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Euripides
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by Mark Cartwright
published on 17 April 2015

Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE) was one of the greatest authors of Greek
tragedy. In 5th century BCE Athens his classic works such as Medeia
cemented his reputation for clever dialogues, !ne choral lyrics and a
gritty realism in both his text and stage presentations. The writer of
some 90 plays, Euripides was also famous for posing awkward
questions, unsettling his audience with a thought-provoking treatment
of common themes, and spicing up the story with thoroughly
immoral characters. This is probably why Euripides won only a few
festival competitions compared to his great tragedian rivals Aeschylus
and Sophocles, although he was tremendously popular with the
public. The popularity of Euripides' work has never diminished and
his plays continue to be performed in theatres today.

Euripides' Life
Born in Athens c. 484 BCE to a well-to-do family, Euripides was the Euripides
youngest of the city's other great tragedy playwrights; Aeschylus and Jastrow (Public Domain)
Sophocles. In his youth, Euripides also performed as an actor but as
his voice was not strong enough to carry to the back of a typical 14,000-seat Greek theatre, he
concentrated on his role as a playwright. In ancient Greek tragedy, this meant also being producer
and director of the play.

A Greek tragedy was typically performed at important religious festivals such as the City Dionysia
where three playwrights each wrote three tragic plays and a satyr play to compete for a prize.
Tragedy plays were restricted by certain conventions:

The theme was mythological with elements of religion and family a"airs.
A maximum of three actors could have speaking roles (although they could play multiple
characters).
A chorus consisted of 12 or 15 singers.
All actors were males wearing masks.

Nevertheless, despite these restrictions, Euripides managed to appeal through the presentation of
universal themes of relevance to his audience, themes such as justice versus revenge, the rule of law
against the will of the gods, and the struggle between reason and passion. The characters in Greek
tragedy were usually society's elite and the story o#en dealt with matters of state, however,
Euripides gave prominent roles to intelligent female characters and included signi!cant parts for
more ordinary citizens in his works. This is re$ected in a comment attributed to him by
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Aristophanes in his comedy play Frogs: "I made tragedy more democratic". Euripides also removed
the previously prominent roles of Greek gods and generally restricted their appearance to only the
beginning or end of his plays.

Tradition holds that Euripides was something of

an unpopular recluse who shunned laughter and
wrote his plays in a cave near Salamis surrounded EURIPIDES WAS CREDITED
by his extensive library. The reality, though, was
that audiences loved his innovative productions WITH BEING ON AN
and controversial themes. Euripides was credited INTELLECTUAL PAR WITH
with being on an intellectual par with PHILOSOPHERS & HIS
philosophers and his characters are given great
rhetorical skills (sometimes even in sung CHARACTERS ARE GIVEN
speeches, previously the exclusive role of the GREAT RHETORICAL SKILLS.
chorus) and plots are made both intricate and
unpredictable. Familiar myths are treated with
unconventional twists and altered chronologies to
freshen the tales and ensure the audience was gripped by the story.

In competitions, Euripides was not particularly successful. Indeed, his very !rst competition trilogy,
performed in 455 BCE, came in third and last place. Of his 90 plays, only four won !rst prize,
compared to a 50% win rate for Aeschylus and Sophocles. On the other hand, perhaps a more telling
statistic is the fact that the Athenians funded his productions over 90 times and so clearly thought
his work of merit regardless of their !nal position at the end of the festival.

Euripides spent his !nal years at the court of Archelaus, the king of Macedon. The great playwright
died there in c. 407 BCE but not before he wrote the now lost play Archelaos which dealt with the
mythical founding of the royal dynasty. Several of Euripides' plays were presented posthumously,
including the Bacchae. The fact that the celebrated comedy playwright Aristophanes constantly
made references to Euripides (and therefore expected his audience to be familiar with his work)
illustrates his fame when he was alive. Further, the selection of several of his plays for study
material as part of a rounded Greek education meant that Euripides' tragedies lived on for
centuries. Their continued study in academia and regular performances in the modern world have
only perpetuated the long tradition of Greek tragedy and the name of one of its greatest
protagonists.

Greek Tragedy Mask

Greek Tragedy Mask

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)
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Euripides' Works
Of around 90 plays only 18 complete tragedies and one satyr-play survive, the latter being a genre
of bawdy comedy which covered stories from Greek mythology and which had a chorus of satyrs,
the followers of the god of wine and revelry Dionysos. Another play, the Rhesus, is disputed by
scholars as being written by him. Several fragments, some substantial, survive from 9 other plays.
Without doubt the most famous play is Medeia, while critics most esteem his Bacchae. Most o#en the
tragic element of the plays derives from the su"ering of the main character and their inability, no
matter what they try, to improve their situation. In the words of Aristotle: "Euripides is the most
intensely tragic of all the poets." (Poetics, ch. 14).

