Editing Euripides (section)

==Texts==

===Transmission===
The textual transmission of the plays, from the 5th century BC, when they were first written, until the era of the printing press, was a largely haphazard process. Much of Euripides' work was lost or corrupted; but the period also included triumphs by scholars and copyists, thanks to whom much was recovered and preserved. Summaries of the transmission are often found in modern editions of the plays, three of which are used as sources for this summary.<ref group="nb">This summary of the transmission is adapted from a) Denys L. Page, ''Euripides: Medea'', Oxford University Press (1976), Introduction pp. xxxvii–xliv; b) L.P.E. Parker, ''Euripides: Alcestis'', Oxford University Press (2007), Introduction pp. lvii–lxv; c) E.R. Dodds, ''Euripides: Bacchae'', Oxford University Press (1960), Introduction pp. li–lvi</ref>

The plays of Euripides, like those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, circulated in written form. But literary conventions that we take for granted today had not been invented{{emdash}}there was no spacing between words; no consistency in punctuation, nor elisions; no marks for breathings and accents (guides to pronunciation, and word recognition); no convention to denote change of speaker; no stage directions; and verse was written straight across the page, like prose. Possibly, those who bought texts supplied their own interpretative markings. Papyri discoveries have indicated, for example, that a change in speakers was loosely denoted with a variety of signs, such as equivalents of the modern dash, colon, and full-stop. The absence of modern literary conventions (which aid comprehension), was an early and persistent source of errors, affecting transmission. Errors were also introduced when Athens replaced its old Attic alphabet with the Ionian alphabet, a change sanctioned by law in 403–402 BC, adding a new complication to the task of copying. Many more errors came from the tendency of actors to interpolate words and sentences, producing so many corruptions and variations that a law was proposed by [[Lycurgus of Athens]] in 330 BC "that the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides should be written down and preserved in a public office; and that the town clerk should read the text over with the actors; and that all performances which did not comply with this regulation should be illegal."<ref>Plutarch ''Vit.Dec.Orat.'' 851e, cited by Denys L. Page, ''Euripides: Medea'', Oxford University Press (1976), Introduction pp. xxxix–xl</ref> The law was soon disregarded, and actors continued to make changes until about 200 BC, after which the habit ceased. It was about then that [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]] compiled an edition of all the extant plays of Euripides, collated from pre-Alexandrian texts, furnished with introductions and accompanied by a commentary that was "published" separately. This became the "standard edition" for the future, and it featured some of the literary conventions that modern readers expect: there was still no spacing between words; little or no punctuation; and no stage directions; but abbreviated names denoted changes of speaker; lyrics were broken into "cola" and "strophai", or lines and stanzas; and a system of accentuation was introduced.
[[File:Medea-fragment-4th-5th-CE.gif|thumb|right|Fragment of a [[vellum]] [[codex]] from the fourth or fifth centuries AD, showing choral anapaests from ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'', lines 1087–91; tiny though it is, the fragment influences modern editions of the play<ref group="nb">
{{lang|grc|παῦρον ⌊δὲ δὴγένος ἐν πολλαῖς }}
:{{lang|grc|εὕροις ⌊ἂν ἴσως}}
:{{lang|grc|οὐκ ἀπό⌊μουσον τὸ γυναικῶν.}}
:{{lang|grc|καί φημι ⌊βροτῶν οἵτινές εἰσιν}}
:{{lang|grc|πάμπαν ⌊ἄπειροι μηδ΄ ἐφύτευσαν}}
:{{lang|grc|παῖ⌋δας͵ ⌊προφέρειν εἰς εὐτυχίαν}}
:{{lang|grc|⌊τῶν γειναμένων.⌋}}
:"Among many women, you might find a small class who are not uneducated. And I tell you that those who have no experience of children and parenthood are better off than those who do."{{emdash}}Medea lines 1087–91. (Half brackets enclose words not transmitted by the fragment but supplied by the greater tradition (see [[Leiden Conventions]]). The word {{lang|grc|οὐκ}} supports a reading preferred by modern scholars (it is represented as {{lang|grc|κοὐκ}} in other sources){{emdash}}Denys L.Page, ''Euripides: Medea'', O.U.P. (reprint 1978), note 1087–89, p. 151)</ref>]]
After this creation of a standard edition, the text was fairly safe from errors, besides slight and gradual corruption introduced with tedious copying. Many of these trivial errors occurred in the Byzantine period, following a change in script (from [[uncial]] to [[Minuscule Greek|minuscule]]), and many were "homophonic" errors{{emdash}}equivalent, in English, to substituting "right" for "write"; except that there were more opportunities for Byzantine scribes to make these errors, because η, ι, οι and ει, were pronounced similarly in the Byzantine period.

