Study Guide to The Plays of Euripides

Intelligent Education

• Publisher: Influence Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781645424475
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Euripides, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. Titles in this study guide include Rhesus, Iphigenia In Aulis, Bacchae, Phoenissae, Orestes, Electra, Trojan Women, Helen, Iphigenia In Tauris, Ion, Suppliants, Hecuba, Heracles, Cyclops, A Satyr-Play, Andromache, Heracleidae, Hippolytus, Medea, and Alcestis.As a Greek playwright of fifth-century BCE his tragedies influenced modern dramas and even comedy. Moreover, many of his plays questioned politics of the time, setting him apart as a progressive writer. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Euripides' classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&AsThe Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

INTRODUCTION TO EURIPIDES

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE

The exact date of Euripides’ birth has never been determined. Some say that he was born on the very day of the Athenian naval defeat of the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C. Others say it was 484, and still others say it was 485. The precise date of Euripides’ birth does not mean nearly so much as an understanding of the man, his work, and his era. And this will be a challenge to the reader, who will discover as he pursues a study of Euripides a most controversial and often misinterpreted figure.

The myths concerning his parentage and life make an amusing legend. It has been said that Euripides was the son of a woman who peddled vegetables. It has also been said that he grew to be a bookish, brooding recluse, a woman-hater, and a misfit who after two unsuccessful marriages moved to Macedonia. The end of his life in this barbarian country is said to have been mutilation by dogs who were put on him for his general subversiveness.

More reliable sources say that Euripides was born at Phlya, a village in central Attica, to a mother named Cleito who was of high birth. The immediate neighborhood of Euripides’ early childhood was famous for its temples. In his youth, Euripides took part in the local religious festivals as both cup-bearer and fire-bearer. When he was four years old, the family was routed from its home because of the impending Persian attack. By the time he was eight, the ruins caused by the Persians’ destruction were being rebuilt. When he reached the age of eighteen, he became officially known as an “Ephebus” or “Youth,” which meant that he was provided with a spear and a shield and set to police duty along the forts of his city-state. Up to then his interests had been primarily in painting and athletics. In early manhood he came under the influence of such philosophers as Protagoras, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Diogenes, and Socrates.

EARLY PLAYS

As previously stated (see Greek Tragic Drama) early Greek tragedies were part of the Great Festival of Dionysius for which three poets were selected to compete, and were given a Chorus subsidized by wealthy patrons. The poet’s job was then to train the Chorus in the performance of the drama. At the end of each festival a body of five judges awarded first, second, and third prizes. Euripides became one of the selected poets in 455 B.C. and produced his first tragedy, the Daughters of Pelias, to which he later wrote the sequel, Medea. He did not win a first prize, however, until 442 B.C., but the name of his triumphant play is unknown. He continued to write plays, producing as many as four in one year, a feat which he accomplished in 438. These early plays showed Euripides’ penchant for a moral investigation of taboos and the savage punishment of their violators. A certain note of discontent was beginning to be evident, and this was later to become one of Euripides’ trademarks.

MIDDLE PERIOD

Medea (431 B.C.) was the next important play. It was poorly received by the judges, but later became recognized as one of the greatest of tragic dramas. Hippolytus, which followed three years later (428) won the first prize but it severely shocked the public at the time.

The Peloponnesian War, which began in 431 B.C. had a profound influence on Euripides’ works during this middle period. The two most “patriotic” plays are The Children of Heracles or The Heracleidae (427) and The Suppliants (421), but patriotism can also be seen in certain aspects of Medea, Andromache (426), and Heracles (422). (Cyclops, written in 423, is the only satyr play surviving, and has no particular “message.”) Hecuba (425) reveals the embittering experience of war which became a stamp on his later works. Euripides’ patriotism was a matter of ideals, and, therefore, far stronger than mere acceptance of the propaganda he had received in his forty years of military service. (It was not unusual for men of ancient Greece to be on call for military duty as an obligation to the state, whatever his occupation.) The writing of Heracles, however, marks the end of Euripides’ military service, as he was then sixty years old.

