EURIPIDES

born c. 484 BC, Athens died 406, Macedonia last of classical Athens' three great tragic dramatists, following Aeschylus and Sophocles. born c. 484 BC, , Athens died 406, Macedonia last of classical Athens' three great tragic dramatists, following Aeschylus and Sophocles. Euripides was the son of Mnesarchus (or Mnesarchides) and Cleito; there is indirect evidence that his family was middle-class. The general impression of Euripides left by tradition is of a figure austere and unconvival. He was accustomed to sit in a cave looking out to sea, a habit considered eccentric by his more sociable contemporaries. He took almost no part in Athens' public affairs. He was passionately interested in ideas, however, and he associated with Anaxagoras and other philosophers of his time. His acquaintance with new ideas brought him restlessness rather than conviction, and his questioning attitude toward the traditional Greek religion is reflected in many of his plays. Euripides was first chosen to compete in the dramatic festival of Dionysus in 455 BC, and he won his first victory in 441. In all he competed on 22 occasions (four plays at each). In 408 he left Athens to live at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, who was a noted patron of the arts. The fewness of his victories at the Dionysiac festivals, four in his lifetime and one posthumous, suggests some lack of appreciation. Nineteen of Euripides' plays survive. Among the most notable are Medea (431 BC), Hippolytus (428), Electra (418), Trojan Women (415), Ion (413), Iphigenia at Aulis (406), and Bacchants (406). In his plays Euripides took the heroic figures of ancient legend and transformed them into ordinary people who have contemporary attitudes. His highly intellectualized dramas are rich in ethical and social commentary and generally make up in psychological realism what they lack in idealizing grandeur. Additional reading Greek tragedy in general is treated in H.D.F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study, 3rd ed. (1961, reissued 1976), a lively survey but becoming dated; Richmond Lattimore, Story Patterns in Greek Tragedy (1964, reissued 1969); Arthur Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 2nd ed. rev. by John Gould and D.M. Lewis (1968), a standard work on the practical arrangements; H.C. Baldry, The Greek Tragic Theatre (1971), a simple, orthodox introduction; Albin Lesky, Greek Tragic Poetry (1983; originally published in German, 3rd rev. ed., 1972); Erika Simon, The Ancient Theatre (1982; originally published in German, 2nd ed., 1981), a concise and expert introduction to staging; Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece (1981; originally published in French, 1972), stimulating structuralist essays; Brian Vickers, Towards Greek Tragedy: Drama, Myth, Society (1973, reprinted 1979), long but thought-provoking; Oliver Taplin, Greek Tragedy in Action (1978), emphasis on the significance of performance; Bernard Knox, Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater (1979), a collection of important essays; Donald J. Mastronarde, Contact and Discontinuity: Some Conventions of Speech and Action on the Greek Tragic Stage (1979), a specialist study of dialogue; R.G.A. Buxton, Persuasion in Greek Tragedy: A Study of Peitho (1982); and Erich Segal (ed.), Greek Tragedy: Modern Essays in Criticism (U.K. title, Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy, 1983), a well-chosen and varied selection of articles.Critical works on Euripides' plays include G.M.A. Grube, The Drama of Euripides (1941, reprinted 1973), a survey; D.J. Conacher, Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure (1967), a helpful play-by-play survey, including a useful bibliography; Gilbert Murray, Euripides and His Age, 2nd ed. (1946, reissued 1979), an idealistic introduction; T.B.L. Webster, The Tragedies of Euripides (1967), helpful on the lost tragedies; R.P. Winnington-Ingram, Euripides and Dionysus: An Interpretation of the Bacchae (1948, reprinted 1969), an enterprising study; William Ritchie, The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides (1964), a scholarly though unsuccessful case for authorship; Anne Pippin Burnett, Catastrophe Survived: Euripides Plays of Mixed Reversal (1971, reprinted 1985), an original interpretation of seven plays; Pietro Pucci, The Violence of Pity in Euripides' Medea (1980); Shirley A. Barlow, The Imagery of Euripides: A Study in the Dramatic Use of Pictorial Language (1971, reprinted 1974); and Helene P. Foley, Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifices in Euripides (1985), a structuralist study of four plays. H.D.F. Kitto Oliver Taplin Major Works: Works Alkestis (438 BC; Alcestis); Medeia (431 BC; Medea); Herakleidai (c. 430 BC; Children of Heracles); Hippolytos (428 BC; Hippolytus); Andromache (c. 426 BC); Hekabe (c. 425 BC; Hecuba); Hiketides (c. 423 BC; Latin trans., Supplices; Eng. trans., Suppliants); Elektra (c. 418 BC; Electra); Herakles mainomenos (c. 416 BC; Latin trans., Hercules furens; Eng. trans., Madness of Heracles); Troades (415 BC; Trojan Women); Ion (c. 413 BC); Iphigeneia en Taurois (c. 413 BC; Latin trans., Iphigenia in Tauris; Eng. trans., Iphigenia Among the Taurians); Helene (412 BC; Helen); Phoinissai (c. 409 BC; Phoenician Women); Orestes (408 BC); Iphigeneia en Aulidi (c. 406 BC; Iphigenia at Aulis); Bakchai (c. 406 BC; Latin trans., Bacchae; Eng. trans., Bacchants); Kyklops (date unknown; Cyclops); Rhesos (authorship disputed; date unknown; Rhesus); Hypsipyle (sizable fragments; date uncertain). Texts The Greek text is available in Euripidis fabulae, ed. by J. Diggle (1981 ), a new Oxford Classical Text replacing the 3-vol. text ed. by Gilbert Murray, 190209; 2 vol. of the Diggle work have appeared to 1986. Recommended editions Euripides, 5 vol. (195559), contains English translations of all the plays and is part of The Complete Greek Tragedies series, ed. by Richmond Lattimore and David Grene. All the complete plays excluding Cyclops and Rhesus are found in the Penguin Classics series, trans. by Philip Vellacott, Three Plays (1953, reissued 1974), Medea, and Other Plays (1963), Orestes, and Other Plays (1972), and The Bacchae, and Other Plays, rev. ed. (1972). See also Geoffrey S. Kirk (trans.), The Bacchae (1970, reprinted 1979 as The Bacchae of Euripides).