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Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE) was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles.

He is believed to have written over ninety plays, eighteen of which have survived (it is now widely believed that a nineteenth, Rhesus, was written by someone else). Fragments, some of them substantial, of most of the other plays also survive. More of his plays have survived than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because of the chance preservation of a manuscript that was probably part of a complete collection of his works.

Euripides is known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of traditional Attic tragedy by showing strong women characters and smart slaves, and by satirizing many heroes of Greek mythology.

Life

His mother's name was Cleito, and his father's either Mnesarchus or Mnesarchides. Evidence suggests that Euripides' family was financially well off. He had a wife named Melito, and together they had three sons. It is rumored that he also had a daughter, but she was killed after a rabid dog attacked her. Some call this rumor a joke made by Aristophanes, a comic writer who often poked fun at Euripides. However, many historians fail to see the humor in it, and believe that the story is indeed true.

The record of Euripides' public life, other than his involvement in dramatic competitions, is almost non-existent. It has been said that he travelled to Syracuse, Sicily, that he engaged in various public or political activities during his lifetime, and that he left Athens at the invitation of King Archelaus II of Macedon and stayed with him in Macedonia after 408 BCE; there is, however, no historical evidence for any of these claims.

His plays

Euripides first competed in the famous Athenian dramatic festival (the Dionysia) in 455 BCE, one year after the death of Aeschylus. He came in third It was not until 441 BCE that he won first place, and over the course of his lifetime, Euripides claimed a mere four victories.

He was a frequent target of Aristophanes' humor. He appears as a character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazousae, and most memorably in The Frogs, where Dionysus travels to Hades to bring Euripides back from the dead. After a competition of poetry, Dionysus opts to bring Aeschylus instead.

Euripides' final competition in Athens was in 408 BCE. Although there is a story that he left Athens embittered because of his defeats, there is no real evidence to support it. He died in 406 BCE, probably in Athens or nearby, and not in Macedon, as some biographers repeatedly state. The Bacchae was performed after his death in 405 BCE.

When compared with Aeschylus, who won thirteen times, and Sophocles, with eighteen victories, Euripides was the least honored, though not necessarily the least popular, of the three — at least in his lifetime. Later, in the 4th century BC, the dramas of Euripides became more popular than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles. His works influenced New Comedy and Roman drama, and were later idolized by the French classicists; his influence on drama reaches modern times.

Euripides' greatest works are considered to be Alcestis, Medea, Electra, and The Bacchae.

In June 2005, classicists at Oxford University employed infrared technology – previously used for satellite imaging – to detect previously unknown material by Euripides in fragments of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, a collection of ancient manuscripts held by the university.

Works

Tragedies of Euripides

1. Alcestis (438 BCE, second prize)
2. Medea (431 BCE, third prize)
3. Children of Heracles (c. 430 BCE)
4. Hippolytus (428 BCE, first prize)
5. Andromache (c. 435 BCE)
6. Hecuba (c. 424 BCE)
7. The Suppliant Women (c. 423 BCE)
8. Electra (c. 420 BCE)
9. Heracles (c. 416 BCE)
10. Trojan Women (415 BCE, second prize)
11. Iphigeneia in Tauris (c. 414 BCE)
12. Ion (c. 413 BCE)
13. Helen (412 BCE)
14. Phoenician Women (c. 410 BCE, second prize)
15. Orestes (408 BCE)
16. Bacchae and Iphigeneia at Aulis (405 BCE, posthumous, first prize)

Fragmentary tragedies of Euripides

The following plays have come down to us today only in fragmentary form; some consist of only a handful of lines, but with some the fragments are extensive enough to allow tentative reconstruction: see Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays (Aris and Phillips 1995) ed. C. Collard, M.J. Cropp and K.H. Lee.

1. Telephus (438 BCE)
2. Cretans (c. 435 BCE)
3. Stheneboea (before 429 BCE)
4. Bellerophon (c. 430 BC)
5. Cresphontes (ca. 425 BCE)
6. Erechtheus (422 BCE)
7. Phaethon (c. 420 BCE)
8. Wise Melanippe (c. 420 BCE)
9. Alexandros (415 BCE)
10. Palamedes (415 BCE)
11. Sisyphus (415 BCE)
12. Captive Melanippe (412 BCE)
13. Andromeda (c. 410 BCE)
14. Antiope (c. 410 BCE)
15. Archelaus (c. 410 BCE)
16. Hypsipyle (c. 410 BCE)
17. Oedipus (c. 410 BCE)
18. Philoctetes (c. 410 BCE)

Satyr play

1. Cyclops (unknown)

Spurious plays

1. Rhesus (mid 4th century BCE) Probably not by Euripides, as originally argued by L. C. Valcknaer and now maintained today by most scholars (Ancient History Sourcebook)

See also

• Tragedy on screen

References

• Croally, N.T. Euripidean Polemic: The Trojan Women and the Function of Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• Ippolito, P. La vita di Euripide. N�poles: Dipartimento di Filologia Classica dell'Universit'a degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 1999.
• Kovacs, D. Euripidea. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
• Lefkowitz, M.R. The Lives of the Greek Poets. London: Duckworth, 1981.
• Scullion, S. Euripides and Macedon, or the silence of the Frogs. The Classical Quarterly, Oxford, v. 53, n. 2, p. 389-400, 2003.
• Webster, T.B.L., The Tragedies of Euripides, Methuen, 1967.

External links

• Works by Euripides at Project Gutenberg
• http://perseus.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=encyclopedia+Euripides
• http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/euripides001.html
• http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/eb11-euripides.html
• http://www.ac-strasbourg.fr/pedago/lettres/Victor%20Hugo/Notes/Euripide.htm
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/~amahoney/tragedy_dates.html
• http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/literature/world_literature/euripides.html *http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/literature/world_literature/euripides.html]
• http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc4.htm

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• 480 BC births
• 406 BC deaths
• Ancient Greek dramatists and playwrights
• Ancient Athenians
• Ancient Greek poets