Euripides is an ancient Greek tragic philosopher, the youngest in the triad of famous ancient Greek playwrights after Aeschylus and Sophocles.

His homeland was Salamis, where he was born around 480 BC. e. Some ancient sources indicate the exact date of his birth - September 23, 480 BC. e., however, most likely, to give greater significance, it is simply tied to the day when the famous naval battle took place, in which the Greeks defeated the Persians. 486 BC is also mentioned as the year of birth. e. and 481 BC e. It is believed that his parents were wealthy people, but not of noble origin, but this thesis is also questioned by a number of researchers, because There is evidence of his excellent education, as well as of his participation in some celebrations to which the road was closed to commoners.

In his childhood, Euripides' dream was the Olympic Games (he was known as a capable gymnast), but his too young age prevented him from taking part in them. Soon he began to study literature, philosophy, oratory, and his works eloquently indicate that he succeeded in this activity. His worldview was largely formed under the influence of the teachings of Protagoras, Anaxagoras, and Prodicus. Euripides collected books for his personal library, and one day the moment came when he decided to write himself.

Euripides began to try his hand at creativity at the age of 18, but the first competition in dramatic art, in which he decided to take part with the play “Peliad,” dates back to 455 BC. e. And only in 440 BC. e. he was awarded the highest honor for the first time. Creative activity always remained a priority for him; he stayed away from public life. political life countries and cities, but was not completely indifferent to it. There is also a known fact from his biography about his special attitude towards the fair sex: the unhappy experience of two marriages made Euripides, in the eyes of those around him, a real misogynist.

It is known that Euripides composed until his death; in ancient times, according to various sources, from 75 to 92 plays were attributed to him, and 17 dramatic works have survived to this day, including “Electra”, “Medea”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”, etc. In the performance of Euripides, the ancient tragedy was transformed: it began to pay more attention to the everyday, private life of people, their mental suffering; in the works one can see a reflection of the philosophical thoughts of that time. The innovation and merits of his creative manner were not properly appreciated by his contemporaries. Of all his many plays, only four received awards at theater competitions. It is this circumstance that is called the main reason that in 408 BC. e. the playwright accepted the invitation of Archelaus, the Macedonian king, and left Athens forever. This ruler treated the famous guest with extreme respect and showed him great honors.

In 406 BC. e. Euripides died, and the circumstances of his death were called different - for example, a conspiracy of envious people who bribed the courtier in charge of the royal kennel: he allegedly unleashed a pack of hounds on Euripides. They also said that the playwright, going on a date with his mistress (or lover), was torn apart not by dogs, but by distraught women. Modern researchers are inclined to believe that the tragic Macedonian winter, who was already over seventy, was killed. Euripides was buried in the capital of this country, although the Athenians turned to Archelaus with a request to hand over the body of his fellow countryman for burial. Faced with refusal, they showed their respect by erecting a statue of the playwright within the walls of the theater.

It was after his death that Euripides’ work gained the greatest popularity and received a worthy assessment. He was considered the most popular and famous ancient playwright until the 5th century. BC e. The works of the youngest of the great triad had a noticeable influence on Roman tragedy, later European literature, in particular, the work of Voltaire, Goethe and other famous masters of the pen.

(Εύριπίδης, 480 – 406 BC)

Origin of Euripides

The third great Athenian tragedian, Euripides, was born on the island of Salamis in 480 BC (Ol. 75, 1), according to legend, on the same day when the Athenians defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis - 20 voedromion or 5 October. The poet's parents, like most Athenians, fled from Attica during the invasion of Xerxes' hordes and sought refuge in Salamis. Euripides' father's name was Mnesarchus (or Mnesarchides), and his mother's name was Clito. There are remarkable, contradictory reports about them, which, perhaps, partly owe their origin to the mocking Attic comedy. Euripides' mother, as Aristophanes often reproached him, was, they say, a merchant and sold vegetables and herbs; the father is said to have also been a merchant or innkeeper (κάπηγοσ); they say that he, for some unknown reason, fled with his wife to Boeotia and then settled again in Attica. We read from Stobaeus that Mnesarchus was in Boeotia and there he was subjected to an original punishment for debts: the insolvent debtor was taken to the market, sat there and covered with a basket. By this he was dishonored and therefore left Boeotia for Attica. The comedians say nothing about this story, although they used everything they could to ridicule Euripides.

Euripides with an actor's mask. Statue

From everything reported, it seems that we can conclude that Euripides’ parents were poor people, from the lower class. But Philochorus, the famous collector of Attic antiquities who lived during the time of the Diadochi, in his work on Euripides, on the contrary, reports that Euripides’ mother came from a very noble family; Theophrastus (c. 312 BC) also speaks about the nobility of the poet’s parents, according to whom Euripides was once among the boys who, during the festival of Phargelia, poured wine for the singers - an activity for which only children from noble locals were chosen childbirth The remark of one biographer that Euripides was the torchbearer (πύρθορος) of Apollo Zosterius has a similar meaning. Therefore we must believe that Euripides came from a noble Athenian family. He was assigned to the district of Phlia (Φλΰα).

The youth and education of Euripides

Even if Euripides’s father was not rich, he nevertheless gave his son a good upbringing, which was fully consistent with his origin. The father especially tried to train his son in athletics and gymnastics, precisely because, as legend says, that at the birth of the boy, the father received a prediction from the oracle or from passers-by Chaldeans that his son would win victories in sacred competitions. When the boy's strength was already sufficiently developed, his father took him to Olympia for the games; but Euripides was not allowed to attend the games due to his youth. But later, as they say, he received an award for an athletic competition in Athens. In his youth, Euripides also studied painting; Subsequently, more of his paintings were located in Megara. In adulthood, he zealously took up philosophy and rhetoric. He was a student and friend of Anaxagoras of Clazomenos, who, during the time of Pericles, first began to teach philosophy in Athens; Euripides was on friendly terms with Pericles and with other remarkable people of that time, such as, for example, the historian Thucydides. The tragedies of Euripides show the deep influence that the great philosopher (Anaxagoras) had on the poet. His tragedies also sufficiently testify to his knowledge of rhetoric. In rhetoric, he used the lessons of the famous sophists Protagoras of Abdera and Prodicus of Keos, who lived and taught in Athens for a long time and were on good terms with the most remarkable people in this city, which then became a gathering point for all outstanding scientists and artists. In ancient biographies, Socrates is also mentioned among Euripides' teachers; but this is simply a chronological error. Socrates was a friend of Euripides, who was 11 years older than him; they had common views and common aspirations. Although Socrates rarely visited the theater, he came there every time a new drama by Euripides was played. “He loved this man,” says Elian, for his wisdom and for the moral tone of his works.” This mutual sympathy between the poet and the philosopher was the reason why comedians, ridiculing Euripides, claimed that Socrates was helping him write tragedies.

Dramatic activity of Euripides and the attitude of his contemporaries towards it

What prompted Euripides to leave his studies in philosophy and turn to tragic poetry is unknown to us for certain. Apparently, he took up poetry not out of inner motivation, but out of deliberate choice, wanting to popularize philosophical ideas in poetic form. He first performed the drama in the 25th year of his life, in 456 BC (Ol. 81.1), the year of the death of Aeschylus. Then he received only the third award. Even in ancient times they didn’t know exactly how many dramas Euripides wrote; most writers attributed 92 plays to him, including 8 satirical dramas. He won his first victory in 444 BC, the second in 428. In general, throughout his long-term poetic activity, he received the first award only four times; the fifth time he received it after his death, for didascalia, which put on stage on his behalf by his son or nephew, also named Euripides.

Euripides. Encyclopedia Project. Video

From this small number of victories it is clear that the works of Euripides did not enjoy special attention among his fellow citizens. However, during the life of Sophocles, who, being the favorite of the Athenian people, inseparably reigned on the stage until his death, it was difficult for anyone else to achieve fame. In addition, the reason for the insignificant successes of Euripides lay mainly in the peculiarities of his poetry, which, having left the solid ground of ancient Hellenic life, tried to acquaint the people with philosophical speculation and sophistry, therefore, took a new direction that did not like the generation brought up on old customs . But Euripides, regardless of the public’s reluctance, stubbornly continued to follow the same path, and in the consciousness of his own dignity sometimes directly contradicted the public if it expressed its displeasure with some of his bold thoughts, the moral meaning of some place in his works. So, for example, they say that once the people demanded that Euripides delete some place from his tragedy; the poet went on stage and declared that he was used to teaching the people, and not learning from the people. Another time, when, during the performance of Bellerophon, the whole people, having heard the misanthrope Bellerophon praising money above all else in the world, rose from their seats in anger and wanted to drive the actors off the stage and stop the performance, Euripides again appeared on stage and demanded that the audience We waited until the end of the play and saw what awaited the lover of money. The following story is similar to this. In Euripides’ tragedy “Ixion,” its hero, the villain, elevates injustice to a principle and with daring sophistry destroys all concepts of virtue and duty, so that this tragedy was condemned as godless and immoral. The poet objected, and only then removed his drama from the repertoire when he was forced to do so.

