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Rh herself and her rites: and he owes to this pride or exclusive zeal the hideous ruin which engulfs him. The offended goddess sets forth in the prologue her determination to destroy Diana's favourite, and gives her reasons for it. She says:—

"He may consort with the huntress, he may follow his swift dogs, he may shun fellowship with men, as much as he likes—of his tastes I reck not: what I cannot overlook is his personally offensive conduct to myself, 'a goddess not inglorious,' and accounted by mortals generally as not the least potent of Olympians. The means of revenge are not far to seek. Phædra, his young and beauteous stepmother, is pining for love of him, and through her unhappy passion he shall be struck: "with her I have no quarrel," says the goddess—

The prologue ended, Venus disappears, and Hippolytus and his retinue of huntsmen enter, singing a hymn to Diana. When it is finished, he thus addresses the goddess—an invocation which has been thus beautifully paraphrased:—

Thou maid of maids, Diana, the goddess whom he fears,

Unto thee Hippolytus this flowery chaplet bears;