The play focuses on Phaedra, wife of Theseus, King of Athens. Normally, the royal family would reside in Athens. However, the court was moved temporarily to Troezen, a town on a peninsula known as the Peloponnesus, after a period of upheaval in Athens in which Theseus killed political enemies. The stay at Troezen gives him an opportunity to wash the blood of his enemies from his mind while revisiting a favorite retreat--Troezen was the birthplace of Theseus.

Translation of: Phèdre. "A Harvest/HBJ book."