Euripides’s Followers (2,051)

Euripides

Born

Salamis, Greece

Genre

Theatre, Poetry, Classics

edit data

Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his 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.
Eur Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his 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. 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 William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources. ...more

Combine Editions
Euripides’s books

Average rating: 3.97 · 241,244 ratings · 14,995 reviews · 2,867 distinct works • Similar authors

	Medea 3.96 avg rating — 88,835 ratings — published -431 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bacchae 3.94 avg rating — 25,886 ratings — published -405 — 203 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Medea and Other Plays by Euripides, Richard Rutherford (Editor), John Davie (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 19,484 ratings — published -428 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Trojan Women 3.88 avg rating — 13,027 ratings — published -415 — 412 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Electra 3.95 avg rating — 8,565 ratings — published -420	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bacchae and Other Plays by Euripides, Philip Vellacott (Translator) 4.14 avg rating — 6,744 ratings — published -414 — 76 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hippolytos by Euripides, Robert Bagg (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 3.81 avg rating — 7,127 ratings — published -428 — 393 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Iphigenia in Aulis (Plays for Performance Series) 4.02 avg rating — 6,514 ratings — published -405 — 121 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alcestis 3.86 avg rating — 5,239 ratings — published -438 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Euripides V: Electra / The Phoenician Women / The Bacchae by Euripides, Emily Townsend Vermeule (Introduction), Elizabeth Wyckoff (Introduction) 4.18 avg rating — 3,966 ratings — published 1922 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Euripides…

Series by Euripides

Théâtre d'Euripide et fragments (1 book)
by

Euripides,

Gustave Hinstin (Translator)

3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings

The minds of authors can be mysterious places. How do they come up with all those plot twists? What inspired them to create their most beloved...

Polls

June 2023 Old School Classics Poll

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, 1595, 240 pp

68 votes, 31.8%

Medea by Euripides, 432, 59 pp

48 votes, 22.4%

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1890, 129 pp

35 votes, 16.4%

Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1846, 167 pp

27 votes, 12.6%

A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald, 1791, 345 pp

17 votes, 7.9%

The Life of a Good-For-Nothing by Joseph von Eichendorff, 1826, 124 pp

13 votes, 6.1%

Egil's Saga by Anonymous, 1240, 243 pp

6 votes, 2.8%

214 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
100+ Books in 2026: Meghan's 2009 List	119	942	Dec 29, 2009 11:41AM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3022	3288	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM
The World's Liter...: Aristophanes' FROGS	7	54	Nov 16, 2010 06:52PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: Jordan Stoner's List	12	85	Dec 05, 2010 05:46PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: Jordan Stoner Completed 2010 List	1	5	Dec 31, 2010 08:47PM
Reading with Style: WI 10-11 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter	704	513	Mar 01, 2011 09:19AM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2867	1121	May 31, 2011 09:01PM

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Euripides to Goodreads.