Editing Euripides (section)

==Life==

Traditional accounts of the author's life are found in many commentaries, and include details such as these: He was born on [[Salamis Island]] around 480 BC, with parents Cleito (mother) and Mnesarchus (father), a retailer from the deme of [[Phlya]].{{sfn|Nails|2002|p=148}} On receiving an oracle that his son was fated to win "crowns of victory", Mnesarchus insisted that the boy should train for a career in athletics. But the boy was destined for a career on the stage (where he was to win only five victories, one of these posthumously). He served for a short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of [[Apollo]] Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, studying also painting and philosophy under the masters [[Prodicus]] and [[Anaxagoras]]. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives{{emdash}}Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons){{emdash}}were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis ([[the Cave of Euripides]], where a cult of the playwright developed after his death). "There he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky".{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} The details of his death are uncertain. It was traditionally held that he retired to the "rustic court" of King [[Archelaus I of Macedon|Archelaus in Macedonia]], where he died in 406 BC.<ref>Mary Ellen Snodgrass, ''Cliff Notes on Greek Classics'', Wiley Publishing Inc. (1998), pp. 147–48</ref> Some modern scholars however claim that in reality Euripides may have never visited Macedonia at all,<ref>Robin Mitchell-Boyask, ''Euripides: Medea'', Diane Svarlien (trans.), Hackett Publishing Company (2008), Introduction, p. xii</ref> or if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists.<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 253</ref>

Such biographical details derive almost entirely from three unreliable sources:<ref name="GJ 252">Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 252</ref>

* folklore, employed by the ancients to lend colour to the lives of celebrated authors;
* parody, employed by the comic poets to ridicule the tragic poets; and
* 'autobiographical' clues gleaned from his extant plays (a mere fraction of his total output).

The next three sections expand on the claims of each of these sources, respectively.

[[File:Seated Euripides Louvre Ma343.jpg|thumb|upright|2nd century AD statue of Euripides, [[Louvre]], [[Paris]] ]]
[[File:Dresden_Semperoper_147.JPG|thumb|upright|19th century statue of Euripides in a niche on the [[Semperoper]], Germany]]

===A fabled life===

Euripides was the youngest in a group of three great tragedians, who were almost contemporaries: his first play was staged thirteen years after Sophocles' debut, and three years after Aeschylus's ''[[Oresteia]]''. The identity of the trio is neatly underscored by a patriotic account of their roles during Greece's great victory over [[Ancient Persia|Persia]] at the [[Battle of Salamis]]{{emdash}}Aeschylus fought there, Sophocles was just old enough to celebrate the victory in a boys' chorus, and Euripides was born on the very day of the battle.<ref name="GJ 252"/> The apocryphal account, that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island, was a late tradition, probably symbolizing the isolation of an intellectual ahead of his time.<ref>B.M.Knox, 'Euripides' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 317</ref> Much of his life, and his whole career, coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece, but he did not live to see the final defeat of his city. It is said that he died in Macedonia after being attacked by the [[Molossus (dog)|Molossian hounds]] of King Archelaus, and that his cenotaph near [[Piraeus]] was struck by lightning{{emdash}}signs of his unique powers, whether for good or ill (according to one modern scholar, his death might have been caused instead by the harsh Macedonian winter).{{clarify|reason=parenthesis seems out of place|date=August 2020}}<ref>Richard Rutherford, ''Medea and Other Plays''. By Euripides, Introduction. Rev ed. London: Penguin, 2003. {{ISBN|0-14-044929-9}}.</ref> In an account by [[Plutarch]], the catastrophic failure of the [[Sicilian expedition]] led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides' lyrics to their enemies in return for food and drink (''Life of Nicias'' 29). Plutarch also provides the story that the victorious Spartan generals, having planned the demolition of Athens and the enslavement of its people, grew merciful after being entertained at a banquet by lyrics from Euripides' play ''Electra'': "they felt that it would be a barbarous act to annihilate a city which produced such men" (''Life of Lysander'').<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Lysander'', cited and translated by B.M.Knox, 'Euripides' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 337</ref>

