Editing Euripides (section)

==Work==
Athenian tragedy in performance during Euripides' lifetime was a public contest between playwrights. The state funded it and awarded prizes. The language was metrical, spoken and sung. The performance area included a circular floor (called [[orchestra]]) where the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] could dance, a space for actors (three speaking actors in Euripides' time), a backdrop or [[skene (theatre)|skene]], and some special effects: an [[ekkyklema]] (used to bring the skene's "indoors" outdoors) and a [[mechane]] (used to lift actors in the air, as in [[deus ex machina]]). With the introduction of the third actor (attributed to Aeschylus by Themistius; to Sophocles by Aristotle),<ref>{{cite book
 |last=LLoyd-Jones, H. (ed. and trans.)
 |others=Sophocles
 |date=1997
 |title=Introduction, in ''Sophocles I''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=9
 |isbn=9780674995574
}}</ref> acting also began to be regarded as a skill worth prizes, requiring a long apprenticeship in the chorus.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Euripides and other playwrights accordingly composed more and more arias for accomplished actors to sing, and this tendency became more marked in his later plays:<ref>John Gould, 'Tragedy in performance', in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds), Cambridge University Press (1985), pp. 265–67</ref> tragedy was a "living and ever-changing genre"<ref>[[Donald Mastronarde|Donald J. Mastronarde]], 'European Tragedy and Genre', in ''Euripides and Tragic Theatre in the Late Fifth Century'', M.Cropp, K.Lee and D. Sansone (eds), Champaign, Ill. (1999–2000), p. 27</ref> (cf. previous section, and [[Euripides#Chronology|Chronology]]; a list of his plays is [[Euripides#Extant plays|below]]).

Euripides was distinguished by a series of philosophical and artistic positions that he seems to profess, as well as by the great attention he placed on the concept of [[freedom]], which he articulated in various ways throughout his works.{{Sfn|Daitz|1971|p=217-226}} In general, he was interested in the "issues related to the constitutive polarities of Athenian ideology",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brillet-Dubois |first=Pascale |date=2010 |title=" Astyanax Et Les Orphelins De Guerre Athéniens. Critique De L'idéologie De La Cité Dans Les "Troyennes" D'euripide " |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44261048 |journal=Revue des Études Grecques |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=44–45 |doi=10.3406/reg.2010.8001 |jstor=44261048 |issn=0035-2039}}</ref>{{Sfn|Croally|2008|p=252-253}} that is to say, the oppositions between women and men, slaves and free people, foreigners and Greeks, among others.{{Sfn|Croally|2008|p=252-253}} In this regard, the playwright presented [[slavery]], the foundation of Athenian society, as a product of force and therefore fundamentally unjust.{{Sfn|Daitz|1971|p=225-226}}{{Sfn|Chrysikou|2018|p=97-98}} He also sought to place the audience "inside his characters by deep sympathy".{{Sfn|Tyrrell|2020|p=23}} The playwright was engaged in a "constant search for truth and realism", which drove him to treat women or marital subjects with interest.{{Sfn|Raepsaet|1981|p=681}} In this context, Euripides developed [[Women in Euripides|detailed female characters with real personalities]].{{Sfn|Hinkelman|2014|p=19}}{{Sfn|March|1990|p=33}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Dodds |first=E. R. |date=1929 |title=Euripides the Irrationalist. (A Paper Read before the Classical Association, April 12, 1929) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/700798 |journal=The Classical Review |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=98 |issn=0009-840X |jstor=700798}}</ref> This phenomenon is so prevalent that women make up almost all of his characters who think and philosophize.{{Sfn|March|1990|p=33}}<ref name=":0" />

