About

Known credits:
37
Birthday:
N/A
Place of birth:
Salamis Island, Greece
Website:
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Euripides

Overview

Euripides (c. 480 – c. 406 BC) was a Greek 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",[nb 1] 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". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.

Known among the writers of classical Athens for his unparalleled sympathy towards all victims of society, including women, slaves or strangers, 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.

Known for

Writing
2022 The Metropolitan Opera: Medea Writing Theatre Play N/A
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2022 Medea Writing Writer N/A
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2021 Le baccanti Writing Writer N/A
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2020 Hippolyte et Aricie Writing Story N/A
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2020 Medea Writing Writer N/A
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2019 Medea Writing Original Story 59
Average
2014 Conversion Writing Original Story N/A
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2014 National Theatre Live: Medea Writing Theatre Play 58
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2012 Medea Writing Writer N/A
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2011 The Metropolitan Opera: Iphigénie en Tauride Writing Original Story N/A
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2010 From Euripides' Bacchae Writing Original Story N/A
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2009 The Bacchae Writing Theatre Play N/A
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2008 Cassandra Writing Writer N/A
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2001 Bash: Latter-Day Plays Writing Writer 58
Average
2001 Médée Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1993 The Bacchae Writing Author 58
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1989 Medea Writing Theatre Play 59
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1988 Hecuba Writing Writer N/A
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1983 Medea Writing Story 58
Average
1979 Medea Writing Author N/A
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1978 A Dream of Passion Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1978 A Dream of Passion Writing Writer 58
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1977 Iphigenia Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1971 The Trojan Women Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1970 Alkeste - Die Bedeutung, Protektion zu haben Writing Original Story 59
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1970 Dionysus in '69 Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1969 Medea Writing Theatre Play 60
Fair
1969 Orestes Writing Writer 59
Average
1967 The Trojan Women Writing Original Story N/A
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1965 Medea Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1964 Dionysus Writing Story 59
Average
1963 Medea Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1962 Electra Writing Theatre Play 59
Average
1962 Phaedra Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1961 The Bacchantes Writing Theatre Play 58
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1959 Medea Writing Original Story N/A
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1954 Medea Writing Theatre Play N/A
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