Several characters in the Hippolytus, including two goddesses, refer to the gift of three wishes/prayers/curses [ἀρά] promised to Theseus by Poseidon. This list is relevant to the next post.
Aphrodite
the young man who wars against me shall be killed by his father with the curses the sea-lord [45] Poseidon granted as a gift to Theseus: three times may Theseus pray to the god and have his prayer fulfilled.
Aphrodite
the young man who wars against me shall be killed by his father with the curses the sea-lord [45] Poseidon granted as a gift to Theseus: three times may Theseus pray to the god and have his prayer fulfilled.
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Theseus
But, father Poseidon, with one of the three curses you once promised me kill my son, and may he not live out [890] this day, if indeed you have granted me curses I may rely on.
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Theseus
Who killed him? Did someone have a quarrel with him [1165] whose wife he ravished as he did his father's?
Messenger
His own chariot destroyed him, and the curses of your mouth which you uttered against your son to your father, lord of the sea.
Theseus
stretching out his arms, palm upwards, in prayer
Merciful gods! So you were after all truly my father, Poseidon, [1170] since you have heard my prayer. How did he perish? Tell me, how did Zeus's cudgel strike him for dishonoring me?
Theseus
But, father Poseidon, with one of the three curses you once promised me kill my son, and may he not live out [890] this day, if indeed you have granted me curses I may rely on.
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Theseus
Who killed him? Did someone have a quarrel with him [1165] whose wife he ravished as he did his father's?
Messenger
His own chariot destroyed him, and the curses of your mouth which you uttered against your son to your father, lord of the sea.
Theseus
stretching out his arms, palm upwards, in prayer
Merciful gods! So you were after all truly my father, Poseidon, [1170] since you have heard my prayer. How did he perish? Tell me, how did Zeus's cudgel strike him for dishonoring me?
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Messenger
Hippolytus
Messenger
All was confounded: the wheels' naves [1235] and the axle-pins were leaping into the air, and the poor man himself, entangled in the reins, bound in a bond not easy to untie, was dragged along, smashing his head against the rocks and rending his flesh and uttering things dreadful to hear: [1240] ‘Stay, horses my mangers have nourished, do not blot me out! O wretched curse of my father! Who wishes to stand by the best of men and save his life?’
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Theseus
[1265] Bring him so that I may look him in the face, the man who denies he violated my bed, and with my words and with the misfortunes sent by the gods give him the lie.
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Artemis
Do you know that you possess three reliable (or clear)
curses from your father? One of these you took, base man, to use against your son when you could have used it against an enemy. Your father, the sea-lord, kindly disposed as he was towards you, granted what he had to grant seeing that he had made this promise. [1320]
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Hippolytus
O pain, o pain! Wretched man that I am, how mutilated I am by the unjust words of an unjust father! [1350]
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Hippolytus
O wretched curse of my father! [1378]
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Hippolytus
Poseidon your father's gifts, what woe they brought! [1411]
Theseus
Would they had never come into my mouth!
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Artemis
But you, child of old Aegeus, take your son in your arms and embrace him. For you were not responsible for killing him, and when the gods so send, it is understandable that men make fatal errors. [1435]
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