Editing Euripides (section)

===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>