The comic poet Aristophanes is the earliest known critic to characterize Euripides as a spokesman for destructive, new ideas associated with declining standards in both society and tragedy (see [[Euripides#Reception|Reception]] for more). But fifth-century tragedy was a social gathering for "carrying out quite publicly the maintenance and development of mental infrastructure", and it offered spectators a "platform for an utterly unique form of institutionalized discussion".<ref>C. Meier, ''The Political Art of Greek Tragedy'', Trans. A. Webber, Baltimore (1993), pp. 4, 42</ref> The dramatist's role was not only to entertain but also educate fellow citizens{{emdash}}he was expected to have a message.<ref name="VP 10">Philip Vellacott, ''Euripides: The Bacchae and Other Plays'', Penguin Classics (1954), Introduction p. 10</ref> Traditional myth provided the subject matter, but the dramatist was meant to be innovative, which led to novel characterizations of heroic figures<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 260</ref> and use of the mythical past as a tool for discussing present issues.<ref>Neil Croally, 'Tragedy's Teaching', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 66</ref> The difference between Euripides and his older colleagues was one of degree: his characters talked about the present more controversially and pointedly than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, sometimes even challenging the democratic order. Thus, for example, [[Odysseus]] is represented in ''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'' (lines 131–32) as "agile-minded, sweet-talking, demos-pleasing", i.e. similar to the war-time demagogues that were active in Athens during the [[Peloponnesian War]].<ref>Justina Gregory, "Euripidean Tragedy", in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.) Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 264</ref> Speakers in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles sometimes distinguish between slaves who are servile by nature and those servile by circumstance, but Euripides' speakers go further, positing an individual's mental, rather than social or physical, state as a true indication of worth.<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 264</ref> For example, in ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]'', a love-sick queen rationalizes her position and, reflecting on adultery, arrives at this comment on intrinsic merit:
{{Blockquote|ἐκ δὲ γενναίων δόμων<br>τόδ᾿ ἦρξε θηλείαισι γίγνεσθαι κακόν·<br>ὅταν γὰρ αἰσχρὰ τοῖσιν ἐσθλοῖσιν δοκῇ,<br>ἦ κάρτα δόξει τοῖς κακοῖς γ᾿ εἶναι καλά. <br>[...] μόνον δὲ τοῦτό φασ᾿ ἁμιλλᾶσθαι βίῳ,<br>γνώμην δικαίαν κἀγαθὴν ὅτῳ παρῇ [409–427].<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2005
 |title=Hippolytus, in ''Euripides II''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |pages=164–66
 |isbn=9780674995338}}</ref><br>This contagion began for the female sex with the nobility. For when those of noble station resolve on base acts, surely the base-born will regard such acts as good. [...] One thing only, they say, competes in value with life, the possession of a heart blameless and good.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=2005
 |title=Hippolytus, in ''Euripides II''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |pages=165–67
 |isbn=9780674995338}}</ref>}}
Euripides' characters resembled contemporary Athenians rather than heroic figures of myth.
{{blockquote|For achieving his end Euripides' regular strategy is a very simple one: retaining the old stories and the great names, as his theatre required, he imagines his people as contemporaries subjected to contemporary kinds of pressures, and examines their motivations, conduct and fate in the light of contemporary problems, usages and ideals.|Moses Hadas<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. x</ref>}}
As mouthpieces for contemporary issues, they "all seem to have had at least an elementary course in public speaking".<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. 328</ref> The dialogue often contrasts so strongly with the mythical and heroic setting that it can seem like Euripides aimed at parody. For example, in ''[[The Trojan Women]]'', the heroine's rationalized prayer elicits comment from Menelaus:
{{blockquote|ΕΚΑΒΗ: [...] Ζεύς, εἴτ᾿ ἀνάγκη φύσεος εἴτε νοῦς βροτῶν,<br>προσηυξάμην σε· πάντα γὰρ δι᾿ ἀψόφου<br>βαίνων κελεύθου κατὰ δίκην τὰ θνήτ᾿ ἄγεις.<br>ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΣ: τί δ᾿ ἔστιν; εὐχὰς ὡς ἐκαίνισας θεῶν [886–889].<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=1999
 |title=Trojan Women, in ''Euripides IV''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=100
 |isbn=9780674995741}}</ref><br>[[Hecuba]]: [...] Zeus, whether you are the necessity of nature or the mind of mortal men, I address you in prayer! For proceeding on a silent path you direct all mortal affairs toward justice!<br>[[Menelaus]]: What does this mean? How strange your prayer to the gods is!<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Euripides
 |others=Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.)
 |date=1999
 |title=Trojan Women, in ''Euripides IV''
 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England
 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
 |page=101
 |isbn=9780674995741}}</ref>}}
Athenian citizens were familiar with rhetoric in the assembly and law courts, and some scholars believe that Euripides was more interested in his characters as speakers with cases to argue than as characters with lifelike personalities.<ref name="B.M.Knox, 1985 pages 327">B.&nbsp;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. 327</ref> They are self-conscious about speaking formally, and their rhetoric is shown to be flawed, as if Euripides were exploring the problematical nature of language and communication: "For speech points in three different directions at once, to the speaker, to the person addressed, to the features in the world it describes, and each of these directions can be felt as skewed".<ref>Christopher Pelling, "Tragedy, Rhetoric and Performance Culture", in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 85</ref> For example, in the quotation above, Hecuba presents herself as a sophisticated intellectual describing a rationalized cosmos, but the speech is ill-suited to her audience, the unsophisticated listener Menelaus, and is found to not suit the cosmos either (her grandson is murdered by the Greeks). In ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]'', speeches appear verbose and ungainly, as if to underscore the limitations of language.<ref>''A Further Note on the Modernity of "Hippolytus"'' Robert Skloot. The Classical Journal, Vol. 64, No. 5. (Feb. 1969), pp. 226–27. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3296222 JSTOR.org]</ref>

