Euripides

Summary

Euripides (c. 485 to c. 406) was an Athenian dramatic poet who was heavily influenced by the new learning of the sophists. Although controversial, he had ninety-two plays accepted for production and became after his death the most performed of Greek tragedians. Eighteen or nineteen plays have survived, along with numerous fragments. He is said also to have written the elegy for the Athenian troops lost in Sicily (413).

Euripides' plays represented advanced views about the position of women, and seem also to have been critical of traditional beliefs about the gods and the morality they stood for. His work is important for an understanding of ancient Greek rhetoric and political theory of the fifth century. Here we print only some of the most important passages. (Dates of production, where known, are given in parentheses.)

Medea (431)

On discovering the unfaithfulness of her husband Jason, Medea says:

Of all those who can breathe and have minds,

we women are the most miserable race.

First of all we have to pay too much

to purchase a husband, to take on a tyrant

over our bodies – that's as bad as bad can be.

Then there's the enormous game of chance: will he be bad

or good? Divorce ruins the reputation

of a woman; meanwhile she cannot say no to her husband. […]