As a faithful follower of Artemis, the goddess of chastity, Hippolytus has renounced the joys of love and so refuses to revere the goddess Aphrodite. To punish him, she weaves a web for his downfall by inspiring his stepmother, Phaedra, to fall passionately in love with him.  Phaedra confesses her ardent desire to Hippolytus through her nurse, but he angrily rejects her. Phaedra resolves to put an end to her life, but to preserve her honour she leaves a letter for her husband, Theseus, in which she accuses Hippolytus of assaulting her. Theseus finds his wife dead and on reading the letter learns that Hippolytus supposedly caused her death by daring to lay a hand on her. Bound by a vow of silence, Hippolytus does not reveal Phaedra s motives and does not respond to the rage of Theseus, who asks Poseidon to punish his son. When the truth comes to light, it is too late. Artemis restores the honour of her tragic follower, but Hippolytus, mortally injured, dies in the arms of the inconsolable Theseus.

Hippolytus was first presented in 428 BC at the Great Dionysia festival, where it won first prize. The Greek National Theatre first performed the play in 1937 at the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, in a production directed by Dimitris Rondiris with music by Dimitris Mitropoulos. The production was revived in 1954 with a new cast at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, where it was an unofficial first production of the Festival of Epidaurus, which was instituted the very next year.