[[File:Pompeii - Casa dei Vettii - Pentheus.jpg|thumb|Ancient Roman wall painting from [[House of the Vettii]] in [[Pompeii]], showing the death of [[Pentheus]], as portrayed in Euripides's ''[[Bacchae]]'']]

Like Euripides, both Aeschylus and Sophocles created comic effects, contrasting the heroic with the mundane, but they employed minor supporting characters for that purpose. Euripides was more insistent, using major characters as well. His comic touches can be thought to intensify the overall tragic effect, and his realism, which often threatens to make his heroes look ridiculous, marks a world of debased heroism: "The loss of intellectual and moral substance becomes a central tragic statement".<ref>Bernd Seidensticker, "Dithyramb, Comedy and Satyr-Play', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), pp. 52–33</ref> Psychological reversals are common and sometimes happen so suddenly that inconsistency in characterization is an issue for many critics,<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. 326</ref> such as Aristotle, who cited ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' as an example (''Poetics'' 1454a32). For others, psychological inconsistency is not a stumbling block to good drama: "Euripides is in pursuit of a larger insight: he aims to set forth the two modes, emotional and rational, with which human beings confront their own mortality."<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 261</ref> Some think unpredictable behaviour realistic in tragedy: "everywhere in Euripides a preoccupation with individual psychology and its irrational aspects is evident....In his hands tragedy for the first time probed the inner recesses of the human soul and let ''passions spin the plot''."<ref name="B.M.Knox, 1985 pages 327"/> The tension between reason and passion is symbolized by his characters' relationship with the gods:<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. 325</ref> For example, Hecuba's prayer is answered not by Zeus, nor by the law of reason, but by Menelaus, as if speaking for the old gods. And the perhaps most famous example is in ''Bacchae'' where the god Dionysus savages his own converts.{{clarify|date=August 2020}} When the gods do appear (in eight of the extant plays), they appear "lifeless and mechanical".<ref>B.&nbsp;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. 324</ref> Sometimes condemned by critics as an unimaginative way to end a story, the spectacle of a "god" making a judgement or announcement from a theatrical crane might actually have been intended to provoke scepticism about the religious and heroic dimension of his plays.<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), pp. xvi–xviii</ref><ref>B.&nbsp;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. 332</ref> Similarly, his plays often begin in a banal manner that undermines theatrical illusion.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Unlike Sophocles, who established the setting and background of his plays in the introductory dialogue, Euripides used a monologue in which a divinity or human character simply tells the audience all it needs to know to understand what follows.<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), p. xvi</ref>

Aeschylus and Sophocles were innovative, but Euripides had arrived at a position in the "ever-changing genre" where he could easily move between tragic, comic, romantic, and political effects. This versatility appears in individual plays and also over the course of his career. Potential for comedy lay in his use of 'contemporary' characters, in his sophisticated tone, his relatively informal Greek (see [[Euripides#In Greek|In Greek]] below), and in his ingenious use of plots centred on motifs that later became standard in Menander's New Comedy (for example the 'recognition scene'). Other tragedians also used recognition scenes, but they were heroic in emphasis, as in Aeschylus's ''[[Oresteia#The Libation Bearers|The Libation Bearers]]'', which Euripides parodied in ''[[Electra (Euripides)|Electra]]'' (Euripides was unique among the tragedians in incorporating theatrical criticism in his plays).<ref>Justina Gregory, ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 267</ref> Traditional myth with its exotic settings, heroic adventures, and epic battles offered potential for romantic melodrama as well as for political comments on a war theme,<ref>B.&nbsp;M. Knox, 'Euripides' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature&nbsp;I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), pp. 332–66</ref> so that his plays are an extraordinary mix of elements.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} ''The Trojan Women'', for example, is a powerfully disturbing play on the theme of war's horrors, apparently critical of Athenian imperialism (it was composed in the aftermath of the [[Melos#Conflict with Athens|Melian massacre]] and during the preparations for the [[Sicilian Expedition]]),<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), p. 195</ref> yet it features the comic exchange between Menelaus and Hecuba quoted above, and the chorus considers Athens, the "blessed land of Theus", to be a desirable refuge{{emdash}}such complexity and ambiguity are typical both of his "patriotic" and "anti-war" plays.<ref>B.&nbsp;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. 334–35</ref>

