GENERAL INTRODUCTION

We are told that Euripides, the son of Mnesarchus or Mnesar-
chides, was born at some time between 485 and 480 B.C., pre-
sented his first set of tragedies in 455, and won his first victory
in 441, won only four victories during his lifetime, left Athens
probably in 408 for the court of King Archelaus of Macedon,
and died there late in 407 or early in 406. He wrote perhaps
eighty-eight plays (twenty-two sets of four); nineteen survive
under his name, though Rhesus may not be his.
Such seems to be the basic and believable vita (though I
suspect that the dates for birth and first presentation are too
early). We may ignore the fanciful gossip that passes for addi-
tional biography, but consider the critical opinions of the
comic poets. The conclusion is that Euripides was only mod-
erately successful in his own lifetime, though famous and in-
fluential after death. He won seldom but produced again and
again. He was parodied and ridiculed by the comic poets more
often and more brutally (and more intelligently,, too) than any
other literary man in Athens. This fact itself means that he
made more of an impression than the now obscure com-
petitors who must have beaten him again and again.
Plainly, he wrote shockers, and it is not enough to say that
this was because he was anjnnflyater. He was, but so were his
predecessors. Aeschylus was. more daring, drastic, and original;
Sophocles was no serene and static classicist. Perhaps the most
significant remark about Euripides and Sophocles is that sup-
posed to have been made by Sophocles, that he himself
showedjpaen as they ought to be (or as one ought to show
them) but Euripides showed them as they actually were.
Whether or not Sophocles ever said this, it is true. Euripides
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