Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom a significant number of plays have survived. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but, according to the Suda, it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. Yet he also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of...that cage which is the theatre of Shakespeare's Othello, Racine's Phèdre, of Ibsen and Strindberg," in which "...imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates", and yet he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.Unique among writers of Ancient Athens, Euripides demonstrated sympathy towards the underrepresented members of society. His male contemporaries were frequently shocked by the heresies he put into the mouths of characters, such as these words of his heroine Medea:
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence, Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia. Recent scholarship casts doubt on ancient biographies of Euripides. For example, it is possible that he never visited Macedonia at all, or, if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists.
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“Ares (The God of War) hates those who hesitate.”
Heraclidæ (c 428 BC) line 722
Alternate translation : Ares hates the sluggard most of all. (translated by David Kovacs)
Sisyphus, as translated by R. G. Bury, and revised by J. Garrett http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/302/critias.htm
Variant translation: He was a wise man who originated the idea of God.
“Light be the earth upon you, lightly rest.”
Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 462
Bacchae l. 472, as translated by Colin Teevan (2002)
Suppliants (tr. Edward P. Coleridge)
“O lady, nobility is thine, and thy form is the reflection of thy nature!”
Ion (c. 421-408 BC) l. 238
ἁπλοῦς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ,
κοὐ ποικίλων δεῖ τἄνδιχ᾽ ἑρμηνευμάτων
Source: The Phoenician Women, Lines 469–470
Source: Hippolytus (428 BC), lines 426-427; David Kovacs' translation
“Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one’s native land.”
Variant translation (by Paul Roche): For nothing is like the sorrow or supersedes the sadness of losing your native land.
Source: Medea (431 BC), Line 653 (translated by David Kovacs: Perseus Digital Library)
“I sacrifice to no god save myself — And to my belly, greatest of deities.”
The Cyclops (c.424-23 BC)
“Good slaves [are affected by] the adversities of their masters”
Bacchæ l. 1028
the original sentence does not contain any verb
“Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.”
Pirithous
Variant: Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgement.
“Today's today. Tomorrow we may be
ourselves gone down the drain of Eternity.”
Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 788
Bellerophon, Fragment 298; quoted in Plutarch's Morals : Ethical Essays (1888) edited and translated by Arthur Richard Shilleto, p. 293
“The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.”
Phrixus, Frag. 970
“The credit we get for wisdom is measured by our success.”
Source: Hippolytus (428 BC), l. 701, translated by Edward P. Coleridge
“Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.”
Bacchæ l. 882
Variant translation: Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods.
“I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right.”
Supposedly in The Suppliants.
Also attributed to Frederick the Great of Prussia.
Disputed
“I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.”
Source: Medea (431 BC), Line 1078
Sisyphus as translated by R. G. Bury, and revised by J. Garrett
“A second wife is hateful to the children of the first; A viper is not more hateful.”
Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 309
“Of all things upon earth that bleed and grow,
A herb most bruised is woman.”
Source: Medea (431 BC), Lines 230–231 in Gilbert Murray's translation ( p. 15 https://archive.org/stream/medeatranslatedi00euriuoft#page/15/mode/1up)
“Thou didst bring me forth for all the Greeks in common, not for thyself alone.”
Iphigenia in Aulis, 1386
Hecuba, lines 1178-1182 ( tr. Jay Kardan and Laura-Gray Street (2010) http://didaskalia.net/issues/8/32/)
Variant ( tr. E. P. Coleridge (1938) http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg007.perseus-eng1:1145-1186):
[I]f any of the men of former times have spoken ill of women, if any does so now, or shall do so hereafter, I will say all this in one short sentence; for neither land or sea produces such a race, as whoever has had to do with them knows.
Hecuba (424 BC), lines 1177-1182. [Euripides, William Arrowsmith (translated by), Grene, David, Lattimore, Richmond, Euripides III: Four Tragedies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA, 0226307824, paperback]
Variant ( tr. Jay Kardan and Laura-Gray Street (2010) http://didaskalia.net/issues/8/32/):
Let me tell you, if anyone in the past has spoken
ill of women, or speaks so now or will speak so
in the future, I’ll sum it up for him: Neither sea
nor land has ever produced a more monstrous
creature than woman.