Euripides did not pay much attention to the verdict of his contemporaries, confident that his works would be appreciated later. Once, in a conversation with the tragedian Acestor, he complained that in the last three days, despite all his efforts, he managed to write only three poems; Akestor boasted that at this time he could easily write a hundred poems; Euripides remarked: “But there is a difference between us: your poems are written only for three days, but mine are written forever.” Euripides was not deceived in his expectations; as a supporter of progress, which increasingly attracted the younger generation, Euripides, from the time of the Peloponnesian War, began to meet little by little with more and more approval, and soon his tragedies became the common property of the Attic educated public. Brilliant tirades from his tragedies, pleasant songs and thoughtful maxims were on everyone’s lips and were highly valued throughout Greece. Plutarch, in his biography of Nicias, says that after the unfortunate outcome of the Sicilian expedition, many of the Athenians who escaped captivity in Syracuse and fell into slavery or were in poverty in another part of the island owed their salvation to Euripides. “Of the non-Athenian Greeks, the greatest admirers of the muse of Euripides were the Sicilian Greeks; they learned passages from his works by heart and gladly communicated them to one another. At least many of those who returned to their homeland from there joyfully greeted Euripides and told him, some how they freed themselves from slavery, having taught their master what they knew by heart from Euripides’ tragedies, others how they, singing his songs, received their own food when, after the battle, they had to wander without shelter.” In this regard, Plutarch tells how one day a ship, pursued by pirates, sought salvation in the bay of the city of Kavna (in Caria): the inhabitants of this city at first did not allow the ship into the bay; but then, asking the shipmen if they knew anything from Euripides and receiving an affirmative answer, they allowed them to hide from their pursuers. The comedian Aristophanes, a representative of the “good old times”, an enemy of all innovations, attacks Euripides especially strongly and very often laughs at passages from his tragedies; this proves how important Euripides was among his fellow citizens during the Peloponnesian War and how famous his poems were.

Personal character of Euripides

The dislike with which Euripides was greeted by his fellow citizens for a long time is partly explained by his personal character and way of life. Euripides was a completely moral person, which can already be seen from the fact that Aristophanes never cites a single immoral incident from his life; but by nature he was serious, gloomy and uncommunicative; like his teacher and friend Anaxagoras, whom no one had ever seen laughing or smiling, he hated all carefree enjoyment of life. And he was also not seen laughing; he avoided contact with people and never left a concentrated, thoughtful state. With such isolation, he spent time only with a few friends and with his books; Euripides was one of the few people of that time who had his own library, and quite a significant one at that. The poet Alexander Etolsky says about him: “The student of the strict Anaxagoras was grumpy and uncommunicative; an enemy of laughter, he did not know how to have fun and joke while drinking wine; but everything he wrote was full of pleasantness and attractiveness.” He withdrew from political life and never held public office. Of course, with such a lifestyle, he could not claim popularity; like Socrates, he must have seemed useless and idle to the Athenians; they considered him an eccentric, “who, buried in his books and philosophizing with Socrates in his corner, is thinking of remaking Hellenic life.” This is how Aristophanes presents him, of course, for the amusement of the Athenians, in his comedy “Acharnians”: Euripides sits at home and soars in the higher spheres, philosophizes and writes poetry, and does not want to go down to talk with Dicaeopolis, since he has no time; Only yielding to the urgent requests of the latter, he orders, for the sake of great convenience, to push himself out of the room. Paying some attention to the judgments of the crowd, Euripides in his "" advises smart people not to give their children an extensive education, "since a wise man already because he loves leisure and solitude, he arouses hatred of himself among his fellow citizens, and if he invents something good, then fools consider it a daring innovation.” But if Euripides moved away from public life, however, as is clear from his poetry, he had a patriotic heart; he tried to arouse love for the fatherland in his fellow citizens, he vividly felt the failures of his native city, rebelled against the machinations of the unscrupulous leaders of the mob, and even gave sound advice to the people in political matters.

On the island of Salamis they showed a lonely, shady cave with an entrance from the sea, which Euripides built for himself in order to retire there from the noisy light for poetic studies. In all likelihood, the gloomy and melancholic character of this cave, reminiscent of the personal characteristics of Euripides, prompted the Salamis people to name this cave after the poet born on the island. On one stone, which Welker speaks of (Alte Denkmäler, I, 488), there is an image relating to this Euripides cave. Euripides, a plump old man with a large beard, stands next to the muse, who holds a scroll in her hand and brings it to a woman sitting on a rock. This woman, as Welker explains, “is a nymph living in this coastal rock, a nymph of this cave, friendly receiving Euripides; the construction of a cave here for the solitary study of wise poetry is indicated by Hermes standing behind the nymph.”

The theme of women in Euripides

The gloomy and unsociable character of Euripides also explains the hatred of women for which the Athenians and especially Aristophanes reproached him in his comedy “Women at the Festival of Thesmophoria.” The women, irritated by Euripides’ bad reviews of them, want to take revenge on him and, having gathered for the festival of Thesmophoria, where complete agreement reigns between them, they decide to arrange a trial of the poet and sentence him to death. Euripides, in fear for his fate, is looking for one of the men who would agree to dress in women's dress, take part in a meeting of women and defend the poet there. Since the pampered, effeminate poet Agathon, whom Euripides asks to provide this service, does not want to be in danger, Mnesilochus, Euripides’ father-in-law, who has fully mastered the philosophical and oratorical techniques of his son-in-law, takes on this role and, dressing in a woman’s dress, delivered by Agathon , goes to the Thesmophorion temple. Here a trial takes place, in which female speakers violently attack the son of a merchant who insults their sex; Mnesilochus ardently defends his son-in-law, but he is soon recognized and, on the orders of Prytan, who was called to the temple, he is tied to a stake, so that he can then be tried for criminal intrusion into female society. Euripides, who ran to the temple, tries in vain, using various tricks, to free his father-in-law; finally, he manages to free him when he promises the women never to scold them in the future, and, with the assistance of a flutist, distracts the attention of the Scythian standing on guard. Carried away by this comedy, later writers told as a historical fact that during the festival of the Thesmophoria, women attacked against Euripides and wanted to kill him, but he saved himself by giving them a promise that he would never say anything bad about them; talking about this, the biographer cites in confirmation several verses from Euripides’ drama “Melanippe”, which say: “The abuse uttered by men against women does not hit the mark; I assure you that women are better than men.” According to another biographer, women attacked Euripides in the Salamis cave; they burst in, says the biographer, and wanted to kill him while he was writing the tragedy. How the poet calmed them down is not said; of course, with the help of the above promise.

Seated Euripides. Roman statue

Euripides paid special attention to the female sex and brought women to the stage much more often than other poets. The passions of a woman's heart, especially love and its clash with moral feelings, were often the subject of his tragedies; Thus, in his tragedies situations could easily appear in which the bad and dark sides of a woman’s heart were sharply outlined. Thus, often in entire plays and in many individual scenes, a woman appears in a bad light, although it cannot be said that these scenes express the poet’s firm conviction. The Athenians could be offended both by the fact that the poet generally depicted a woman on stage with all her innermost feelings and motives, and by the fact that women’s errors and depravity of character were depicted in such bright colors, and moreover, at a time when Attic women really stood morally not particularly high. This is the reason why Euripides acquired a reputation among the Athenians as a hater of women; we must admit that his attitude towards women does him at least as much honor as it does shame. In his dramas we meet many noble women, distinguished by their high love and self-sacrifice, courage and willpower, while men often appear next to them in a pitiful and secondary role.

Euripides' family relationships

If Euripides's harsh judgments about women are in most cases explained by the nature of the dramatic plot, then some of the sentences of this kind, apparently, were expressed by him quite sincerely. In his family life, the poet had to endure difficult trials. According to biographers, Euripides had two wives; the first was Chirila, the daughter of the above-mentioned Mnesilochus, from whom Euripides had three sons: Mnesarchides, who was later a merchant, Mnesilochus, who became an actor, and Euripides the Younger, a tragedian. Since this wife was unfaithful to Euripides, he divorced her and took another wife, Melito, who, however, turned out to be no better than the first and left her husband herself. This Melito is called by others the first wife of Euripides, and Chirilu (or Chirina) - the second; Gellius even says that Euripides had two wives at the same time, which, of course, is not true, since bigamy was not allowed in Athens. Chyrila is said to have had an affair with a certain Cephisophon, an actor who is said to be a young slave of Euripides, and of whom comedians say that he helped Euripides write dramas. Chyrila's infidelity prompted Euripides to write the drama Hippolytus, in which he particularly attacks women; Having experienced the same trouble from his second wife, the poet began to condemn women even more. Under such circumstances, of course, he could quite sincerely put such strange thoughts into Hippolytus’s mouth:

“Oh Zeus! You have darkened people's happiness by giving birth to a woman! If you wanted to support the human race, you would have to arrange it so that we do not owe our lives to women. We mortals could bring copper or iron or costly gold to your temples, and in return receive children from the hands of the deity, each according to his offering; and these children would grow up freely in their father’s house, never seeing or knowing women; for it is clear that woman is the greatest disaster.”

Departure of Euripides from Athens to Macedonia

In the last years of his life, Euripides left his hometown. This was shortly after the presentation of Orestes (408 BC). What prompted him to do this we do not know; Perhaps troubles in the family, or the constant bitter attacks of comedians, or the turbulent situation in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War, or perhaps all this together made his stay in his homeland unpleasant. He first went to Thessalian Magnesia, whose citizens received him very hospitably and honored him with gifts. However, he did not stay there long and went to Pella, to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus. This sovereign was not distinguished by moral qualities; he paved his way to the throne with a triple murder; but he was very zealous about introducing Greek culture and morals into his country, especially about giving his court more shine by attracting Greek poets and artists. At his court lived, among others, the tragedian Agathon of Athens, the epic Chiril from Samos, the famous painter Zeuxis from Heraclea (in Magna Graecia), the musician and author of dithyrambs Timothy from Miletus. At the court of the hospitable and generous king, Euripides enjoyed pleasant leisure and, in honor of the Macedonian royal house, wrote the drama "Archelaus", which depicts the founding of the Macedonian kingdom by the descendant of Hercules Archelaus, the son of Temen. In Macedonia, Euripides wrote the drama “The Bacchae,” as can be seen from the allusions to local circumstances in this play. These plays were presented in Dion, in Pieria, near Olympus, where the cult of Bacchus existed and where King Archelaus staged dramatic competitions in honor of Zeus and the muses.

