(P)haedra pounding her knuckles into apiece of water - scratching her snake bites (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Well Phaedra with her looking glass Stretching out upon the grass She gets all messed up, and she faints That's because she's so obvious And you ain't (Bob Dylan: I Wanna Be Your Lover)
The way the ancient myth goes, Princess Phaedra becomes the wife of King Theseus; jealous love-goddess Aphrodite puts a spell on his wife, causing her to lust after the King’s son. Phaedra’s stepson rejects her sexual advances. Hippolytus admires Artemis who abstains from sex.
To cover up her shameful conduct, Phaedra accuses the King’s son of raping her. King Theseus believes his wife and banishes Hippolytus.
Poseidon, a father of Theseus, orders a monster to rise out of the sea. The ugly creature spooks Hippolytus’ horses – the resulting accident takes the life of Phaedra’s step child.
Remorseful, Phaedra hangs herself.
Playwright “Buripides Dylamis” changes the tragedy into a comedy.
Therein, Phaedra is punished by having to scratch herself because of the snake bites she receives when stretching out upon the grass.
Brings to mind the following poem:
But never met this fellow Attended or alone Without a tighter breathing And zero at the bone (Emily Dickinson: A Narrow Fellow In The Grass)
Phaedra does not decribe how big or little or narrow the snakes are; but there’s lots of them. Some she calls Tom, some she calls Dick; others, she calls Harry.
For her, making love is magic:
"(L)ove is gentleness - softness - creaminess" say Phaedra - who is now having a pillow fight - her weapon a mattress (Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
She’s a bit kinky, likes to dress up as Annie Oakley:
Phaedra takes off her stetson – five bunnies
& a nickel shot full of holes jump out
(Bob Dylan: Tarantula)
Rumours abound about Phaedra’s promiscuous behaviour – confirmed as true by Odysseus in the song below:
When I first met you baby You didn't show no visible scars You could ride like Annie Oakley And shoot like Belle Starr (Bob Dylan: Seeing The Real You At Last)
Below, the chorus of the post-modernist play, sung from Phaedra’s point of view.
She still craves to have sex with Hippolytus, cursed as she by Athrodite (Venus):
You mistreat me baby I can't see no reason why You know that I'd kill you And I'm not afraid to die Oh Lordy, like a stepchild I wanna run away from you But you know I can't leave you baby (Bob Dylan: Step Child ~ Bob Dylan/Helena Springs)
In the following song, the narrator thereof also suffers from Athrodite’s curse:
It was raining from the first And I was dying there of thirst So I came in here And your long-time curse hurts But what's worse is this pain in here I can't stay in here (Bob Dylan: Just Like A Woman)
It was raining from the first And I was dying there of thirst So I came in here And your long-time curse hurts But what's worse is this pain in here I can't stay in here (Bob Dylan: Just Like A Woman)