Phèdre (originally Phèdre et Hippolyte), a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, is first performed on January 1, 1677.

Racine has chosen once more a subject from Greek mythology, already treated by Greek and Roman tragic poets, notably by Euripides in Hippolytus and Seneca in Phaedra.

In the absence of her royal husband Thésée, Phèdre ends by declaring her love to Hippolyte, Thésée's son from a previous marriage.

As a result of an intrigue by the Duchess of Bouillon and other friends of the aging Pierre Corneille, the play is not a success at its première at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, home of the royal troupe of actors in Paris.

Indeed a rival group stages a play by the now forgotten playwright Nicolas Pradon on an almost identical theme.

After Phèdre, Racine is to cease writing plays on secular themes and for the next dozen years devote himself to the service of religion and the king.

Certain lines from the play, such as "la fille de Minos et de Pasiphaé", are to become classics in the French language; but despite the celebrated musicality of the alexandrine, Racine never wrote poetry just for the sake of beauty of sound.

Despite its author's silence from 1677 to 1689, as time progresses Phèdre will become one of the most famous of his plays.

It is today one of the most frequently staged tragedies from the seventeenth century.