EURIPIDES

Euripides was an ancient writer of Greek tragedy -the third of a trio that included Sophocles and Aeschylus. Euripides wrote about woman and mythological themes like Medea and Helen of Troy.He enhanced the importance of intrigue in tragedy.Euripides also created the love-drama ,and is considered to have had occupied a significant influence on the Greek creation of New comedy.Euripides was the most popular of the three great tragedies for generations after his death. A contemporary of Sophocles, Euripides was born around 484 B.C. possibly on Salamis, although that may be a coincidence of the fanciful methods used to date his birth [see: "Euripides and Macedon, or the Silence of the 'Frogs,'" by Scott Scullion; The Classical Quarterly (Nov., 2003), pp. 389-400], and died in 406, possibly in Macedonia. Euripides' birth was anecdotally related to have been on the day of the Battle of Salamis. His first competition was probably in 455 when he came in third. His initial first prize came in 442, but out of about 92 plays, Euripides won only 4 more first prizes -- the last, posthumously. Despite winning only limited acclaim during his lifetime, Euripides was the most popular of the three great tragedians for generations after his death. After the ill-fated Sicilian expedition, those Athenians who could recite Euripides were saved from slave-labor in the mines, says Plutarch, according to David Kawalko Roselli, in "Vegetable-Hawking Mom and Fortunate Son: Euripides, Tragic Style, and Reception," Phoenix Vol. 59, No. 1/2 (Spring - Summer, 2005), pp. 1-49. Euripides may have visited Sicily to produce his play, Women of Aetna in the late 470s, according to Scullion. From all the confusion a few facts stand out. Euripides in temperament was just the opposite of Sophocles . . . of a studious and retiring disposition, fond of the companionship of intimate friends, but averse to general society. A favorite retreat was a grotto that looked out upon the sea. Here in complete retirement he liked to study and write. From numerous allusions of contemporary writers, we know, too, that his library was celebrated for its completeness. Of the three great tragic poets of Greece, Euripides was by far the most modern. As the first of the "realists" he brought realism in clothes, conversation and character to the Greek stage. He was a pioneer in tragi-comedy, Alcestis being the first example in dramatic history of the form later perfected by Spanish and Elizabethan dramatists. The lost Andromeda was the only play of ancient times based on the romantic affection of a youth for a girl. Helena was a forerunner of the type later made famous by A Midsummer Night's Dream. Of the nineteen extant Euripidean dramas some are good; some, second rate. Nine of his plays were selected for reading in the early schools. Although he exhibited quite regularly he was successful in the dramatic contests only five times, once posthumously. Ancients ranked Bacchae and Iphigenia in Tauris as his best works. Like Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Euripides' Medea, ranked (with Hippolytus) as his masterpiece, was defeated in the contest. These two dramas are the greatest and most original of the poet's creations. Shortly before his death Euripides accepted an invitation from Archelaus, ruler of Macedon. He was generously treated there and at his death buried with honors. Euripides first competed in the famous Athenian dramatic festival (the Dionysia) in 455 B.C.E., one year after the death of Aeschylus. He came in third because he refused to cater to the fancies of the judges. It was not until 441 B.C.E. that he won first prize, and over the course of his lifetime, Euripides claimed a mere four victories. He also won one posthumous victory. He was a frequent target of Aristophanes' humor. He appears as a character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae, 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 back instead. Euripides' final competition in Athens was in 408 B.C.E. Although there is a story that he left Athens embittered over his defeats, there is no real evidence to support it. He accepted an invitation by the king of Macedon in 408 or 407 B.C.E., and once there he wrote Archelaus in honor of his host. He is believed to have died there in winter 407/6 B.C.E.; ancient biographers have told many stories about his death, but the simple truth is that it was likely his first exposure to the harsh Macedonia winter which killed him (Rutherford 1996). The Bacchae was performed after his death in 405 B.C.E., winning first prize. 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 great tragedians—at least in his lifetime. Later in the fourth century B.C.E., the dramas of Euripides became more popular than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles combined, as is evidenced by the survival (at least in part) of virtually all of his works, while most of the plays of both Aeschylus and Sophocles have been entirely lost. His works influenced Roman drama, and were later idolized by the French classicists such as Racine and Molière, through whom his influence on drama extended into modern times. Euripides' greatest works are considered to be Alcestis, Medea, Electra, and The Bacchae.