Probably, the poet Agathon also took part in these competitions, who left Athens and arrived in Pella almost at the same time as Euripides. As a joke, a story was invented that the handsome Agathon in his youth was the lover of Euripides, who was then about 32 years old, and that Euripides wrote his “Chrysippus” to please him. The story of how the old Euripides once, drunk at dinner with Archelaus, kissed the 40-year-old Agathon, deserves just as little faith, and when asked by the king whether he still considers Agathon his lover, he answered: “Of course, I swear by Zeus ; after all, beauties are given not only a wonderful spring, but also a wonderful autumn.”

Legends about the death of Euripides

Euripides did not live long at the court of Archelaus. He died in 406 BC (Ol. 93, 3), 75 years old. There are various stories about his death, which, however, have little credibility. The most widespread news was that he was torn to pieces by dogs. The biographer tells the following: In Macedonia there was a village inhabited by Thracians. One day the Molossian dog Archelaus came running there, and the villagers, according to their custom, sacrificed it and ate it. For this, the king fined them one talent; but Euripides, at the request of the Thracians, begged the king to forgive them for this act. A long time later, Euripides was walking one day in a grove near the city, in which the king was hunting at the same time. The dogs, escaping from the hunters, rushed at the old man and tore him to pieces. These were the puppies of the same dog that the Thracians ate; hence the Macedonians’ proverb “dog’s revenge.” Another biographer says that two poets, the Macedonian Arideus and the Thessalian Kratev, out of envy of Euripides, bribed the royal slave Lysimachus for 10 minutes so that he would unleash dogs on Euripides, who tore him to pieces. According to other news, it was not dogs, but women who attacked him on the road at night and tore him to pieces.

The news of Euripides' death was received in Athens with deep sorrow. They say that Sophocles, having received this news, put on mourning clothes, and during a performance in the theater led the actors onto the stage without wreaths; the people were crying. Archelaus erected a decent monument to the great poet in the romantic area between Arethusa and Wormiscus, near two springs. The Athenians, having learned about the death of the poet, sent an embassy to Macedonia with a request to hand over the body of Euripides for burial in hometown; but since Archelaus did not agree to this request, they erected a cenotaph in honor of the poet on the road to Piraeus, where Pausanias later saw him. According to legend, the tomb of Euripides, like the tomb of Lycurgus, was destroyed by a lightning strike, which was considered a sign of the gods’ special attention to mortals, since the place where lightning struck was declared sacred and inviolable. The historian Thucydides or the musician Timothy is said to have decorated his cenotaph with the following inscription:

“The whole of Greece serves as the grave of Euripides, but his body is in Macedonia, where he was destined to end his life. His fatherland is Athens and all of Hellas; he enjoyed the love of the muses and thereby gained praise from everyone.”

Bergk believes that this inscription was not composed by the historian Thucydides, but by another Athenian of the same name from the house of Aherd, who was a poet and, apparently, also lived at the court of Archelaus. Perhaps this inscription was intended for the monument to Euripides in Macedonia.

Let us mention one more circumstance here. Soon after the death of Euripides, the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius, who gained dominance in the same year, bought from his heirs, for one talent, a string instrument that belonged to the poet, a board and a stylus, and donated these things, in memory of Euripides, to the temple of the muses in Syracuse.

From antiquity to our time, many busts of Euripides have survived, representing him either separately or together with Sophocles. A colossal bust of the poet in Parian marble is in the Vatican Chiaramonti Museum; this is probably a copy of a statue that was placed, by order of Lycurgus, in the theater, next to the statues of Aeschylus and Sophocles. “In the facial features of Euripides one can see that seriousness, gloominess and inhospitability for which the comedians reproached him, that dislike of fun and laughter, with which his love for solitude, for the remote Salamis cave, is so consistent. Along with seriousness, his figure expresses benevolence and modesty - the properties of a true philosopher. Instead of sophistic complacency and pride, something honest and sincere is visible in the face of Euripides.” (Welker).

Euripides. Bust from the Vatican Museum

Euripides and sophistry

For more details, see the article “Sophistic Philosophy” (section “The Influence of Sophistic Philosophy on Euripides”)

Euripides is a complete representative of the time when the Athenians fell in love with sophistry and began to flaunt sensitivity. His penchant for mental pursuits early distracted him from social activities, and he lived among philosophers. He delved into the skeptical ideas of Anaxagoras, he liked the seductive teachings of the sophists. He did not have the cheerful energy of Sophocles, who diligently performed civic duties; he shunned state affairs, shunned the life of society, whose morals he portrayed, and lived in a closed circle. His tragedies were liked by his contemporaries; but his ambition remained unsatisfied - perhaps that is why he left Athens in old age, where comic poets constantly laughed at his works.

Related to it in tendency, in content, and probably close to it in time is the tragedy of “The Petitioner.” Its content is the legend that the Thebans did not allow the Argive heroes killed during the Campaign of the Seven against Thebes to be buried, but Theseus forced them to do so. The hints about modern political relations are also clear here. The Thebans also did not want to allow the Athenians to bury the soldiers killed in the battle of Delia (in 424). At the end of the play, the Argive king enters into an alliance with the Athenians; it also made political sense: soon after the Battle of Delium, the Athenians entered into an alliance with Argos. The chorus of “Petitioners” consists of the mothers of the murdered Argive heroes and their maids; then the sons of these heroes join them; The choir's songs are excellent. Probably, the scenery representing the Eleusinian Temple of Demeter, at whose altars the “petitioners”—the mothers of the murdered heroes—sit down, had a beautiful appearance. The scenes of the burning of those heroes, the procession of boys carrying urns with the ashes of the dead, the voluntary death of Capaneus’s wife, who climbed onto the fire to her husband’s body, were also good. At the end of the drama, Euripides, by deus ex machina, brings the goddess Athena onto the stage, who demands an oath from the Argives never to fight with the Athenians. Following this, the Athenian-Argive alliance was formalized, for the sake of the renewal of which in modern times “The Petitioners” were written.

Euripides – “Hecuba” (summary)

Some of the tragedies of Euripides that have come down to us are based on episodes from the Trojan War, in particular from the terrible events of the destruction of Troy; they depict strong emotions of passion with great energy. For example, in “Hecuba” the mother’s grief is first depicted, from whose embrace her daughter, Polyxena, the bride of Achilles, is torn out. Stopping after the destruction of Troy on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont, the Greeks decided to sacrifice Polyxena on the tombstone of Achilles; she willingly goes to her death. At this moment, the maid, who went to fetch water, brings Hecuba the body of Polydor, her son, who she found on the shore, killed by the traitor Polymestor, under whose protection Polydor was sent. This new misfortune turns Hecuba’s victim into an avenger; the thirst for revenge on her son’s killer merges in her soul with despair over the death of her daughter. With the consent of the main leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, Hecuba lures Polymestor into the tent and, with the help of slaves, blinds him. In carrying out her revenge, Hecuba shows great intelligence and extraordinary courage. In Medea, Euripides depicts jealousy; in Hecuba, revenge is depicted with the most energetic features. The blinded Polymestor predicts Hecuba's future fate.

Euripides – “Andromache” (summary)

Passion of a completely different kind constitutes the content of Euripides' tragedy Andromache. Andromache, the unhappy widow of Hector, at the end of the Trojan War, becomes the slave of Achilles' son, Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus's wife, Hermione, is jealous of her. The jealousy is all the stronger because Hermione has no children, and Andromache gives birth to a son, Molossus, from Neoptolemus. Hermione and her father, the Spartan king Menelaus, brutally persecute Andromache, even threatening her with death; but Neoptolemus’s grandfather, Peleus, saves her from their persecution. Hermione, fearing her husband's revenge, wants to kill herself. But Menelaus’s nephew, Orestes, who was previously Hermione’s fiancé, takes her to Sparta, and the Delphians, excited by his intrigues, kill Neoptolemus. At the end of the play, the goddess Thetis appears (deus ex machina) and foreshadows the happy future of Andromache and Molossus; this artificial denouement is intended to produce a calming impression in the audience.

The whole tragedy is imbued with hostility towards Sparta; this feeling was inspired in Euripides by modern relations; Sparta and Athens were then at war with each other. "Andromache" was probably staged in 421, somewhat earlier than the conclusion of the Peace of Nicias. Euripides with obvious pleasure depicts the severity and treachery of the Spartans in Menelaus, and the immorality of Spartan women in Hermione.

Euripides – “The Trojan Women” (summary)

The tragedy "The Trojan Women" was written by Euripides around 415. Its action takes place on the second day after the capture of Troy in the camp of the victorious Hellenic army. The captives taken in Troy are distributed among the leaders of the victorious Greeks. Euripides depicts how Hecuba, the wife of the murdered Trojan king Priam, and Hector’s wife, Andromache, are preparing for the fate of slavery. The son of Hector and Andromache, the baby Astyanax, is thrown from the fortress wall by the Greeks. One daughter of Priam and Hecuba, the Trojan prophetess Cassandra, becomes the concubine of the Greek leader, Agamemnon, and in ecstatic madness makes predictions about the terrible fate that will soon befall most of the destroyers of Troy. Hecuba's other daughter, Polyxene, is to be sacrificed at Achilles' tomb.

The role of the chorus in this drama by Euripides is played by Trojan women captured by the Greeks. The finale of “The Trojan Women” is the scene of the burning of Troy by the Hellenes.