Tragic poets in the fifth century competed against one another at the [[City Dionysia]], each with a [[tetralogy]] of three tragedies and a [[satyr play]]. The few extant fragments of satyr plays attributed to Aeschylus and Sophocles indicate that these were a loosely structured, simple, and jovial form of entertainment. But in ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' (the only complete satyr-play that survives), Euripides structured the entertainment more like a tragedy and introduced a note of critical irony typical of his other work. His genre-bending inventiveness{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} is shown above all in ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'', a blend of tragic and satyric elements. This fourth play in his tetralogy for 438 BC (i.e., it occupied the position conventionally reserved for satyr plays) is a "tragedy", featuring [[Heracles]] as a satyric hero in conventional satyr-play scenes: an arrival, a banquet, a victory over an [[ogre]] (in this case, death), a happy ending, a feast, and a departure for new adventures.<ref>Bernd Seidensticker, "Dithyramb, Comedy and Satyr-Play', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 50</ref> Most of the big innovations in tragedy were made by Aeschylus and Sophocles, but "Euripides made innovations on a smaller scale that have impressed some critics as cumulatively leading to a radical change of direction".<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 269</ref>

Euripides is also known for his use of irony. Many Greek tragedians make use of dramatic irony to bring out the emotion and realism of their characters or plays, but Euripides uses irony to foreshadow events and occasionally amuse his audience.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} For example, in his play ''Heracles'', Heracles comments that all men love their children and wish to see them grow. The irony here is that Heracles will be driven into madness by Hera and will kill his children. Similarly, in ''Helen'', Theoclymenus remarks how happy he is that his sister has the gift of prophecy and will warn him of any plots or tricks against him (the audience already knows that she has betrayed him). In this instance, Euripides uses irony not only for foreshadowing but also for comic effect—which few tragedians did. Likewise, in the ''Bacchae'', Pentheus's first threat to the god Dionysus is that if Pentheus catches him in his city, he will 'chop off his head', whereas it is Pentheus who is beheaded at the end of the play.

=== Language===
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 031.jpg|thumb|right|''Medea About to Murder Her Children'' by [[Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix]] (1862)]]

The spoken language of the Euripidean plays is not fundamentally different in style from that of Aeschylus or Sophocles{{emdash}}it employs [[poetic meter]]s, a rarefied vocabulary, fullness of expression, complex syntax, and ornamental figures, all aimed at representing an elevated style.<ref>Justina Gregory, "Euripidean Tragedy", in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 256</ref> But its rhythms are somewhat freer, and more natural, than that of his predecessors, and the vocabulary has been expanded to allow for intellectual and psychological subtleties. Euripides has been hailed as a great lyric poet.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lattimore |first1=Richmond |title=Euripides as Lyrist |journal=Poetry |date=December 1937 |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=160–64}}</ref> In ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'', for example, he composed for his city, Athens, "the noblest of her songs of praise".<ref>''Medea'' 824 sqq.; Denys L. Page, ''Euripides: Medea'', Oxford University Press (1976), Introduction page vii</ref> His lyrical skills are not just confined to individual poems: "A play of Euripides is a musical whole...one song echoes motifs from the preceding song, while introducing new ones."<ref>L. P. E. Parker, ''Euripides: Alcestis'', Oxford University Press (2007), Introduction p. lxxii</ref> For some critics, the lyrics often seem dislocated from the action, but the extent and significance of this is "a matter of scholarly debate".<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. 338</ref> See [[Euripides#Chronology|Chronology]] for details about his style.