LATER PLAYS

The end of the Peloponnesian War was a defeat for Athens. That, combined with the decline of Periclean enlightenment through the corruption and embitterment caused by the long war, had a strong effect on the aging Euripides who had fought and written for his ideals. The plays which followed fall into three main groups. Those which are enigmatic, beautiful yet revealing Euripides’ own clashing moods are Ion (417) and The Trojan Women (415). Next follow his light, fantastic or romantic works: Iphigenia in Tauris (414) and Helen (412). Then there are the ruthless tragedies showing Euripides’ profound bitterness and growing despair. These are Phoenissae (409), Electra (413), and Orestes (408). The later plays show the psychological realism and moral inquiry for which the earlier Hippolytus is so famous. Euripides, never especially popular because of his connections with the god-denying Sophists, had become the butt of satiric plays, a reputed misogynist because of the women depicted in his plays, and an overt critic of Athenian politics and involvement in the war. In short, the Athenians bore grudges and grievances against him which promoted his already reclusive tendencies. His two marriages had not been happy ones.

EXILE AND DEATH

In 408 Euripides suddenly left Athens. He went first to Magnesia but did not stay there long. Archelaus, the king of Macedon, renewed an invitation to Euripides to join the other Greek intellectuals and artists at the Macedonian court. Although Macedonia was not quite as civilized and cultivated as Athens, it offered Euripides the comfort and ease of royal patronage in a kingdom that was becoming more and more powerful. At most, Euripides lived eighteen months in Macedon. The actual facts of his death are not certain. It has long been rumored that he was accidentally mutilated by some of the king’s Molossian hunting dogs who overtook him sitting in a wood.

After his death, three plays were found. The two most important of these are the Iphigenia in Aulis and the Bacchae, both of which were completed by his third son, the young Euripides.

GREECE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

Early History

General Comments

Very little is known about the origin of Greek civilization. From the mainland, small waves of successive migrations took place moving outward into the island of the Aegean Sea, finally stopping at the coast of Asia Minor. The name given to this mixed populace of invaders and conquered peoples was Hellenes. At no time were they a homogeneous nation, although they were related by certain common cultural traits which differentiated them from “barbarians” or non-Hellenes of the Asian mainland. Divided either by mountains or sea from its neighbor, each community was a separate political unit which came to be known as a city-state. The earliest literary record of the Greeks is the work of Homer whose Iliad and Odyssey, composed around 850 B.C. refer to events dating back three hundred years.

Homeric Greece (1000-800 B.C.)

Introduction

The period described in Homer’s works was an aristocratic one. The king, or “basileus” was not the absolute ruler, although he was the military, religious, and judicial officer. The king consulted on affairs of state with numerous lesser chiefs who were drawn from heads of great families. Often these consultations were held in the form of public debate. The commoners did not vote but could make their sentiments known by disapproving silence or shouts of approbation. Life was simple and primitive -mainly agricultural - until about the end of the ninth century when economical development began with maritime commerce. Industrial progress was influenced largely by the middle eastern countries who served as models for the Hellenes in matters of economics. The coinage of money began in the eighth century as the textile, leather, ceramic, and wood industries flourished along with a large export trade in olives and wines. A great period of colonization of the outer islands began at the end of the eighth century and lasted for two hundred years. This phenomenon was the result of increasing ranks of landless peasants whose holdings had been diminished by the encroachment of large estates and whose economic deprivation often placed them in bondage. To alleviate these conditions and to prevent the danger of a growing indentured or mendicant population, colonies were founded.

Political Development

The great landowners, or nobles, gradually assumed more and more political power. This concentration of power in the hands of a few changed the structure of government from monarchy to oligarchy. The citizenry responded to this development with growing demands for a voice in the government. The leaders of the citizens’ groups who offered to depose ruling families in exchange for popular support were called “tyrants” after having seized power. Their position was totally dependent upon the concessions they made to the people. Thus the form of government changed from oligarchy to “tyranny,” a word which had not the ugly connotations of today. Tyranny paved the way for democracy because it was based on a concept of concession to the populace, and tyrants who ignored their obligations were fairly easily deposed.

The Archaic Period (800-500 B.C.)

