Phaedra is hesitant and trembling, telling Oenone in an aside that she has forgotten everything she meant to say. Oenone reminds her that her son's fate depends upon her skill in handling Hippolytus, and when she confronts him, she addresses him with all the dignity of a queen. Hippolytus, she says, has lost a father, she a husband; but she has further cause for grief. Her son is fatherless, and she herself is soon to die and leave him defenseless among enemies. Who will protect him, if not his stepbrother? But she fears that by her past harshness to Hippolytus she has turned him against her son.
Hippolytus denies it, and Phaedra intensifies her appeal. It is true that she has sought to have Hippolytus exiled, forbidden anyone to speak his name in her hearing; but this is not because she hates him. Hippolytus accepts this statement. It is natural, he observes, for a stepmother to defend the rights of her own children against her stepson. Any other woman would have behaved in the same way and might have treated him more unkindly.
Phaedra, tormented by his misunderstanding of her true feelings, cries out that she had no such motive; she has a totally different feeling. Hippolytus cuts her off abruptly; after all, he says, she may be troubling herself over nothing; Theseus may still be alive.
