The eponymous hero of Euripides' Hippolytus, despite being a devout devotee of Artemis and a virgin, is deemed a figure of worship for young betrothed women because of the need for women to make peace with the conflicting social values of virginity and marriage. Hippolytus vehemently condemns desire and sexuality but, despite standing in opposition to temperance and purity, these are essential for establishing family units and perpetuating civilization. The play is best understood as an allegory for the transition of a girl from being a virginal youth to a married woman. The protagonist is forced to sacrifice his honor and social status due to his observance of an oath he makes and, while this is a pious action itself, it is at the expense of failing to respect the duty to tell the truth. Young women make an analogous sacrifice when they surrender their chastity in exchange for admittance into adulthood.…show more content… The paradox reflects a conflict for women in Greek society, namely that what is deemed virtuous for a woman to be both a virgin and a wife and mother. When a woman experiences love and lust, especially outside of the context of a legitimate marriage, her social status is in danger. However, submitting to love is an inevitability, as the nurse states, since it is because of Aphrodite's powers that humans engage in intercourse and reproduce (Hipp 449−450). The virtue of virginity must be sacrificed for the good of marriage and the propagation of the human race. The Chorus echoes this sentiment and declares that “love is like a flitting bee in the world's garden, and for its flowers destruction is in its breath” (Hipp 561−562). The marriage of a woman involves a duality of virtue and vice, the former stemming from her acceptance of her role as wife and mother, and the latter from her abandonment of