===A comic life===
Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals [[Dionysia]] and [[Lenaia]], and Euripides was travestied more than most. [[Aristophanes]] scripted him as a character in at least three plays: ''[[The Acharnians]]'', ''[[Thesmophoriazusae]]'' and ''[[The Frogs]]''. But Aristophanes also borrowed, rather than merely satirized, some of the tragedian's methods; he was himself ridiculed by [[Cratinus]], another comic poet, as: 
{{Verse translation|lang=grc|italicsoff=yes|rtl1=|ὑπολεπτολόγος, γνωμιδιώτης,
εὐριπιδαριστοφανίζων|a quibbler of words, a maker of maxims, 
a Euripidaristophaniser|attr1=Cratinus F 342<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Cratinus
 |others=Storey, I. C. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2011
 |title=Cratinus F 342, in ''Fragments of Old Comedy, Volume I: Alcaeus to Diocles''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=412
 |isbn=978-0-674-99662-5
}}</ref>|attr2=Storey<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Cratinus
 |others=Storey, I. C. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2011
 |title=Cratinus F 342, in ''Fragments of Old Comedy, Volume I: Alcaeus to Diocles''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=413
 |isbn=978-0-674-99662-5
}}</ref>}}
According to another comic poet, [[Teleclides]], the plays of Euripides were co-authored by the philosopher Socrates:<ref>Duane Reed Stuart, ''Epochs and Greek and Roman Biography'', Biblo and Tannen Booksellers and Publishers' Inc. (1928), p. 174</ref>

{{Verse translation|lang=grc|italicsoff=yes|rtl1=|Μνησίλοχός ἐστ᾿ ἐκεῖνος, <nowiki><</nowiki>ὃς<nowiki>></nowiki> φρύγει τι δρᾶμα καινόν
Εὐριπίδῃ, καὶ Σωκράτης τὰ φρύγαν᾿ ὑποτίθησιν.
[...] Εὐριπίδης σωκρατογόμφους.
|Mnesilochus is the man <nowiki><who></nowiki> is roasting a new play for 
Euripides, and Socrates is laying down the kindling.
[...] Euripides bolted together with Socrates|attr1=Teleclides, F41-42<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Teleclides
 |others=Storey, I. C. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2011
 |title=Teleclides F 41, F 42, in ''Fragments of Old Comedy, Volume III: Philonicus to Xenophon. Adespota''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=304
 |isbn=978-0-674-99677-9
}}</ref>|attr2=Storey<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Teleclides
 |others=Storey, I. C. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2011
 |title=Teleclides F 41, F 42, in ''Fragments of Old Comedy, Volume III: Philonicus to Xenophon. Adespota''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=305
 |isbn=978-0-674-99677-9
}}</ref>}}
Aristophanes alleged that the co-author was a celebrated actor, Cephisophon, who also shared the tragedian's house and his wife,<ref>Alan H. Sommerstein, ''Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds'', Penguin Books (1973), note 35, p. 241</ref> while Socrates taught an entire school of quibblers like Euripides:
{{Verse translation|lang=grc|italicsoff=yes|rtl1=|χαρίεν οὖν μὴ Σωκράτει
παρακαθήμενον λαλεῖν
ἀποβαλόντα μουσικὴν
τά τε μέγιστα παραλιπόντα
τῆς τραγῳδικῆς τέχνης.
τὸ δ᾿ ἐπὶ σεμνοῖσιν λόγοισι
καὶ σκαριφησμοῖσι λήρων
διατριβὴν ἀργὸν ποιεῖσθαι,
παραφρονοῦντος ἀνδρός 
|So what's stylish is not to sit
beside Socrates and chatter,
casting the arts aside
and ignoring the best
of the tragedian’s craft.
To hang around killing time
in pretentious conversation
and hairsplitting twaddle
is the mark of a man who's lost his mind
<!--translation-->|attr1=Aristophanes, ''Frogs'' [1490–99]<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Aristophanes
 |others=Henderson, J. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2002
 |title=Frogs, in ''Aristophanes IV''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=230
 |isbn=978-0-674-99596-3
}}</ref>|attr2=Henderson<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Aristophanes
 |others=Henderson, J. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2002
 |title=Frogs, in ''Aristophanes IV''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=231
 |isbn=978-0-674-99596-3}}</ref>}}
In ''The Frogs'', written when Euripides and Aeschylus were dead, Aristophanes has the god [[Dionysus]] venturing down to [[Hades]] in search of a good poet to bring back to Athens. After a debate between the shades of Aeschylus and Euripides, the god brings Aeschylus back to life, as more useful to Athens, for his wisdom, rejecting Euripides as merely clever. Such comic 'evidence' suggests that Athenians admired Euripides even while they mistrusted his intellectualism, at least during the long war with Sparta. Aeschylus had written his own epitaph commemorating his life as a warrior fighting for Athens against Persia, without any mention of his success as a playwright; and Sophocles was celebrated by his contemporaries for his social gifts, and contributions to public life as a state official; but there are no records of Euripides' public life except as a dramatist—he could well have been "a brooding and bookish recluse".<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. viii</ref> He is presented as such in ''The Acharnians'', where Aristophanes shows him to be living morosely in a precarious house, surrounded by the tattered costumes of his disreputable characters (and yet [[Agathon]], another tragic poet, is discovered in a later play, ''[[Thesmophoriazusae]]'', to be living in circumstances almost as bizarre). Euripides' mother was a humble vendor of vegetables, according to the comic tradition, yet his plays indicate that he had a liberal education and hence a privileged background.<ref name="GJ 252" />