Athens And Sparta

Two cities that played a major role in the development of Greek civilization during the Archaic Period were Athens and Sparta. By the seventh century Sparta had become a conservative military state, governed by an aristocracy comprised of two kings who had nominal power and five magistrates, as well as a Council of Elders who shared the real power with the magistrates. Spartan culture was devoted to a rigid code of discipline and was contemptuous of intellectual aesthetic pursuits. Athens, on the other hand, had passed through every phase of government from monarchy to democracy by the end of the sixth century. The Athenians were progressive, individualistic, and devoted to intellectual and aesthetic culture, particularly philosophy, literature, and art. The majority of political progress was accomplished by three tyrants: Solon, who instituted fundamental reforms in citizenship privileges; Pisistratus, whose land reform transferred property from the nobility to the peasants; and Cleisthenes, whose political reforms laid the foundations for Athenian democracy. Eventually, however, Athenian democracy became an exclusive affair, bestowing the privileges of citizenship only on those with Athenian ancestry.

The Persian And Peloponnesian Wars

The rise of the Persian Empire during the sixth century (B.C.) posed a threat to the Greek city-states whose main concern heretofore had been individual development and quarrels among themselves. Before the end of the sixth century the Persian Empire had conquered the Ionian Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor. In 499 Athens sent aid to the rebellious Greek cities, but the revolt was crushed, and the Persian king, Darius, became sufficiently aware of the Greeks’ independent spirit to make him determined to conquer all the Aegean islands and the cities on the Greek mainland. The next Persian attack was directed mainly against Athens in 490. Not waiting for aid from Sparta which was on the way, the Athenians, with an army half the size of the Persians’ attacked with such fury that the battle of Marathon became a decisive victory for the Greeks and stayed the Persians for ten years. In 480, under Darius’ son, Xerxes, the Persians attacked again. By this time Athens and other Greek cities had formed an allied army and navy under Spartan leadership. The Athenian navy defeated the Persian fleet in the Straits of Salamis while the combined Greek armies defeated the Persians at Plataea.

After the Persian war, Athens became the leader of the Greek cities in a maritime alliance to patrol and defend Greek interests in the Aegean against the Persians. This alliance was known as the Council of Delos, where its headquarters were located. Within twenty-five years Athens dominated the confederation, and in 454 the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens. Those cities who resented Athenian domination attempted to withdraw but were retained in the confederacy by force. In addition, Athens interfered in the internal affairs of these cities, attempting to promote democratic governments which would be subservient to Athenian policies. Sparta, at the head of a rival confederacy of Peloponnesian cities, grew more antagonistic to Athenian machinations. The inevitable war between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies which lasted from 431 to 404 B.C. became known as the Peloponnesian War. The eventual result was the surrender of the Athenians and the break-up of her empire. Sparta then engaged in a fourteen-year war with Persia. The Greeks were eventually conquered by Macedonia.

The Golden Age

The Glory That Was Greece

The period with which we are mainly concerned is known as the “Golden Age” and covers the greater part of the fifth and fourth centuries, beginning before the Persian War and lasting beyond the Macedonian conquest. In these years Athens and other Greek cities produced their finest works of classical art and made the most memorable progress in philosophy, literature, and science. In general it may be said that the cultural goal of the Golden Age was a combination of clarity, simplicity, and proportion, motivated by high seriousness and dedicated to giving eternal validity to the understanding of man and nature.

From about 461 to 430 B.C. Athenian culture reached its peak of development. This period is called the Age of Pericles, named for the brilliant statesman under whose guidance Athens flourished. Under his administration, the buildings on the Acropolis in Athens which had been demolished by the Persians were reconstructed. Religious fervor and civic patriotism combined to make the Greek temples and civic buildings supreme feats of architecture. Sculpture and painting of equal greatness, depicting mostly human figures, recreated daily life, religion, and myth. Lyric poetry was another achievement of this period, remembered now more for its perfection of form than its content. The greatest poetry, combined with the most profound contemplation of human life, was the work of the dramatists.

Myth And Religion

The religion of the Greeks was polytheistic (the worship of multiple gods). The many gods of the Greeks were anthropomorphic (resembling man in appearance and character), superhuman in their powers, but very much like humans in their motivations and behavior. Although their characters and functions overlapped somewhat, the more important gods were easily distinguished. The worship of the gods was not subject to a systematized theology; indeed, the rituals of worship varied widely. The adventures of the gods and their relationships with each other and with mortals formed a rich body of mythology. Myth, in turn, beca...