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PHEDRA. Phaedra was Ariadne's younger sister and the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae of Crete. She became Theseus's second wife and fell in love with his son Hippolytus, bringing destruction to them both (Heroides IV).

Theseus abandons Adriane for her sister Phedra, HF I.405-420; the story is repeated in LGW 2169-2178, where Theseus abandons Adriane because her sister is fairer than she is. This development of the story is not found in Ovid. S.B. Meech suggests Filippo Ceffi's Italian translation of Heroides X. Chaucer may have also used Machaut's Le Jugement dou roy de Navarre. [Adriane: Androgeus: Ipolita: Minos: Mynotaur: Phasipha: Theseus]

Phedra, the OF variant, appears initially, LGW 1985, and three times in medial positions, HF I.419; LGW 1970, 1978.


Guillaume de Machaut, Oeuvres, ed. E. Hoepffner, I: 230-232; S.B. Meech, "Chaucer and an Italian translation of the Heroides." PMLA 45 (1930): 117-118; Ovid, Her, ed. and trans. G. Showerman, 44-57; 120-133.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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