Hello Bob Adams--
  The name comes from anchient Greek mythology.  Phaedra was a goddess, wife
of Thesius, who,  like all good warrier kings went off to war.  Trouble was,
he stayed away for forty years.  Phaedra got restless after a few decades
and took a young lover.

The plot thickens:  Thesius returns.  The young lover, it turns out, is the
son of Thesius from a previous marriage.  To preserve the honor of all
concerned, Phaedra and Thesius committ joint suicide.  This myth was
popularized, some might say immortalized, by Racines play by the same name.
In the sixties it was brought once again out of mothballs and a b&w film was
released starring Tony Perkins and, I believe, Anna Magnani(sp).
I've not yet met in this lifetime another woman with my name!
Phaedra