As in the case of "The Petitioners", "Andromache" and "Heraclides", the plot of "The Trojan Women" has a close connection with the events of that time. In 415 BC, the Athenians, on the advice of the ambitious adventurer Alcibiades, decided to sharply turn the tide of the Peloponnesian War and achieve pan-Greek hegemony through a military expedition to Sicily. This rash plan was condemned by many prominent people of Athens. Aristophanes wrote the comedy “The Birds” for this purpose, and Euripides wrote “The Trojan Woman,” where he vividly depicted the bloody disasters of war and expressed sympathy for the suffering captives. The idea that even with a successful completion of the campaign, its further consequences will be tragic for the victors who transgressed justice, was carried out very clearly by Euripides in The Trojan Women.

The Trojan Women, one of Euripides' best dramas, was not a success when it was first staged - around the time of the start of the Sicilian expedition. The “anti-war” meaning of “The Trojan Women” was not liked by the people excited by the demagogues. But when in the fall of 413 the entire Athenian army died in Sicily, their fellow citizens recognized that Euripides was right and instructed him to write a poetic epitaph on the tomb of his fellow countrymen who fell in Sicily.

Euripides – “Helen” (summary)

The content of the tragedy “Helen” is borrowed from the legend that the Trojan War was fought because of a ghost: in Troy there was only the ghost of Helen, and Helen herself was carried away by the gods to Egypt. The young king of Egypt, Theoclymenes, pursues Helen with his love; she runs away from him to the tomb of King Proteus. There she is found by her husband, Menelaus, brought to Egypt by storms after the capture of Troy, appearing in beggarly clothes, since all his ships were destroyed by a hurricane. To deceive Theoclymenes, Helen tells him that Menelaus supposedly died at Troy, and she, having now become a free woman, is ready to marry the king. Elena asks only to be allowed to go out to sea on a boat to perform the last funeral rites for ex-husband. On this boat, Helen leaves with Menelaus in disguise. They are helped by the priestess girl Theonoya, the only noble person in the play. Theoclymenes, having discovered the deception, sends a chase after the fugitives, but she is stopped by the Dioscuri, who play the role of deus ex machina: they declare that everything that happened happened by the will of the gods. “Helen” is both in content and form one of the weakest tragedies of Euripides.

Euripides – “Iphigenia at Aulis” (summary)

Euripides also took themes for his tragedies from the legends about the Atrids - the descendants of the hero Atreus, among whom were the leaders of the Trojan War Agamemnon and Menelaus. The drama “Iphigenia in Aulis” is beautiful, but distorted by later additions, the content of which is the legend of the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia.

Before setting sail for the campaign against Troy, the Greek army gathers in the harbor of Aulis. But the goddess Artemis stops the fair winds, since she was angered by the supreme leader of the Hellenes, Agamemnon. The famous soothsayer Calhant announces that Artemis’s anger can be softened by sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia, to her. Agamemnon sends a letter to his wife Clytemnestra with a request to send Iphigenia to Aulis, since Achilles allegedly makes it a condition for his participation in the campaign to Troy that he receive Iphigenia as a wife. Iphigenia comes to Aulis with her mother. Achilles, having learned that Agamemnon used his name for deceptive purposes, is terribly indignant and declares that he will not allow Iphigenia to be sacrificed, even if this means fighting with other Greek leaders. Iphigenia responds by saying that she does not want to become the cause of a fight between her compatriots and will gladly give her life for the good of Hellas. Iphigenia voluntarily goes to the sacrificial altar, but the messenger who appears at the end of Euripides’ tragedy reports that at the moment of the sacrifice the girl disappeared and instead a doe was under the knife.

The plot of “Iphigenia in Aulis” was borrowed by Euripides from the tales of the Trojan War, but he gives the legend such a form that a moral conclusion is drawn from it. In the confusion of events human life agitated by passions, the only true path is the one along which a pure heart, capable of heroic self-sacrifice, leads. Euripides' Iphigenia selflessly offers to be sacrificed; by its free decision, the reconciliation of the heroes arguing among themselves is accomplished. Thus, this tragedy is free from the artificial method of arranging a denouement through the intervention of a deity, although here too this method is somewhat reminiscent of the appearance of the Messenger at the end of the action.

Euripides – “Iphigenia in Tauris” (summary)

“Iphigenia in Tauris” also has high artistic merit; its plan is good, its characters are noble and beautifully outlined. The content is borrowed from the legend that Iphigenia, who escaped the sacrifice in Aulis, subsequently became a priestess in Tauris (Crimea), but then ran away from there, taking with her the image of the goddess she served.

Artemis, who saved Iphigenia in Aulis, took her from there to Tauris on a wonderful cloud and made her her priestess there. The barbarians of Tauris sacrifice to their Artemis all the foreigners who fall into their hands, and Iphigenia is entrusted with performing a preliminary rite of purification over these unfortunates. Meanwhile, the Trojan War ended, and Iphigenia's father, Agamemnon, who returned to his homeland, was killed by his own wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Avenging his father, Iphigenia's brother, Orestes, kills his mother Clytemnestra and is then subjected to terrible torments of repentance, sent by the goddesses Erinyes. Apollo announces to Orestes that he will get rid of torment if he goes to Tauris and brings from there the idol of Artemis captured by the barbarians. Orestes arrives in Tauris with his friend Pylades, but the local savages capture them and condemn them to sacrifice. They are brought to the priestess Iphigenia, sister of Orestes. Euripides describes an exciting scene in which Iphigenia recognizes her brother. Under the pretext of performing a cleansing ritual, Iphigenia takes Orestes and Pylades to the seashore and runs with them to Greece, taking away the image of Artemis. The barbarians of Tauris give chase, but the goddess Athena (deus ex machina) forces them to stop.

Euripides’ Iphigenia is not as ideal a face as Goethe’s, but still she is a pious girl, faithful to her duties, passionately loving her homeland, so noble that even the barbarians respect her; she instills in them humane concepts. Although the barbarians sacrifice people to the goddess she serves, Iphigenia herself does not shed blood. The scene in which Orestes and Pylades each want to be sacrificed in order to save their friend from death is dramatic. Euripides managed to add touchingness to this dispute between friends without resorting to excessive sentimentality.

Euripides – “Orestes” (summary)

In both tragedies, with the title Iphigenia, the characters are energetic and noble, but about the tragedy “Orestes” one of the ancient scholiasts already said that all the characters in it are bad, with the exception of Pylades alone. And indeed, this is both in content and form one of the weakest works of Euripides.

According to the decision of the Argive court, Orestes should be stoned for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra, although she herself had previously nearly killed him along with his father, Agamemnon. The baby Orestes was then rescued by his sister, Electra. Now Electra is being tried together with Orestes, for she participated in the murder of their common mother. Orestes and Electra hope for the support of the brother of their father killed by Clytemnestra, the Spartan king Menelaus, who arrived in Argos during the trial. However, due to cowardice and selfishness, he does not want to save them. When the national assembly condemns Orestes to Euripides - “Heraclides” (summary) erti, he, together with his faithful friend Pylades, takes hostage the wife of Menelaus, the culprit of the Trojan War, Helen. But divine power carries her through the air. Orestes wants to kill Helen's daughter, Hermione. At the decisive moment, Deus ex machina appears - Apollo plays this role here - and orders everyone to reconcile. Orestes marries Hermione, whom he recently wanted to kill, Pylades on Electra.

The characters of the characters in this drama of Euripides are devoid of any mythical grandeur; these are ordinary people, without tragic dignity.

Euripides – “Electra” (summary)

Electra suffers from the same shortcoming, but even more so than Orestes, in which the sublime legend is remade so that it becomes like a parody.

Clytemnestra, in order to get rid of constant reminders of the murder of her husband, passes off her daughter, Electra, as a simple peasant. Electra lives in poverty, doing menial work herself household. For the same purposes, Clytemnestra expels Orestes as an infant from the capital of Agamemnon, Mycenae. Having matured in a foreign land, Orestes returns to his homeland and comes to his sister. Electra recognizes him by the scar left from a bruise he received in childhood. Having conspired with Electra, Orestes kills the lover of their common mother and the main culprit in the death of their father, Aegisthus, outside the city. Electra then lures Clytemnestra into her poor hut under a pretext. as if she had given birth to a child. In this hut, Orestes kills his mother. This terrible denouement plunges Electra and Orestes into insanity, but the Dioscuri, who miraculously appeared, excuse them by saying that they acted at the behest of Apollo. Electra marries Orestes' friend, Pylades. Orestes Dioskouri himself is sent to Athens, where he will be acquitted and cleansed of sin by the council of elders - the Areopagus.

Euripides – “Hercules” (summary)

"Hercules" (or "The Madness of Hercules"), a play designed for effects, has several scenes that make a strong impression. It combines two different actions. When Hercules goes into the underworld, the cruel Theban king Lycus wants to kill his wife, children and old father, Amphitryon, who remained in Thebes. Hercules, who unexpectedly returned, frees his relatives and kills Lik. But then he himself exposes them to the fate from which he saved them. Hera deprives Hercules of his sanity. He kills his wife and children, imagining that they are the wife and children of Eurystheus. He is tied to a fragment of a column. Athena restores his sanity. Hercules feels bitter remorse and wants to kill himself, but Theseus appears and keeps him from doing this, taking him to Athens. There Hercules is cleansed of sin by sacred rites.

Euripides – “Ion” (summary)

“Ion” is a wonderful play in terms of entertaining content and clear characterization of individuals, full of patriotism. There is neither greatness of passions nor greatness of character in it; the action is based on intrigue.