Alcestis (438 BCE) - where Alcestis sacri!ces herself to save her husband but is ultimately
saved by Hercules from the supernatural !gure of Death.
Medeia (431 BCE) - where Jason, of the Golden Fleece fame, abandons the title character for
the daughter of the King of Corinth with the consequence that Medeia kills her own children
in revenge.
The Children of Hercules (aka Heraclidae, c. 430 BCE) - with the eternal con$ict between
power and justice as its central theme.
Hippolytus (428 BCE) - where holding one's principles leads to destruction for Phaedra and
Hippolytus.
Andromache (c. 425 BCE) - where, a#er the Trojan War and now a slave, Andromache battles
with Hermione, the wife of her master.
Hecabe (c. 423 BCE) - where the Queen of Troy seeks revenge for the death of her son
Polydorus.
Suppliants (c. 423 BCE) - where the mothers of the Seven Against Thebes appeal to Athens so
that the Thebans will allow the proper burial of their sons.
Hercules (c. 417 BCE) - dealing with the madness which drove Hercules to kill his wife and
children.
Electra (c. 417 or 414 BCE) - where Electra and Orestes conspire to destroy their mother.
Trojan Women (415 BCE) - with Hecabe again the key character amid a catalogue of Trojan
misery.
Ion (412 or 410 BCE) - which examines the discrepancies between religious faith and the
human condition.
Iphigenia among the Taurians (c. 412 BCE) - where Iphigenia and Orestes battle the gods and
Fate with a surprisingly happy ending.
Helen (412 BCE) - which describes the reconciliation of Helen and Menelaus.
Cyclops (412 or 408 BCE) - a satyr play describing Odysseus' encounter with the Cyclops on his
long return journey to Ithaca following the Trojan War. It is the only complete surviving satyr
play from Greek theatre.
Phoenician Women (aka Phoenissae, 409 BCE) - where a group of innocent women travelling to
Delphi are trapped in Thebes.
Orestes (c. 408 BCE) - where Orestes kills his own mother and tries, without success, to take
revenge on his aunt Helen.
Iphigenia in Aulis (a#er 406 BCE and produced posthumously) - where Agamemnon must
sacri!ce Iphigenia for the good of the Greek expedition against Troy.
Bacchae (a#er 406 BCE) - in which there is a running con$ict between Pentheus, king of
Thebes, and a demonic Dionysos.

Incomplete plays, o#en only fragments of which survive: Telephus, Cretans, Cresphontes, Erechtheus,
Phaethon, Alexander, Oedipus, Hypsipyle, and Archelaus.

Quotes
Below is a selection of extracts from Euripides' works:
:
 O Zeus, what am I to say? Do you watch over men or are we fools, blind fools to
believe this, and is it chance that oversees all man's endeavours? Hecabe 488-
91

We're fools in love - it's plain enough - clinging to this glitter here on earth
because we don't know any other life and haven't seen what lies below.
Hippolytus 189-96

My friends, I have decided to act at once. I will kill the children and then quit
this land. I will not delay and so deliver them to other hands to spill their blood
more eagerly. They must be killed; there is no other way. And since they must, I
will take their life, I who gave them life. Come, my heart, put on your armour!
Medea 1240-42

As for being a king, it is overrated. Royalty conceals a life of torment behind a

pleasant facade. To live in hourly fear, looking over your shoulder for the
assassin - is that paradise? Is it even good fortune? Give me the happiness of a
plain man, not the life of a king, who loves to fill his court with criminals, and
hates honest men for fear of death. Ion 613-18

So here in Egypt I have lived, while my poor husband gathered an army and in
pursuit of his stolen wife has sailed to the fortress of Troy. Many souls of men
perished for my sake by the river Scamander; and I, the centre of these tragic
events, am named with curses, as the betrayer of my husband, who brought
upon Greece the pestilence of war. Helen 49-54

Blest is the man who cheats the stormy sea

And safely moors beside the sheltering quay;
So, blest is he who triumphs over trial.
One man, by various means, in wealth or strength
Outdoes his neighbour; hope in a thousand hearts
Colours a thousand different dreams; at length
Some find a dear fulfilment, some denial.
But this I say,
That he who best
Enjoys each passing day
Is truly blest.
Bacchae 902-12

Eros, if too violent, does not bring good reputation

to men, nor virtue. If Aphrodite comes with moderation,
she is a divine, incommensurable gift.
O Goddess, please do not shoot me with the arrow of desire,
the inescapable arrow from your golden bow.
:
 Medea 627-33

Bibliography
Boys-Stone, G. The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Euripides. Medea and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, 1963.
Euripides. Three Plays/ Hippolytus / Iphigenia in Taurus. Penguin Classics, 1974.
Hornblower, S. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Kinzl, K.H. A Companion to the Classical Greek World. Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.

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About the Author

Mark Cartwright
Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art,
architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political
Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.

Cite This Work

APA Style
Cartwright, M. (2015, April 17). Euripides. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
https://www.worldhistory.org/Euripides/

Chicago Style
Cartwright, Mark. "Euripides." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 17, 2015.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Euripides/.

MLA Style
Cartwright, Mark. "Euripides." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 17 Apr 2015. Web. 06
Sep 2023.

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