Around 200 AD, ten of the plays of Euripides began to be circulated in a select edition, possibly for use in schools, with some commentaries or [[scholia]] recorded in the margins. Similar editions had appeared for Aeschylus and Sophocles{{emdash}}the only plays of theirs that survive today.<ref>Denys L. Page, ''Euripides: Medea'', Oxford University Press (1976), Introduction p. xlii</ref> Euripides, however, was more fortunate than the other tragedians,{{clarify|date=August 2020}} with a second edition of his work surviving, compiled in alphabetical order as if from a set of his collect works; but without scholia attached. This "Alphabetical" edition was combined with the "Select" edition by some unknown Byzantine scholar, bringing together all the nineteen plays that survive today. The "Select" plays are found in many medieval manuscripts, but only two manuscripts preserve the "Alphabetical" plays{{emdash}}often denoted L and P, after the [[Laurentian Library]] at Florence, and the [[Bibliotheca Palatina]] in the Vatican, where they are stored. It is believed that P derived its Alphabet plays and some Select plays from copies of an ancestor of L, but the remainder is derived from elsewhere. P contains all the extant plays of Euripides, L is missing ''The Trojan Women'' and latter part of ''The Bacchae''.

[[File:Euripides, Orestes, Oxford, MS. Barocci 120.jpg|thumb|Euripides, Orestes, Oxford, [[Codex Baroccianus|MS. Barocci 120]], fol. 32r (early 14th century)]]

In addition to L, P, and many other medieval manuscripts, there are fragments of plays on papyrus. These papyrus fragments are often recovered only with modern technology. In June 2005, for example, classicists at the [[University of Oxford]] worked on a joint project with [[Brigham Young University]], using multi-spectral imaging technology to retrieve previously illegible writing (see References). Some of this work employed [[infrared]] technology—previously used for [[satellite]] imaging—to detect previously unknown material by Euripides, in fragments of the [[Oxyrhynchus papyri]], a collection of ancient manuscripts held by the university.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/news/independent.html |title=POxy Oxyrhynchus Online |publisher=Papyrology.ox.ac.uk |date=17 April 2005 |access-date=30 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/ |title=Papyrology Websites |publisher=Papyrology.ox.ac.uk |access-date=30 August 2013}}</ref>

It is from such materials that modern scholars try to piece together copies of the original plays. Sometimes the picture is almost lost. Thus, for example, two extant plays, ''The Phoenician Women'' and ''Iphigenia in Aulis'', are significantly corrupted by interpolations<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 259</ref> (the latter possibly being completed post mortem by the poet's son); and the very authorship of ''Rhesus'' is a matter of dispute.<ref>William Ritchie, ''The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides'', Cambridge University Press (1964)</ref> In fact, the very existence of the Alphabet plays, or rather the absence of an equivalent edition for Sophocles and Aeschylus, could distort our notions of distinctive Euripidean qualities{{emdash}}most of his least "tragic" plays are in the Alphabet edition; and, possibly, the other two tragedians would appear just as genre-bending as this "restless experimenter", if we possessed more than their "select" editions.<ref name="Justina Gregory 2005 page 254">Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 254</ref>

''See [[Euripides#Extant plays|Extant plays]] below for listing of "Select" and "Alphabetical" plays.''

===Chronology===
Original production dates for some of Euripides' plays are known from ancient records, such as lists of prize-winners at the [[Dionysia]]; and approximations are obtained for the remainder by various means. Both the playwright and his work were travestied by comic poets such as [[Aristophanes]], the known dates of whose own plays can serve as a [[terminus ad quem]] for those of Euripides (though the gap can be considerable: twenty-seven years separate ''Telephus'', known to have been produced in 438 BC, from its parody in ''[[Thesmophoriazusae]]'' in 411 BC.). References in Euripides' plays to contemporary events provide a [[terminus ad quem|terminus a quo]], though sometimes the references might even precede a datable event (e.g. lines 1074–89 in ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]'' describe a procession to [[Eleusis]], which was probably written before the Spartans occupied it during the [[Peloponnesian War]]).<ref>A.S. Owen, ''Euripides: Ion'', Bristol Classical Press, Introduction pp. xl–xli</ref> Other indications of dating are obtained by [[stylometry]].