Ion, the son of Apollo and Creusa, the daughter of the Athenian king, was thrown into the Delphic temple by his mother, ashamed of the casual affair, as a baby. He is raised there, destined to be a servant of Apollo. Ion's mother, Creusa, marries Xuthus, who was chosen by the Athenian king for his heroism in the war. But they don't have children. Xuthus comes to Delphi to pray to Apollo for the birth of a descendant and receives an answer from the oracle that the first person he will meet at the exit from the temple is his son. Xuthus meets Ion first and greets him as a son. Meanwhile, secretly from Xuthus, Creusa also comes to Delphi. Hearing how Xuthus calls Ion and his son, she decides that Ion is the side offspring of her husband. Not wanting to accept a stranger into his family, Creusa sends a slave with a poisoned chalice to Ion. But Apollo keeps her from committing villainy. He also detains Ion, who, having learned about the insidious plan against him, wants to kill Creusa, not knowing that she is his mother. The priestess who raised Jonah comes out of the Delphic temple with the basket and swaddling clothes in which he was found. Creusa recognizes them. Apollo's son Ion becomes heir to the Athenian throne. Euripides' play ends with Athena confirming the truth of the story about the divine origin of Ion and promising power to his descendants - the Ionians. For the pride of the Athenians, the legend was pleasant that the ancestor of the Ionians came from the line of ancient Achaean kings and was not the son of a foreign stranger, the Aeolian Xuthus. The young priest Ion depicted by Euripides is sweet and innocent - an attractive face.

Euripides – “Phoenician Women” (summary)

Later, “Jonah” was written by Euripides, the drama “The Phoenician Women”, and which has many beautiful passages. The name of the play comes from the fact that its chorus consists of captive citizens of Phoenician Tyre, who were sent to Delphi, but were delayed in Thebes along the way.

The content of The Phoenician Women is borrowed from the myth of the Theban king Oedipus, and the drama is replete with many different episodes from this cycle of legends. Euripides' reworking of the myth is limited to the fact that Oedipus and his mother and wife Jocasta are still alive during the campaign of the Seven against Thebes, when their sons Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. Jocasta, who, together with her daughter Antigone, tried in vain to prevent the single combat of her two sons, kills herself in the camp over their dead bodies. Blind Oedipus, expelled from Thebes by Creon, is led by Antigone to Colon. Creon's son, Menoeceus, in fulfillment of the prophecy given by Tiresias of Thebes, throws himself from the Theban wall, sacrificing himself to reconcile the gods with Thebes.

Euripides – “The Bacchae” (summary)

The tragedy of The Bacchae probably dates back to an even later time. It was apparently written by Euripides in Macedonia. In Athens, The Bacchae was probably staged by the author's son or nephew, Euripides the Younger, who also staged Iphigenia at Aulis and Euripides' tragedy Alcmaeon, which has not reached us.

The content of “The Bacchae” is the legend of the Theban king Pentheus, who did not want to recognize as god his cousin Bacchus-Dionysus, who returned from Asia to Thebes. Pentheus saw in the ecstatic cult of Dionysus only deception and debauchery and began to strictly persecute his servants, the bacchantes, contrary to the opinion of his grandfather, the hero Cadmus, and the famous soothsayer Tiresias of Thebes. For this, Pentheus was torn to pieces by his mother Agave (sister of Dionysus's mother, Semele) and the maenads (Bacchantes) who accompanied her. Dionysus sent all the Theban women into a frenzy, and they, led by Agave, fled to the mountains to indulge in bacchanalia in deer skins, with thyrsus (staffs) and tympanums (tambourines) in their hands. Dionysus told Pentheus of an insane desire to see the Bacchantes and their service. Dressed in a woman's dress, he went to Kiferon, where it took place. But Agave and the other bacchantes, at the suggestion of Dionysus, mistook Pentheus for a lion and tore him to pieces. Agave triumphantly carried the bloody head of her own son to the palace, imagining that it was the head of a lion. Having sobered up, she was cured of madness and was struck by repentance. The end of Euripides' "The Bacchae" is poorly preserved, but, as far as can be understood, Agave was condemned to exile.

This tragedy is one of Euripides's best, although the verse in it is often careless. Its plan is excellent, the unity of action is strictly observed in it, consistently developing from one basic given, the scenes follow one after another in an orderly order, the excitement of passions is depicted very vividly. The tragedy is imbued with a deep religious feeling, and the choir’s songs especially breathe it. Euripides, hitherto a very free-thinking man, in his old age seems to have come to the conviction that religious traditions must be respected, that it is better to maintain piety among the people and not deprive them of respect for ancient beliefs by ridicule, that skepticism deprives the masses of the happiness that they find in religious feeling.

Euripides – “Cyclops” (summary)

In addition to these 18 tragedies, the satirical drama of Euripides “Cyclops” has reached us, the only surviving work of this branch of dramatic poetry. The content of “Cyclops” is an episode borrowed from the Odyssey about the blinding of Polyphemus. The tone of this play by Euripides is cheerful and humorous. Its chorus consists of satyrs with their leader, Silenus. During the course of the play, the Cyclops Polyphemus launches into confused but bloodthirsty reasoning, praising extreme immorality and selfishness in the spirit of the theories of the sophists. The satyrs subordinate to Polyphemus are eager to get rid of him, but out of cowardice they are afraid to help Odysseus, who is in danger of being killed by the Cyclops. At the end of this play by Euripides, Odysseus defeats the Cyclops without anyone else's assistance. Then Silenus and the satyrs, in a comic tone, attribute Odysseus’s merit to themselves and loudly glorify their “courage.”

Euripides' political views

Evaluation of Euripides' work by descendants

Euripides was the last great Greek tragedian, although he was inferior to Aeschylus and Sophocles. The generation that followed him was very pleased with the properties of his poetry and loved him more than his predecessors. The tragedians who followed him jealously studied his works, which is why they can be considered the “school” of Euripides. The poets of modern comedy also studied and highly respected Euripides. Philemon, the oldest representative of the new comedy, who lived around 330 BC, loved Euripides so much that in one of his comedies he said: “If the dead really live beyond the grave, as some people claim, then I would hang myself if only just to see Euripides." Until the last centuries of antiquity, the works of Euripides, thanks to the ease of form and abundance of practical maxims, were constantly read by educated people, as a result of which so many of his tragedies have come down to us.

Euripides. World of passions

Translations of Euripides into Russian

Euripides was translated into Russian by: Merzlyakov, Shestakov, P. Basistov, N. Kotelov, V. I. Vodovozov, V. Alekseev, D. S. Merezhkovsky.

Theater of Euripides. Per. I. F. Annensky. (Series “Monuments of World Literature”). M.: Sabashnikovs.

Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. Per. S. V. Shervinsky. M.: Khud. lit. 1969.

Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. Per. S. Apta. (Series “Ancient Drama”). M.: Art. 1980.

Euripides. Tragedies. Per. Inn. Annensky. (Series “Literary Monuments”). In 2 vols. M.: Ladomir-Science. 1999

Articles and books about Euripides

Orbinsky R.V. Euripides and his significance in the history of Greek tragedy. St. Petersburg, 1853

Belyaev D.F. On the question of Euripides’ worldview. Kazan, 1878

Belyaev D. F. Euripides’ views on classes and states, internal and foreign policy of Athens

Decharme. Euripides and the spirit of his theater. Paris, 1893

Kotelov N.P. Euripides and the significance of his “drama” in the history of literature. St. Petersburg, 1894

Gavrilov A.K. Theater of Euripides and the Athenian Enlightenment. St. Petersburg, 1995.

Gavrilov A.K. Signs and action - mantika in “Iphigenia Tauride” by Euripides

After some dates before the Nativity of Christ, our article also indicates dating according to the ancient Greek Olympics. For example: Ol. 75, 1 – means the first year of the 75th Olympiad

XII. EURIPIDES

1. Biography.

Euripides (c. 480-406 BC), one of the greatest playwrights, was a younger contemporary of Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was born on the island of Salamis. Biographical information about Euripides is scarce and contradictory. Aristophanes, in his comedy “Women at the Festival of Thesmosphoria,” says that Euripides’ mother was a greengrocer, but the later biographer Philochorus denies this. There is no doubt that Euripides’ family had the means and therefore the great tragedian was able to receive a good education: he studied with the philosopher Anaxagoras and the sophist Protagoras, the Roman writer Aulus Gellius speaks about this (“Attic Nights”). In 408, Euripides, at the invitation of King Archelaus, moved to Macedonia, where he died.

2. Creative path

Euripides began during the heyday of the Athenian polis, but most of his activity took place already in the years of decline of this slave-owning republic. He witnessed the long and grueling Peloponnesian War for Athens, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC. This war was equally aggressive both on the part of Athens and on the part of Sparta, but it is still necessary to note the difference in the political positions of these two policies: Athens, as a democratic slave-owning state, introduced the principles of slave-owning democracy into the areas conquered during the war, and Sparta everywhere imposed an oligarchy. Euripides, in contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles, did not hold any public office. He served his homeland with his creativity. He wrote more than 90 tragedies, of which 17 have come down to us (the 18th tragedy “Rhea” is attributed to Euripides). In addition, one satyr drama by Euripides, “Cyclops,” has reached us, and many fragments of his tragedies have been preserved.

Most of Euripides' tragedies have to be dated only approximately, since there is no exact data on the time of their production. The chronological sequence of his tragedies is as follows: “Alkes-ta” - 438, “Medea” - 431, “Hippolytus” - 428, “Heraclides” - approx. 427, "Hercules", "Hecuba" and "Andromache" - ca. 423-421, “Petitioners” - probably 416, “Ion”, “Trojan Women” - 415, “Electra”, “Iphigenia in Tauris” - ca. 413, "Helen" - 412, "Phoenician Women" - 410 - 408, "Orestes" - 408, "The Bacchae" and "Iphigenia at Aulis" were staged after the death of Euripides.

