This painting depicts a young man portrayed in a helmet and armour in the Classical style as he approaches the ruins of an ancient building on a splendid golden chariot drawn by two galloping white destriers, while on the ground beside the chariot, a young bare-chested squire holds the horses' reins. The scene is played out on the edge of a cliff beyond which, in the background, we can perceive the sea, its waters stirred up by a sea monster in the distance.

The painting contains numerous Classical citations. In addition to the costumes and to the strapping, muscular bodies of the two figures, the artist's Classical inspiration extends also to the chariot and, in particular, to the blind façade of the building resembling a Classical temple, surmounted by a pediment and embellished below with a storied frieze and Corinthian columns.

The painting is inspired by the myth of Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and of the Amazon Antiope (or Hippolyta), and of his stepmother Phaedra. After vainly attempting to seduce the handsome but chaste Hippolytus, Phaeda tells her husband Theseus that it was the young man who had tried to seduce her. Not wishing to slay his own son, Theseus sought the aid of Poseidon, god of the sea, who sent a sea monster to the shore to frighten Hippolytus' horses. Hippolytus was thrown from his chariot and died.

From an iconographical viewpoint, the painting offers an original solution to the depiction of the myth of Hippolytus, who is usually depicted as he is thrown from his chariot and dies. Dorffmeister, on the other hand, has chosen to show the moments immediately before the young man's death, while Sir Peter Paul Rubens, for example is known for his tragic Death of Hippolytus.

The autobiography of Philip J. von Rehfues, a poet, man of letters and chief confidential adviser to the government of Prussia[1], contains interesting information regarding Dorffmeister's life and work. Orphaned, in fact losing his entire family, at an early age, Dorffmeister was sent from Ödenburg, his birthplace, to Vienna to study drawing under Füger, court painter to Emperor Joseph II. Rehfues tells us that he met the artist, who may have arrived in Italy before 1798, in Livorno and that Dorffmeister took part in an uprising which broke out in Arezzo in 1799:

«Active participation in this uprising prompted Dorfmeister, after the Battle of Marengo, to seek refuge in Leghorn […] In addition to a fair number of portraits[2] he completed under my very eyes a painting depicting Hippolytus and the fear that betakes his destriers at the sight of the sea monster, while the young hero vainly tries to discipline the beasts. Fear at the monster's appearance is also expressed on the youth's fine features, as is his heroic domination of that fear.»[3]

The painting was subsequently brought to Vienna to hang in one of the imperial palaces.