This story comes from Greek myth and is a play written by Euripedes. Now, as a note before I tell you this story, know it's an old one from an old culture and each of us that have gone our own way did so in our own way. So play nice.

Now, onto a story about spiteful women, a man who wanted to do his own thing, false rape allegations and friggin sea monsters. This is also a synopsis of the version I found most convincing (and admittedly most relatable). There are other versions, look em up if you're keen. This also has a bunch of names. Strap in...

Hippolytus, son of Theseus, was a hunter and didn't care for relationships of any kind. This led him to favor Artemis, the Virgin goddess of the hunt, over Aphrodite, renown for being a beautiful, spiteful goddess playing matchmaker with mortals without a care for consequences (see the whole trojan war).

Artemis and her worshipers (largely virgin women and hunters, most of which were virgins as well), took an oath of celibacy to show their devotion to Artemis, and by extension, the hunt. This does not sit well with Aphrodite, who has made it a pastime to make the lives of any willful celibate absolutely miserable.

So as a form of self-righteous vengeance, Aphrodite puts Hippolytus's stepmother, Phaedra, under a curse to fall in love with Hippolytus. (Shut up, I know this is the plot of literally half of all new porn minus the god shenanigans).

Hippolytus rejects Phaedra's advances, and out of spite, Phaedra goes to Hippolytus's father, Theseus, and claims that Hippolytus forced himself onto her.

Now, Theseus is the son of Poseidon, and gets a favor from him. As punishment for Hippolytus's alleged crime, Poseidon sent a sea monsters to scare Hippolytus's horse, which dragged him to the brink of death as he fell off it.

Artemis is rightfully upset with the attempt on Hippolytus's life by Theseus, Poseidon, Phaedra and especially Aphrodite. Artemis takes Hippolytus, nearly dead, to Asclepius, a doctor capable of curing even death and is also Artemis's niece. (Greek pedigrees of the gods are fuuuucked). Hippolytus is healed back to health and Artemis scolds Theseus for attempting to kill his son over Phaedra's lie brought on by Aphrodite.

That was fun, right? Well, that's because you didn't look into more of the mythos surrounding it. Theseus is an actual rapist himself, in some stories, Phaedra kills herself to not have to admit to lying, the story ends when Hippolytus dies instead of being revived and even an excerpt in the Aeneid claimed that Hippolytus wasn't celibate and married Aricia (or got married in Aricia?), neglecting the vow of celibacy followers of Artemis took to show devotion to the hunt.

Even if you didn't like the story, it's something to think about. But for now, I think storytime is over.

Take care, guys.