Euripides Biography

Euripides lived during the Golden Age of Athens, the city where he was born and lived most of his life. Born in 484 B.C.E., his infancy saw the repulsion of the Persian invasion, a military victory that secured Athens's political independence and eventual dominance over the Mediterranean world. His death in 406 came as Athens was surrendering its supremacy as a result of its protracted defeat by Sparta, its main rival, in the Peloponnesian War. Sandwiched between these two wars lies a creative period of political, economic, and cultural activity that spawned many of Western civilization's distinctive traits, including the flourishing of tragic drama. The art was mastered by Euripides' older contemporaries, Aeschylus and Sophocles, playwrights who created the dramatic tradition that he would amplify significantly.

Although he is reputed to have written ninety-two plays, of which seventeen (more than any other Classical playwright) survive, Euripides' standing as a dramatist has often been disputed, especially during his lifetime. While Aristotle heralded him "the most tragic of poets," he also criticized Euripides' confused handling of plot and the less-than-heroic nature of his protagonists. Aristophanes, a comic dramatist, constantly mocked Euripides' tendency towards word-play and paradox.

Euripides' role as a dramatic innovator, however, is unquestionable: the simplicity of his dialogue and its closeness to natural human speech patterns paved the way for dramatic realism, while the emotional vacillations in many of his works created our understanding of melodrama. Admired by Socrates and other philosophers, Euripides also distinguished himself as a free thinker. Criticisms of traditional religion and defenses of oppressed groups (especially women and slaves) enter his plays with an explicitness unheard of before him. More than edifying pieces of art, works such as The Bacchae, Trojan Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Alcetis, and Electra would become basic components of the Athenian citizen's political education.

Euripides Study Guides

The Bacchae

Published

Medea

Published

Euripides Quotes

The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

Time will explain it all.

Humility, a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven — of all the prizes that a mortal man might win, these, I say, are wisest; these are best.

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.

Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.

Euripides Plays

Alcestis

Published -438

Medea

Published -431

Heracleidae

Published -430

Hippolytus

Published -428

Andromache

Published -425

Hecuba

Published -424

The Suppliants

Published -423

Electra

Published -420

Heracles

Published -416

The Trojan Women

Published -415

Iphigenia in Tauris

Published -414

Ion

Published -414

Helen

Published -412

Phoenician Women

Published -410

Orestes

Published -408

Bacchae

Published -405

Iphigenia at Aulis

Published -405

Rhesus (unknown)

Published 0

Cyclops (unknown)

Published 0

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