eventeen tragedies (and a satiric play), ten more than we have from Aeschylus and Sophocles: this is Euripides, the youngest of the Greek playwrights (not the last one however, because Sophocles, the old man, survived him by several years)

Like Aeschylus he did not die in Athens.

When the news about his death in Pella arrived in Athens, they were busy organizing a festival. At the opening, the “proagon”, the traditional ceremony to open the plays, the 90 years old Sophocles stepped onto the stage wearing mourning. The actors had not put on their usual wreaths and wore black coats.

The occupied “polis” silently remembered the dead writer. This was in 406 B.C.  Two years later the capitulation was to come.

Why had Euripides left the capital? We’ll never learn.In general, the information about Euripides isn’t very trustful. We don’t even know the exact year of his birth (it could have been around 484). Since he was born on the island of Salamis (where his parents had a farm), the Greeks liked the idea that he died at the battle of Salamis where Aeschylus also had fought.

The same thing is true for the number of his plays. Among the 92 referred to in ancient times, there is a cycle that certainly was not his. That would make it 88, less than the others wrote although he was over 75 years old when he wrote his last plays (which also became his most famous ones)

It is known that he was 29 when he appeared the first time and that he was 43 when he received a first prize. He wrote the oldest tragedy we have when he was 46 and only four times he was granted a first prize (the fifth time postum, after his death).This is understandable since he was known for his desire to be different from his famous colleagues and rivals, something that irritated his contemporaries.

But it is exactly this desire that makes Euripides contested till today.

He is still compared with Sophocles and Aeschylus and sometimes it seems that the fame he obtained after his death was due to some misunderstandings.

He was the renewer, the destroyer of the past forms, the man of the future who did not believe in the "gods" anymore and who discarded old values. The title “the rationalist” that some tend to use for him is not what describes him best.Aeschylus and Sophocles were rationalist as well if we take the Greek word “aletheion” in it’s real sense.And Euripides never identified himself with the ideas of his contemporaries, he just quoted them.

It’s the old misunderstanding: The words of a play are interpreted and abused as the expression of opinion of the playwright. One thing is for sure: the reason for his contemporaries to be bewildered and irritated can’t be found in his form. He certainly introduced some changes; how could he not, how could Tragedy not change since time did not stand still?

Actually the model of his Tragedy remained almost intact except his last one. The chorus, three (or four) actors, the composition of dialogue and chorus-musical components, the stage with the “skene” and the orchestra at the demi-amphitheatre facing the audience. His last play almost appears to be “archaic”.

What Euripides really separates from the others is the choice of his subjects! The content, the interpretation of the myth, the character and behavior of his heroes.

It’s true; he loved to choose delicate themes: the relations between man and woman, between father, mother and son. But there is always the presence of the “polis”! The heroes are far from being private, it’s always the public view and opinion, society and politics that determine the erotic or familiar constellations. Nothing would be a bigger mistake than referring to Euripides as an apolitical writer.

He wrote a number of plays that could be labeled as pure political theatre.

But it’s a mistake to assume that he used themes not handled by others. Especially during his last phase of writing,  the great myths dominate.

No one in theatre has uncovered the truth in such a relentless way.

That is why Aristotle called him the “tragikotatos: the most tragic one.

 ©2001 Andrea Kapsaski

Andrea Kapsaski is a scholar, poet, translator
and active theatre producer in Greece

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Winter 2001