Jean Racine's last and greatest tragedy is based on a legend that has intrugued dramatists as far back as Euripides and Seneca. Phaedra, the second wife of Theseus, heroic king of Athens, is consumed with an illicit passion for Hippolytus, her stepson. Given word that her husband dead, she confesses her love for Hippolytus and is rebuffed. When Theseus turns out to be alive after all, Phaedra connives in a lie to convince her husband that it was Hippolytus who attempted to seduce her. The stage is set for fury and grief, guilt and remorse.