3. Criticism of mythology.

Euripides is extremely radical in his views, aligning himself with the Greek natural philosophers and sophists regarding their criticism of traditional mythology. For example, he believes that at first there was a common undivided material mass, then it was divided into ether (sky) and earth, and then plants, animals and people appeared (fragment 484).

His critical attitude towards mythology as the basis of folk Greek religion is known. He recognizes some kind of divine entity that controls the world. It is not without reason that the comedian Aristophanes, a contemporary of Euripides, who considers this tragedian the destroyer of all folk traditions, laughs angrily at him and in the comedy “Frogs” says through the mouth of Dionysus that his gods “have their own special coinage” (885-894).

Euripides almost always depicts the gods from the very negative aspects, as if wanting to instill in the audience distrust of traditional beliefs. Thus, in the tragedy "Hercules" Zeus appears evil, capable of dishonoring someone else's family, the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, is vengeful, bringing suffering to the famous Greek hero Hercules only because he is the bastard son of Zeus. The god Apollo is cruel and treacherous in the tragedy "Orestes". It was he who forced Orestes to kill his mother, and then did not consider it necessary to protect him from the revenge of the Erinyes (this interpretation differs sharply from the interpretation of Aeschylus in his Oresteia trilogy). As heartless and envious as Hera, the goddess Aphrodite in the tragedy "Hippolytus". She envies Artemis, whom the beautiful Hippolytus reveres. Out of hatred for the young man, Aphrodite kindles in the heart of his stepmother, Queen Phaedra, a criminal passion for her stepson, thanks to which both Phaedra and Hippolytus perish.

Critically depicting the gods of folk religion, Euripides expresses the idea whether such images are not the fruit of the imagination of poets. So, through the mouth of Hercules he says:

Moreover, I did not believe and do not believe that God would eat the forbidden fruit, that God would have bonds in his arms, and that God alone would command the other. No, the deity is self-sufficient: All this is the nonsense of daring singers 3 . ("Hercules", 1342-1346.)

4. Anti-war tendencies and democracy.

Euripides was a patriot of his native city and tirelessly emphasized the superiority of democratic Athens over oligarchic Sparta. More than once Euripides portrayed his people as defenders of weak, small states. Thus, using myth, he pursues this idea in the tragedy "Heraclides". For the children of Hercules - the Heraclides, who were expelled from their hometown by the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, none of the states, fearing the military power of Mycenae, gave shelter or stood up for them. Only Athens protects the offended, and the Athenian ruler Demophon, expressing the will of his people, says to the envoy of the Mycenaean king, who was trying to drag the children away from the Athenian altars:

But if anything worries Me, then this is the highest argument: honor. After all, if I allow some foreigner to tear those praying from the altar by force, then goodbye, Athenian freedom! Everyone will say that out of fear of Argos, I insulted the prayer with Treason. Worse than a noose is Consciousness (242-250).

The Athenians defeated the troops of Eurystheus and returned their hometown to the Heraclides. At the end of the tragedy, the choir sings the glory of Athens. The main idea of ​​the tragedy is expressed by the luminary of the chorus, saying: “This is not the first time the land of Athens has stood up for the truth and the unfortunate” (330).

Euripides' tragedy "The Petitioner" is also patriotic. It depicts the relatives of soldiers who fell under the walls of Thebes during the fratricidal war between Eteocles and Polyneices. The Thebans do not allow the families of the murdered to take the corpses for burial. Then the relatives of the dead soldiers turn to Athens for help. The conversation between the Athenian king Theseus and Adrastus, a messenger from the relatives of the dead soldiers, is a glorification of democratic Athens, the protector of the weak and oppressed. The choir sings:

Help mothers, help, O city of Pallas, May they not trample upon the common laws, You observe justice, alien to injustice, You are the patron of everyone, no matter who is dishonestly offended (378-381).

In the same dialogue, through the mouth of Theseus, wars of conquest launched by rulers because of their selfish interests are condemned. Theseus says to Adrastus:

Those are striving for glory, these are inflating the Game of War and corrupting the citizens, Those are aiming for commanders, those for leadership, Their temperament is to show off, and those are attracted by profit - They do not think about the disasters of the people (233-237).

Euripides reflected the Athenians' hatred of Sparta in the tragedies "Andromache" and "Orestes". In the first of these tragedies, he depicts the cruel Menelaus and his no less cruel wife Helen and daughter Hermione, who treacherously broke their word and did not stop before killing the child Andromache, born by her from the son of Achilles Neoptolemus, to whom she was given as a concubine after the fall of Troy . Andromache sends curses on the heads of the Spartans. Peleus, the father of Achilles, also curses the arrogant and cruel Spartans. The anti-Spartan tendencies of the Andromache tragedy met with a lively response in the souls of the Athenian citizens; everyone knew the cruelty of the Spartans towards prisoners and enslaved helots. Euripides carries out the same ideas in the tragedy "Orestes", portraying the Spartans as cruel, treacherous people. Thus, Clytemnestra’s father Tyndar demands the execution of Orestes for killing his mother, although Orestes says that he committed this crime on the orders of the god Apollo. Menelaus is pathetic and cowardly. Orestes reminds him of his father Agamemnon, who, as a brother, came to the aid of Menelaus, went with his troops to Troy to save Helen and, at the cost of great sacrifices, saved her and returned Menelaus’ lost happiness. Recalling his father, Orestes asks Menelaus to help him now, the son of Agamemnon, but Menelaus replies that he does not have the strength to fight the Argives and can only act by cunning. Then Orestes bitterly remarks:

Nothing like a king, but a worthless coward at heart, leaving your friends in trouble, you run away! (717-718)

Closely related to the tragedies of Euripides with anti-Spartan tendencies are tragedies in which the author expresses his anti-war views and condemns wars of conquest. These are the tragedy "Hecuba", staged around 423, and the tragedy "The Trojan Woman", staged in 415.

The tragedy "Hecuba" describes the suffering of Priam's family, which, together with other prisoners, after the capture of Troy, the Achaeans lead to Greece. Hecuba's daughter Polyxena is sacrificed in honor of the murdered Achilles, and her only surviving son Polydorus is killed by the Thracian king Polymestor, to whom the child was sent to protect him from the horrors of war. Hecuba humbly asks Odysseus to help her save her daughter, but he is implacable. Euripides depicts Polyxena as a proud girl who does not want to humiliate herself before the victorious Greeks and goes to her death:

What does the Temper of my future masters promise me? Some savage, having bought me, will force me to grind wheat, a house of vengeance... ...And the torturous day will end, and the purchased slave will desecrate my bed... (358-365).

I have nothing and no need to fight (371).

...Life will become a burden to us when there is no beauty in it (378).

As a great expert on the human soul, Euripides depicts the last minutes of the life of Polyxena, proudly going to her death; but it’s hard to die in the prime of life, and she, clinging to her mother, sends greetings to both her sister Cassandra, who became Agamemnon’s concubine, and her little brother Polydor. Polyxena dies a heroine. Her last words were:

You, sons of Argos, have destroyed my city! I die by my own will. Let no one hold Me... ...But let me die Free, I conjure by the gods. Just like I was free. It is shameful for the princess to go down as a slave to the shadows (545-552).

The tragedy “Hecuba” is pessimistic in its mood, the author seems to want to say that human life is hard, injustice, violence, the power of gold reign everywhere - this is the law of life and these are the last words of the tragedy: “necessity is inexorable.”

The tragedy of "The Trojan Women" is close to this tragedy in its anti-war tendencies and even in its plot. It also describes the suffering of captive Trojan women, among whom are women from the family of King Priam.

This tragedy, like the tragedy "Hecuba", depicts the war of the Greeks with the Trojans, contrary to the usual mythological interpretation, glorifying the exploits of the Achaeans. "The Trojan Women" depicts the insane suffering of women and children after the fall of Troy.

A messenger from the victorious Greeks informs Priam's family that the king's wife Hecuba will be the slave of Odysseus, her eldest daughter Cassandra will become Agamemnon's concubine, the younger Polyxena will be sacrificed at the grave of Achilles, Hector's wife Andromache will be given as a concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus.

Andromache is taken away from her baby son Hector, although she begs to leave him to her, since the child is not guilty of anything before the Greeks. The winners kill the child by throwing him from the wall, and the corpse is brought to his grandmother, Hecuba, distraught with suffering.

In many tragedies where the idea of ​​patriotism is carried out, Euripides depicts heroes sacrificing their lives for the sake of their homeland. Thus, in the tragedy “Heraclides,” the daughter of Hercules, young Macaria, sacrifices herself, saving her hometown and her brothers and sisters.

In the tragedy “The Phoenician Women” (staged between 410-408), Creon’s son, the young man Menoeceus, sacrifices his life for the victory of his homeland over its enemies. The father persuades his son not to undertake such a feat, but to go somewhere far away, beyond the borders of his homeland. Menekey pretends to agree with his father’s will, but in his soul he has already firmly decided to give his life to save his homeland.

Euripides had a hard time experiencing the entire course of the Peloponnesian War, the deprivations and military defeats of his fellow citizens. He saw that the principles of the democratic polis system were collapsing, that privileged social groups, the rich, moneymen, owners of land and enterprises were coming to the helm of the state. That is why the playwright, in his tragedies, so passionately defends the principles of Athenian democracy and denounces tyranny. He considered the basis of Athenian democracy to be middle social groups, that is, small free workers, peasants and artisans. In the tragedy “The Petitioner,” its main character Theseus, an exponent of the views of Euripides himself, says:

There are three kinds of citizens: some are rich and useless, everything is never enough for them, others are poor, in perpetual want. They are formidable, they are consumed by envy, and in their anger they accurately sting the rich. They are confused by the bad tongues of the Troublemakers. The third kind is the middle one, the support of the state and the protection of the Law in it... (238-246).

Aristotle also held the same views (Politics, VI, 9).

