Paper Summary:

This paper examines the myth, "The Bull from the Sea," by Mary Renault. Specifically, it discusses how Theseus and his Moira, his god gift, become entangled and ultimately destroyed in his relationships with Hippolyta, his great love, and Hyppolytus, his son, and explains the irony of these situations. It also looks at how Theseus is a heroic leader who suffers from forgetfulness and latent selfish tendencies that allow him to sacrifice the good of his people for his own needs.

From the Paper:

"Theseus' son, Hippolytus, is also a source of great irony in the book, because he sprang from his father, but he is a much better man than his father is. He is a healer, and while he does not have Theseus' psychic abilities, he is gentle and kind, a virgin at the age of seventeen, and taller than his father, and his father is envious of all these things. Envy and moira do not go together, and if there was a shred of his moira left after all this time, it is destroyed by his loving envy of his son, and in the ultimate ironic act, Theseus destroys his own son partly as a result of his envy, and partly because of Phaedra's accusation of rape. The son has usurped the father's role, and the irony of the situation is that of course, he did not, but he will not speak out, and Theseus is not wise enough to see the situation is a set-up."

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