Heroes, Rituals and Worship: Tragedy and Hippolytus' Case

Although, like other Greek heroes, Hippolytus was not only a figure of myth, but also of cult, this relationship shows important discordant aspects. The aim of this paper is to clarify these aspects, focusing on three significant points of the tragic treatment (the events location, the name of the character, the hero's relationship with the cult divinity,). With this we try to highlight that Hippolytus -an eminent cult figure in Troezen- was essentially a tragic hero in Athens, and to conclude the importance of an aspect remarked by Euripides in his Hippolytus (the only complete tragedy preserved): the tension and complementarily between Aphrodite and Artemis.