Euripides portrayed free small workers with deep sympathy, especially the workers of the land. The old honest farmer in the tragedy "Electra", to whom Queen Clytemnestra marries her daughter in order to remove her from the palace, because she is afraid of her daughter's revenge for her murdered father, understood the plan of the insidious Clytemnestra, considers her marriage fictitious, protects the honor of Electra and treats her like a daughter. The peasant is kind and hardworking, he says: “Yes, he who is lazy, let the words of prayer never leave his lips, but let him not collect bread” (81).

The same image of an honest farmer, the guardian of the democratic principles of Athens, is given in the tragedy "Orestes". He alone spoke out in defense of Orestes at a public meeting, demanding leniency towards this young man, since the murder of Clytemnestra was committed by him on the orders of the god Apollo. This is how Euripides characterizes this citizen dear to his heart:

Here comes the speaker - not a handsome man, But a strong man; It is not often that he leaves a footprint on the Argive square, He plows his land - on such people Now the country rests. He is not poor in mind, since sometimes there is a chance to measure himself in a verbal competition. And in life he is an impeccable husband (917-924).

5. Social and everyday dramas.

Euripides' tragedies should be divided into two groups: on the one hand, tragedies in the full sense of the word, and on the other, social and everyday dramas, which depict not heroes who are outstanding in their thoughts and deeds, but ordinary people. These dramas will introduce a comic element, which classical ancient tragedy did not allow at all, and a happy ending, which also contradicts the canon of the tragic genre. These include, for example, plays such as “Alceste”, “Elena”, “Ion”.

a) "Alceste".

"Alceste" was staged in 438; of the works of Euripides that have come down to us, this is the earliest. The hero of the drama is the Thessalian king Admet, to whom the gods promised that his life could be extended if someone voluntarily agreed to die for him. When Admetus became seriously ill and was threatened with death, none of his loved ones, even his elderly parents, wanted to die in his place, and only his young wife, the beautiful Alceste, agreed to such a sacrifice.

Euripides with great skill depicts the last minutes of Alceste’s life, her farewell to her husband, children, and slaves. Alceste loves life, and it is hard for her to die, but even in her dying delirium she thinks about the fate of her husband and children.

Alcesta's husband, King Admetus, is an ordinary man, not a hero: a good family man, loves his wife and children, is hospitable to friends, a hospitable host, but is selfish and loves himself most of all. Admet curses himself for accepting his wife’s sacrifice, but is not capable of self-sacrifice, of feat.

There is a scene in the play that really convinces that there is only one step from the tragic to the comic - when Admet's father Feret brings a blanket and wants to cover the corpse of the deceased with it. Admet is outraged by the behavior of his father, who did not sacrifice his fading life to save his only son, but reproaches the father for selfishness, and the father, in turn, scolds his son for hoping for self-sacrifice on the part of his parents. The old man accuses his son of living, in essence, at the expense of his wife, who sacrificed her young life. This squabble between two egoists is both comical and bitter. Euripides conveys it very vividly with the help of short, ordinary, catchy phrases:

Admet (pointing to the corpse of Alceste) You see your guilt there, old man. Feret Or are they burying her for me, you say? Admet You will need me too, I hope. Feret Change your wives more often, you will be healthier. Admetus Shame on you. Why did you spare yourself? Feret Oh, this torch of God is so beautiful. Admetus And this is the husband? A shame among husbands... Feret I would become a laughing stock to you if I died. Admetus You too will die, but you will die ingloriously. Feret Infamy does not reach the dead. Admetus Such an old man... And even a shadow of shame... (717 - 727).

Admet and Feret are ordinary people as they are. It is not without reason that Aristotle noted that Sophocles depicts people as they should be, and Euripides - as they are (Poetics, 25).

The playwright portrays Hercules not in the aura of heroic deeds, but as an ordinary good person who knows how to enjoy life and is capable of a deep sense of friendship. Euripides tells how Hercules, on the way to Thrace, visits Admetus and he, not wanting to upset his friend, does not tell him about the death of his wife, but arranges a treat in one of the remote rooms of the palace. Hercules gets drunk, sings songs loudly, and this behavior outrages the slave who served him, who grieves for Alcestes. Hercules is perplexed and pronounces a whole speech in which he tells his everyday life that one should live, they say, for fun, for love, for pleasure. But when Hercules learns from a slave that Alceste has died, he descends to Hades for the sake of his friend, recaptures Alceste from the demon of death and returns her to Admetus, distraught with joy.

b) "Elena".

Euripides' play "Helen", staged in 412, should also be included in this genre of social and everyday dramas. It uses a little-known myth that Paris did not take Helen with him to Troy, but only her ghost, and the real Helen, by the will of Hera, was transferred to Egypt to King Proteus. The son of this king, Theoclymenus, wants to marry Helen, but she persists, wanting to remain faithful to her husband. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus goes home by ship; a storm wrecked his ship, but Menelaus, with several comrades and the ghost of Helen, escaped and was thrown onto the shore of Egypt. Here he accidentally meets the real Elena at the gate, who comes up with a cunning escape plan. She tells Theoclymenes that she will become his wife, but only asks for one favor - to allow her, according to Greek custom, to perform a funeral rite at sea in honor of the deceased Menelaus. The king gives her a boat and rowers, and then Elena in a mourning dress gets into the boat, and the rowers enter, including Menelaus and his comrades, all dressed in Egyptian clothes. When the boat was already far from the shore, Menelaus and his friends killed the Egyptian oarsmen, threw their corpses overboard and with raised sails headed to the shores of Hellas.

Again, before us is not a classical Greek tragedy, but an everyday drama with a happy ending, with twists and turns of an adventure nature, with the idea of ​​glorifying faithful marital love. The Helen of this drama is not at all like the Helen depicted in the tragedies "Andromache", "The Trojan Woman" and "Orestes", where she appears to us as a narcissistic beauty, cheating on her husband and throwing herself into the arms of Paris. This image is also far from the Homeric image of the beautiful Helen, forcibly taken by Paris to Troy, languishing away from her homeland, but not taking any steps to return to her family.

c) "Ion".

In terms of social and everyday drama, Euripides also created the play “Ion”. It depicts the son of Apollo, Ion, born of Creusa, a victim of this god. To hide his shame, Creusa throws the child into the temple. Subsequently, she marries the Athenian king Xuthus and by chance, thanks to the preserved diapers in which the child was once thrown, finds her son, who has already become a young man. The plot of an abandoned child would later, in the Hellenistic era, become the most popular among Greek comedians, who generally believed that they “came out of the dramas of Euripides,” since in terms of ideological content, in the depiction of characters, in composition, Hellenistic comedies are undoubtedly very close to the social - everyday dramas of Euripides. In the dramas of Euripides, one of the most important guiding forces is no longer fate, but the chance that befalls a person. As is known, the role of chance will be especially significant in Hellenistic literature.

6. Psychological tragedy.

Among the works of Euripides, the famous tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the playwright’s great interest in the human personality with all its contradictions and passions, stand out.

a) "Medea"

One of Euripides' most remarkable tragedies, Medea, was staged on the Athenian stage in 431. The sorceress Medea is the daughter of the Colchis king, the granddaughter of the Sun, who fell in love with Jason, one of the Argonauts who came to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. For the sake of her loved one, she left her family, her homeland, helped him take possession of the Golden Fleece, committed a crime, and came with him to Greece. To her horror, Medea learns that Jason wants to leave her and marry the princess, heir to the Corinthian throne. This is especially difficult for her because she is a “barbarian” and lives in a foreign land, where there are no relatives or friends. Medea is outraged by the clever sophistic arguments of her husband, who is trying to convince her that he is marrying the princess for the sake of their little sons, who will be princes, heirs of the kingdom. A woman offended in her feelings understands that driving force The husband's actions are the desire for wealth and power. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, who mercilessly ruined her life, and destroys her rival, sending her a poisoned outfit with her children. She decides to kill the children, for the sake of whose future happiness, according to Jason, he enters into a new marriage.

Medea, contrary to the norms of polis ethics, commits a crime, believing that a person can act as his personal aspirations and passions dictate to him. This is a kind of refraction in everyday practice of the sophistic theory that “man is the measure of all things,” a theory undoubtedly condemned by Euripides. As a profound psychologist, Euripides could not help but show the storm of torment in the soul of Medea, who planned to kill the children. Two feelings are fighting in her: jealousy and love for children, passion and a sense of duty to children. Jealousy prompts her to decide - to kill the children and thereby take revenge on her husband; love for the children forces her to abandon the terrible decision and make a different plan - to flee Corinth with the children. This painful struggle between duty and passion, depicted with great skill by Euripides, is the climax of the entire chorus of the tragedy. Medea caresses the children. She decided to let them live and go into exile:

Stranger to you, I will drag out my days. And never again, having replaced life with another, will you see me, who carried you... With these eyes. Alas! Alas! Why do you look at me and laugh with your last laugh?.. (1036-1041).

But the involuntarily escaped words “with the last laugh” express another, terrible decision, which has already matured in the recesses of her soul - to kill the children. However, Medea, touched by their appearance, tries to convince herself to abandon the terrible intention dictated by insane jealousy, but jealousy and offended pride take precedence over maternal feelings. And a minute later we see the mother again, convincing herself to abandon her plan. And then a disastrous thought about the need to take revenge on her husband, again a storm of jealousy and the final decision to kill the children...

So I swear by Hades and all the power underneath, That the enemies of my children, Abandoned by Medea for mockery, will not be seen... (1059-1963).

The unfortunate mother caresses her children for the last time, but understands that murder is inevitable:

Oh sweet embrace, Your cheek is so tender, and your mouth A joyful breath... Go away... Hurry up, go away... There is no strength to look at you... I am crushed by torment... What I dare to do, I see... Only anger Stronger than me , and for the mortal race there is no fiercer and more zealous executioner (1074-1080).