Greek tragedy comprised lyric and dialogue, the latter mostly in [[iambic trimeter]] (three pairs of [[iamb (foot)|iambic feet]] per line). Euripides sometimes 'resolved' the two syllables of the iamb (˘¯) into three syllables (˘˘˘), and this tendency increased so steadily over time that the number of resolved feet in a play can indicate an approximate date of composition (see [[Euripides#Extant plays|Extant plays]] below for one scholar's list of resolutions per hundred trimeters). Associated with this increase in resolutions was an increasing vocabulary, often involving prefixes to refine meanings, allowing the language to assume a more natural rhythm, while also becoming ever more capable of psychological and philosophical subtlety.<ref>B. 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>

The trochaic tetrameter catalectic{{emdash}}four pairs of [[trochee]]s per line, with the final syllable omitted{{emdash}}was identified by Aristotle as the original meter of tragic dialogue (''Poetics'' 1449a21). Euripides employs it here and there in his later plays,<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 257</ref> but seems not to have used it in his early plays at all, with ''The Trojan Women'' being the earliest appearance of it in an extant play—it is symptomatic of an archaizing tendency in his later works.<ref>M. Platnauer, ''Iphigenia in Tauris'', Oxford University Press (1938), Introduction page 14</ref><ref>E.R.Dodds, ''Euripides: Bacchae'', Oxford University Press (1960), Introduction p. xxxvi</ref>

The later plays also feature extensive use of [[stichomythia]] (i.e. a series of one-liners).<ref>John Gould, 'Tragedy in performance' in ''The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature'', P. Easterling and B. Knox (ed.s), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 281</ref> The longest such scene comprises one hundred and five lines in ''Ion'' (lines 264–369). In contrast, Aeschylus never exceeded twenty lines of stichomythia; Sophocles' longest such scene was fifty lines, and that is interrupted several times by αντιλαβή<ref group="nb">i.e. lines are split between speakers</ref> (''[[Electra (Sophocles)|Electra]]'', lines 1176–1226).<ref>A.S. Owen, ''Euripides: Ion'', Bristol Classical Press (1990), Introduction p. 91</ref>

Euripides' use of lyrics in sung parts shows the influence of [[Timotheus of Miletus]] in the later plays{{emdash}}the individual singer gained prominence, and was given additional scope to demonstrate his virtuosity in lyrical duets, as well as replacing some of the chorus's functions with monodies. At the same time, choral odes began to take on something of the form of [[dithyrambs]] reminiscent of the poetry of [[Bacchylides]], featuring elaborate treatment of myths.<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), p. 258</ref> Sometimes these later choral odes seem to have only a tenuous connection with the plot, linked to the action only in their mood. The ''Bacchae'', however, shows a reversion to old forms,<ref>B. 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> possibly as a deliberate archaic effect, or because there were no virtuoso choristers in Macedonia (where it is said to have been written).<ref>Moses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. xvi</ref>

