tales of the celestials’ amours as examples:
Whoso have scrolls writ in the ancient days, And wander still themselves by paths of song, They know how Zeus of yore desired the embrace Of Semele; they know how radiant Dawn Up to the gods snatched Cephalus of yore, And all for love; yet these in Heaven their home Dwell, neither do they flee the face of Gods, Content, I trow, to be love’s vanquished ones. Thou—wilt not yield?[169]
Nay, darling, from thy deadly thoughts refrain, And from presumption—sheer presumption this, That one should wish to be more strong than Gods. In love flinch not; a God hath willed this thing.[170]
But Phaedra dies by her own hand rather than yield to the goddess’s design. The innocent Hippolytus, second victim of divine injustice, cries out as he dies:
Innocent I, ever fearing the Gods, who was wholly heart-clean Above all men beside,— Lo, how am I thrust Unto Hades, to hide My life in the dust! All vainly I reverenced God, and in vain unto man was I just.[171]
What greater condemnation of the traditional gods could there be than this!
In the Hercules Hera drives the hero mad and makes him the slayer of his own innocent children, all because of the goddess’s jealousy of Zeus. Small wonder that Hercules cries when the truth is brought home to him:
To such a Goddess Who shall pray now? who, for a woman’s sake Jealous of Zeus, from Hellas hath cut off Her benefactors, guiltless though they were.[172]