The Garland of Hippolytus

Abstract

This article discusses a set of remarkable scholia on the dedicatory address and prayer which Hippolytus offers to Artemis as he places a garland at her statue (Euripides, Hippolytus 73– 87); the scholia consider a variety of allegorical interpretations for the garland and for Hippolytus' moral elitism. The article sets these scholia within the context of the poetic interpretation of later criticism and traces their roots in the language of classical poetry itself. The affiliations of Hippolytus' language and why it attracted the notice of the scholiasts is also explored, as is the way in which this scholiastic interest points us also to a very important strand of the play's meaning.