===Extant plays===
{| class="wikitable"
|+Estimated chronological order
! Play
! Date BC
! Prize
! Lineage
! Resolutions
! Genre (and notes)
|-
| ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]''
| 438
| 2nd
| '''S'''
| 6.2
| tragedy with elements of a [[satyr play]]
|-
| ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]''
| 431
| 3rd
| '''S'''
| 6.6
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[Children of Heracles|Heracleidae]]''
| {{circa|430}}
|
| '''A'''
| 5.7
| political/patriotic drama
|-
| ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]''
| 428
| 1st
| '''S'''
| 4.3
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[Andromache (play)|Andromache]]''
| {{circa|425}}
|
| '''S'''
| 11.3
| tragedy (not produced in Athens)<ref name="Harvard University Press">{{cite book |last1=Kovacs |first1=David |title=Euripides, Vol. I: Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea |date=1994 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=17}}</ref>
|-
| ''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]''
| {{circa|424}}
|
| '''S'''
| 12.7
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[The Suppliants (Euripides)|The Suppliants]]''
| {{circa|423}}
|
| '''A'''
| 13.6
| political/patriotic drama
|-
| ''[[Electra (Euripides)|Electra]]''
| {{circa|420}}
|
| '''A'''
| 16.9
| engages "untragically" with the traditional myth and with other dramatizations of it<ref name="Justina Gregory 2005 page 254"/>
|-
| ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Herakles]]''
| {{circa|416}}
|
| '''A'''
| 21.5
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[The Trojan Women]]''
| 415
| 2nd
| '''S'''
| 21.2
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]''
| {{circa|414}}
|
| '''A'''
| 23.4
| romantic drama
|-
| ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]''
| {{circa|413}}<ref name="Harvard University Press"/>
|
| '''A'''
| 25.8
| romantic drama
|-
| ''[[Helen (play)|Helen]]''
| 412
|
| '''A'''
| 27.5
| romantic drama
|-
| ''[[Phoenician Women]]''
| {{circa|410}}
|2nd
| '''S'''
| 25.8
| tragedy (extensive interpolations)
|-
| ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]''
| 408
|
| '''S'''
| 39.4
| tragedy
|-
| ''[[The Bacchae|Bacchae]]''
| 405
| 1st
| '''S'''
| 37.6
| tragedy (posthumously produced)
|-
| ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]''
| 405
| 1st
| '''A'''
| 34.7
| tragedy (posthumously produced with extensive interpolations)
|-
| ''[[Rhesus (play)|Rhesus]]''
| ?
|
| '''S'''
| 8.1
| tragedy (authorship disputed)
|-
| ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]''
| ?
|
| '''A'''
|
| satyr play (the only fully extant example of this genre)
|}
Key:
:'''Date''' indicates date of first production.
:'''Prize''' indicates a place known to have been awarded in festival competition.
:'''Lineage''': '''S''' denotes plays surviving from a 'Select' or 'School' edition, '''A''' plays surviving from an 'Alphabetical' edition<ref name="PLPE lx"/>{{emdash}}see [[Euripides#Transmission|Transmission]] above for details.
:'''Resolutions''': Number of resolved feet per 100 trimeters, Ceadel's list<ref>E.B.Ceadel, 'Resolved Feet in the Trimeters of Euripides', ''Classical Quarterly'' xxxv (1941), pp. 66–89</ref><ref>William Ritchie, ''The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides'', Cambridge University Press (1964), p. 261</ref>{{emdash}}see [[Euripides#Chronology|Chronology]] above for details.
:'''Genre''': Generic orientation<ref>Justina Gregory, 'Euripidean Tragedy', in ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy'', Justina Gregory (ed.), Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2005), pp. 254–58</ref> (see 'Transmission' section) with additional notes in brackets.

===Lost and fragmentary plays===
The following plays have come down to us in fragmentary form, if at all. They are known through quotations in other works (sometimes as little as a single line); pieces of papyrus; partial copies in manuscript; part of a collection of hypotheses (or summaries); and through being parodied in the works of Aristophanes. Some of the fragments, such as those of ''[[Hypsipyle (play)|Hypsipyle]]'', are extensive enough to allow tentative reconstructions to be proposed.

A two-volume selection from the fragments, with facing-page translation, introductions, and notes, was published by Collard, Cropp, Lee, and Gibert;<ref>{{cite book|last=Euripides|title=Selected Fragmentary Plays: Volume I|year=1995|editor1-last=Collard|editor1-first=C.|editor2-last=Cropp|editor2-first=M.J.|editor3-last=Lee|editor3-first=K.H.|publisher=Aris & Phillips|isbn=0-85668-619-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Euripides|title=Selected Fragmentary Plays: Volume II|year=2005|editor1-last=Collard|editor1-first=C.|editor2-last=Cropp|editor2-first=M.J.|editor3-last=Gibert|editor3-first=J.|publisher=Aris & Phillips|isbn=0-85668-621-2}}</ref> as were two [[Loeb Classical Library]] volumes derived from them;<ref>{{cite book|last=Euripides|title=Fragments: Aegeus-Meleager (Loeb Classical Library No. 504)|year=2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0-674-99625-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Euripides|title=Oedipus-Chrysippus & Other Fragments|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0-674-99631-1}}</ref> and there are critical studies in T. B. L. Webster's older ''The Tragedies of Euripides'',<ref>{{cite book|last=Webster|first=T. B. L.|title=The Tragedies of Euripides|year=1967|publisher=Methuen|location=London|pages=316|oclc=000310026}}</ref> based on what were then believed to be the most likely reconstructions of the plays.