===A tragedian's life===
Euripides first competed in the [[Dionysia|City Dionysia]], the famous Athenian dramatic festival, in 455 BC, one year after the death of [[Aeschylus]]; and did not win first prize until 441 BC. His final competition in Athens was in 408 BC. ''[[The Bacchae]]'' and ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' were performed in 405 BC, and first prize was awarded posthumously. He won first prize only five times.

His plays, and those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, indicate a difference in outlook between the three{{emdash}}a generation gap probably due to the [[Sophism|Sophistic enlightenment]] in the middle decades of the 5th century: Aeschylus still looked back to the [[Archaic Greece|archaic period]], Sophocles was in transition between periods, and Euripides was fully imbued with the new spirit of the [[Classical Greece|classical age]].<ref>B.M.Knox, 'Euripides' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), pp. 316–17</ref> When Euripides' plays are sequenced in time, they also reveal that his outlook might have changed, providing a "spiritual biography", along these lines:
* an early period of high tragedy (''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'', ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]'')
* a patriotic period at the outset of the Peloponnesian War (''[[Children of Heracles]]'', ''[[The Suppliants (Euripides)|The Suppliants]]'')
* a middle period of disillusionment at the senselessness of war (''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'', ''[[The Trojan Women]]'')
* an escapist period with a focus on romantic intrigue (''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]'', ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]'', ''[[Helen (play)|Helen]]'')
* a final period of tragic despair (''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]'', ''[[Phoenician Women]]'', ''[[The Bacchae]]'')
However, about 80% of his plays have been lost, and even the extant plays do not present a fully consistent picture of his 'spiritual' development (for example, ''Iphigenia in Aulis'' is dated with the 'despairing' ''Bacchae'', yet it contains elements that became typical of New Comedy).<ref>B.M.Knox, 'Euripides' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 318</ref> In the ''Bacchae'', he restores the chorus and messenger speech to their traditional role in the tragic plot, and the play appears to be the culmination of a regressive or archaizing tendency in his later works (for which see [[Euripides#Chronology|Chronology]] below). Believed to have been composed in the wilds of Macedonia, ''Bacchae'' also dramatizes a primitive side to Greek religion, and some modern scholars have interpreted this particular play biographically, therefore, as:
* a kind of death-bed conversion or renunciation of atheism;
* the poet's attempt to ward off the charge of impiety that was later to overtake his friend Socrates;
* evidence of a new belief that religion cannot be analysed rationally.<ref>E.R.Dodds, ''Euripides: Bacchae'', Oxford University Press (1960), Introduction p. xl</ref>
One of his earliest extant plays, ''Medea'', includes a speech that he seems to have written in defence of himself as an intellectual ahead of his time (spoken by Medea):<ref name="Denys L. Page 1976"/>
{{blockquote|σκαιοῖσι μὲν γὰρ καινὰ προσφέρων σοφὰ<br>δόξεις ἀχρεῖος κοὐ σοφὸς πεφυκέναι·<br>τῶν δ᾿ αὖ δοκούντων εἰδέναι τι ποικίλον<br>κρείσσων νομισθεὶς ἐν πόλει λυπρὸς φανῇ.<br>ἐγὼ δὲ καὐτὴ τῆσδε κοινωνῶ τύχης [298–302].<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2001
 |title=Medea, in ''Euripides I''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=310
 |isbn=9780674995604
}}</ref><br>If you bring novel wisdom to fools, you will be regarded as useless, not wise; and if the city regards you as greater than those with a reputation for cleverness, you will be thought vexatious. I myself am a sharer in this lot.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2001
 |title=Medea, in ''Euripides I''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=311
 |isbn=9780674995604}}</ref>}}