Myth & LegendGreek → English
Hippolytus
/hɪˈpɒlɪtəs/noun
The son of Theseus, destroyed by his own chariot team after his stepmother's false accusation.
The Greek roots
ἵππος
híppos
horse
λύειν
lúein
to loose, to unyoke
Literally: “loosed by horses”
The story of the word
The name can be read either way, as the man who unyokes horses or the man the horses tear apart, and the myth takes the second reading: a bull rises from the sea, the team bolts, and he dies dragged behind his own chariot. Euripides won first prize with his version in 428 BC. The second element is the λύειν of analysis and hydrolysis, and the first is the ἵππος of hippopotamus, the river horse.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
hippopotamushippodromeanalysisPhilip
In a sentence
Racine rewrote the story as Phèdre, moving Hippolytus to the margins.