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Definition: Euripides from Philip's Encyclopedia

Greek playwright. One of the great writers of Greek tragedy. His plays, with their cynical depiction of human motivation, caused controversy. The significance of the chorus was reduced in favour of a more complex examination of individual behaviour, especially women. His works include Medea, Electra, Hecuba, and the anti-war satire Trojan Women. Only 18 plays are extant.

Euripides

From The Classical Tradition
Greek tragic dramatist, ca. 485-406 bce . According to Aristotle, Sophocles said that he drew men as they ought to be, but Euripides drew them as they were. Euripides has always been a more controversial dramatist than Sophocles or Aeschylus. His plays take a more skeptical view of human, and specifically male, pretensions, at times bordering on black farce; the cosmos they portray is more savagely unpredictable; their aesthetic principles are at loggerheads with Aristotle's. No wonder that to later ages he has always seemed more "modern" than his rivals, though not necessarily more estimable. Nietzsche was not alone in deploring (with the exception of the Bacchae ) the degenerate worldview that Euripides represented. His plays appear more heterogeneous than those of his two peers partly because more of them have (accidentally) survived. Eighteen were published in Venice in 1503, and within a few years the great Humanist scholar Erasmus had produced Latin translations of Hecuba and…
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Full text Article Euripides

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Euripides

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
(b. 484 BCE –d. 406 BCE ) Greek playwright According to the Library of Congress's online catalogue, between the turn of the 21st century and the moment of this writing, some 49 separate translations into modern languages have been done of plays by Euripides. He exemplifies a writer whose work was…
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Full text Article Euripides

From Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World
(b. ca. 485–d. ca. 406 BCE ) Greek tragic playwright Euripides’ place in literature alongside Aeschylus and Sophokles is due to his insight into human psychology (especially abnormal psychology, such as madness or obsessive love), his frequent and sympathetic use of female characters (unusual for a…
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(b. ca. 485–d. ca. 406 BCE ) Greek tragic playwright Euripides was one of the three great Athenian tragic dramatists, with Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was reputed to have been the author of some 92 plays and received a considerable level of public and critical acclaim. He was on 20 occasions chosen…
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Full text Article Euripides

From The Classical Tradition
Greek tragic dramatist, ca. 485-406 bce . According to Aristotle, Sophocles said that he drew men as they ought to be, but Euripides drew them as they were. Euripides has always been a more controversial dramatist than Sophocles or Aeschylus. His plays take a more skeptical view of human, and…
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Full text Article Euripides

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born c. 484 bc , Athens—died 406 bc , Macedonia) Greek playwright. With Aeschylus and Sophocles , he is recognized as one of Athens’s three great tragic dramatists. An associate of the philosopher Anaxagoras , he expressed his questions about Greek religion in his plays. Beginning in 455, he was…
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Full text Article Euripides

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(yʊrĭp'ĭdēz), 480 or 485–406 B.C. , Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles . Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time on Salamis. He died in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. He wrote perhaps 92 plays (the first produced in 455); …
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Full text Article Euripides

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
484 or 480-406 BC Greek tragic dramatist Born probably in Salamis, he did not take much part in public life. In politics he was moderate, approving of a democracy but not of demagogues. Of about 80 of his dramas whose titles are known, 18 survive complete. They include Medea (431 BC ), Andromache…
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Full text Article Euripides

From The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
Athenian tragic playwright. Euripides was born probably in the 480s. He first took part in the dramatic competitions of the City Dionysia at Athens in 455 bc , the year after the death of *Aeschylus (Life 32: he came third; the plays included Daughters of Pelias , his first treatment of the story of…
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Full text Article EURIPIDES

From A Dictionary of Classical Greek Quotations
C480-406BC Athenian tragic playwright see also Anonymous 38, 87; Archelaus (2) 2; Aristophanes 76, 84, 88, 131; Aristotle 188; Cratinus 4; Hieronymus of Rhodes 1; Philemon 32 1 φίλου γαρ άνδρός συμφοραίς βαρύνομαι I share the grief of my friend. Alcestis 42 2 ούποτε φήσω γάμον εύφραίνειν πλέον ή…
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