The following lost and fragmentary plays can be dated, and are arranged in roughly chronological order:

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[Peliades]]'' (455 BC)
* ''Telephus'' (438 BC with ''Alcestis'')
* ''[[Alcmaeon in Psophis]]'' (438 BC with ''Alcestis'')
* ''[[Cretan Women]]'' (438 with ''Alcestis'')
* ''[[Cretans (Euripides)|Cretans]]'' ({{circa|435 BC}})
* ''[[Philoctetes (Euripides)|Philoctetes]]'' (431 BC with ''Medea'')
* ''[[Dictys]]'' (431 BC with ''Medea'')
* ''[[Theristai]]'' (''Reapers'', satyr play, 431 BC with ''Medea'')
* ''[[Stheneboea]]'' (before 429 BC)
* ''[[Bellerophon (play)|Bellerophon]]'' ({{circa|430 BC}})
* ''[[Merope (mythology)#Euripides' Cresphontes|Cresphontes]]'' ({{circa|425 BC}})
* ''[[Erechtheus]]'' (422 BC)
* ''[[Phaethon (play)|Phaethon]]'' ({{circa|420 BC}})
* ''[[Wise Melanippe]]'' ({{circa|420 BC}})
* ''Alexandros'' (415 BC with ''Trojan Women'')
* ''[[Palamedes (play)|Palamedes]]'' (415 BC with ''Trojan Women'')
* ''[[Sisyphus fragment|Sisyphus]]'' (satyr play, 415 BC with ''Trojan Women'')
* ''[[Captive Melanippe]]'' ({{circa|412 BC}})
* ''[[Andromeda (play)|Andromeda]]'' (412 BC with ''Helen'')
* ''[[Antiope (play)|Antiope]]'' ({{circa|410 BC}})
* ''[[Archelaus (play)|Archelaus]]'' ({{circa|410 BC}})
* ''[[Hypsipyle (play)|Hypsipyle]]'' ({{circa|410 BC}})
* ''[[Alcmaeon in Corinth]]'' ({{circa|405 BC}})  Won first prize as part of a trilogy with ''[[The Bacchae]]'' and ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]''
{{div col end}}

The following lost and fragmentary plays are of uncertain date, and are arranged in English alphabetical order.

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* ''[[Aegeus]]''
* ''[[Aeolus]]''
* ''[[Alcmene]]''
* ''[[Alope]]'', or ''[[Cercyon]]''
* ''[[Antigone (Euripides)|Antigone]]''
* ''[[Auge]]''
* ''[[Autolycus]]''
* ''[[Busiris (play)|Busiris]]''
* ''[[Cadmus]]''
* ''[[Chrysippus (play)|Chrysippus]]''
* ''[[Danae]]''
* ''[[Epeius]]''
* ''[[Eurystheus]]''
* ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus Veiled]]''
* ''[[Ino (mythology)|Ino]]''
* ''[[Ixion]]''
* ''[[Lamia (play)|Lamia]]''
* ''[[Licymnius]]''
* ''[[Meleager]]''
* ''[[Mysians]]''
* ''[[Oedipus (Euripides)|Oedipus]]''
* ''[[Oeneus]]''
* ''[[Oenomaus]]''
* ''[[Peirithous]]''
* ''[[Peleus]]''
* ''[[Phoenix (Euripides)|Phoenix]]''
* ''[[Phrixus]]''
* ''[[Pleisthenes]]''
* ''[[Polyidus]]''
* ''[[Protesilaus]]''
* ''[[Rhadamanthys]]''
* ''[[Sciron]]''
* ''[[Scyrians]]''
* ''[[Syleus]]''
* ''[[Temenidae]]''
* ''[[Temenos]]''
* ''[[Tennes]]''
* ''[[Theseus]]''
* ''[[Thyestes]]''
{{div col end}}

=== 21st century discoveries ===
Previously unknown fragments of two plays, ''Polyidus'' and ''Ino'', were found in 2022 and publicized in 2024.<ref name="m362">{{cite web | title=Uncovered Euripides fragments are 'kind of a big deal' | website=Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine | date=1 August 2024 | url=https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2024/08/01/uncovered-euripides-fragments-are-kind-big-deal | access-date=10 August 2024}}</ref>