Euripides reveals the soul of a man tormented by the internal struggle between duty and passion. Showing this tragic conflict without embellishing reality, the playwright comes to the conclusion that passion often takes precedence over duty, destroying the human personality.

b) In terms of the idea, dynamics and character of the main character, the tragedy "Hippolytus", staged in 428, is close to the tragedy "Medea". The young Athenian queen, Theseus's wife Phaedra, passionately fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. She understands that her duty is to be a faithful wife and an honest mother, but she cannot tear the criminal passion out of her heart. The nurse asks Phaedra for her secret and tells Hippolytus about Phaedra’s love for him. The young man, in anger, brands his stepmother and sends curses on the heads of all women, considering them the cause of evil and depravity in the world.

Offended by Hippolytus' undeserved accusations, Phaedra commits suicide, but in order to save her name from shame and protect her children from it as well, she leaves her husband a letter in which she accuses Hippolytus of violating her honor. Theseus, having read the letter, curses his son, and he soon dies: the god Poseidon, fulfilling the will of Theseus, sends a monstrous bull, in horror from which the young man’s horses rushed, and he crashed against the rocks. The goddess Artemis reveals to Theseus the secret of his wife. In this tragedy, as in the tragedy "Medea", Euripides masterfully reveals the psychology of the tormented soul of Phaedra, who despises herself for her criminal passion for her stepson, but at the same time only thinks about her beloved, tirelessly dreams of meeting and intimacy with him.

Both tragedies are similar in composition: the prologue explains the reason for the current situation, then the heroines are shown in the grip of a painful conflict between duty and passion; the entire tragedy is built on this high tension, realistically revealing the secrets of the souls of the heroines. But the outcome of the tragedies is mythological: Medea will be saved by her grandfather, the god Helios, and she flies away with the corpses of the murdered children in his chariot. The goddess Artemis appears to Theseus and reports that his son is innocent of anything, that he has been slandered by Phaedra. Such endings, where the knot of conflict is resolved with the help of the gods, sometimes contradicting the entire logical course of the tragedies, are usually called in the practice of ancient theater yeis ex tasin, characteristic of Euripides, a master of complex, confusing situations.

7. Special interpretation of the myth.

Euripides in his tragedies often changes old myths, leaving from them essentially only the names of the heroes. The great tragedian, using mythological plots, expresses in them the thoughts and feelings of his contemporaries, and poses pressing questions of his time. He, so to speak, modernizes the myth. And this is the big difference between Euripides and Aeschylus and Sophocles. The difference in the artistic system of the playwrights is especially noticeable when comparing the tragedy of Euripides "Electra" with the tragedy of the same name by Sophocles and with the tragedy of Aeschylus "Choephora", which is the second part of his trilogy "Oresteia". The plot in them is the same - the murder of Clytemnestra by her children Orestes and Electra as revenge for their murdered father.

In Aeschylus, both heroes, Orestes and Electra, are still completely at the mercy of religious principles; they carry out Apollo’s order to kill their mother because she killed their father, her husband, the head of the family and state, thereby violating the priority of the paternal principle.

Aeschylus still has great respect for myth; for him, the gods largely decide the fate of people. In Sophocles, Electra and Orestes are also champions of the laws given by the gods, while in Euripides they are simply unfortunate children abandoned by their mother for the sake of her lover Aegisthus. Wanting to strengthen his position, Clytemnestra deliberately marries Electra to an old, poor farmer, so as not to have contenders for the throne from her daughter. Orestes and Electra kill their mother because she deprived them of the joy of life and deprived them of their father.

The entire interpretation of the murder of their mother by Orestes and Electra in Euripides is revealed more vitally, psychologically more deeply.

In the tragedy “Electra,” Euripides condemns the methods by which Aeschylus and Sophocles recognize Electra as her brother: by a lock of Orestes’ hair, which he cut off and laid on his father’s grave, by the footprints of his feet near this grave. In Euripides, when Uncle Orestes invites Electra to match a lock of hair found on a grave to her own, she, expressing the author’s own arguments, laughs at him.

And this strand? But could the color of the hair of the Tsarevich, who grew up in the palaestra, And the delicate color of the maiden’s braids, cherished with a comb, preserve the resemblance? (526-530)

When the old man invites Electra to compare the footprint on the ground near the grave with the footprint of her foot, the girl again says with mockery:

Is there a mark on the stone? What are you saying, old man? Yes, even if his trace remained, can a brother and sister really have legs similar in size? (534-537)

The old man asks Electra that maybe she recognizes her brother by the clothes of her work, in which Orestes was once sent to a foreign land. Euripides laughs at this too, putting the following sarcastic objections into the mouth of Electra:

Are you delirious? But then, old man, I was a child: will my brother really put on this chlamys now? Or maybe our clothes grow with us? (541-544)

Quite differently from Aeschylus, Euripides depicts the scene of Orestes’ murder of his mother. Without hesitation, even with gloating, he kills her lover Aegisthus, as the culprit of all the suffering of his family, but it is scary and painful for him to kill his mother. Aeschylus shows only the moment of Orestes' hesitation before killing his mother. Euripides depicts the terrible torment of a son who cannot raise a hand against his mother, and when Electra reproaches him for cowardice, he, covering his face with a cloak so as not to see his mother, strikes her with a sword...

After the murder, Orestes is tormented by pangs of conscience. In the tragedy "Orestes", which was staged in 408 and which reveals the same plot as the tragedy "Electra", only expanding it somewhat, the sick Orestes, when asked: "What illness is tormenting?" - He answers directly: “His name is and the villains have a conscience.”

In Aeschylus’s “Orestes” trilogy, the Erinyes, terrible goddesses, defenders of maternal rights, pursue Orestes, while in Euripides, in the “Orestes” tragedy, this is a sick young man suffering from seizures, and after the murder, during delirium, it only seems to him that Erinyes are all around wanting his death. And in Medea, contrary to myth, Euripides forces a mother to kill her children. For Euripides, what is important here is not the mythology of the tragedy, but the closeness of the characters and life situations.

8. “Iphigenia in Aulis” is an example of a pathetic tragedy.

Euripides' posthumous tragedies were the tragedies "The Bacchae" with its complex religious and psychological issues and "Iphigenia at Aulis". Both of them were staged at the festival of the city Dionysius in 406. For the tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis” the author was awarded the first prize. "Iphigenia in Aulis" is one of Euripides' perfect tragedies. It depicts the Achaean army ready to sail on ships from Aulis to Troy. The goddess Artemis, insulted by Agamemnon, does not send a fair wind. In order for the wind to blow and the Greeks to reach Troy, and therefore conquer it, it is necessary to sacrifice Agamemnon’s eldest daughter Iphigenia to Artemis. Her father summons her together with her mother under the pretext of the girl’s wedding with Achilles, but the goddess Artemis herself saves Iphigenia and, unseen by everyone around her, during the sacrifice she takes her to her temple, in distant Tauris.

If in the tragedies of Euripides “Hecuba”, “Andromache”, “Trojan Woman”, “Electra” and “Orestes” the Greek campaign in Troy is depicted as a war of conquest, the purpose of which is to defeat Troy and take Helen, the wife of Menelaus, then in the tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis" the war of the Greeks with the Trojans is covered from Homeric positions, that is, as a war for the honor of Hellas. This interpretation, which raised the patriotic spirit of the Greeks, was especially relevant in the last years of the 5th century. BC. for Hellas and the policies exhausted by the Peloponnesian War. People sacrificing themselves for the sake of their homeland were depicted more than once in the tragedies of Euripides: Macarius in the tragedy “Heraclides”, Menoeceus in the tragedy “Phoenicians”, Praxitea in the tragedy “Erechtheus” (only a fragment survived) - but there these images were not the main ones.

Iphigenia, the central character of this tragedy, sacrifices her life for the sake of her homeland. She is shown surrounded by people who are experiencing a painful conflict between duty and personal happiness. So, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter for the sake of the victory of Greece, but he does not dare to do this. Then, after painful torment, he nevertheless sends a letter to his wife asking her to bring Iphigenia to Aulis, since Achilles allegedly wooed the girl. Soon Agamemnon comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to sacrifice his daughter and writes a second letter to his wife that there is no need to come with Iphigenia, since the wedding is postponed. This letter was intercepted by Menelaus, he reproaches Agamemnon for selfishness and lack of love for his homeland. Meanwhile, Clytemnestra, having received her husband’s first letter, comes with Iphigenia to Aulis. Agamemnon suffers greatly when meeting his daughter, but a sense of duty wins. He knows that the entire army understands the inevitability of this sacrifice. Agamemnon convinces Iphigenia that her homeland needs her life, that she must die for her honor. In contrast to Agamemnon, Clytemnestra cares only about the happiness of her family and does not want to sacrifice her daughter for the common good.

Achilles is indignant to learn that Agamemnon deliberately lied in a letter to his wife about his matchmaking with their daughter, but he is touched by the girl’s beauty, her defenselessness, and he offers her his help. However, Iphigenia has already decided on the sacrifice and refuses his offer. Achilles is amazed by the nobility of the girl’s soul, her heroism, and love for Iphigenia arises in his heart. After some time, he already persuades her to abandon self-sacrifice, since he places personal happiness above duty to the homeland. Thus, the people surrounding Iphigenia are depicted by Euripides as immersed in the experience of a conflict between duty and personal happiness. Iphigenia herself plays the main role in resolving this conflict. Her image is revealed by the author with high pathos and love, and Euripides’ achievement is that it is not static, like most images of ancient tragedies, but is given in its own internal development. At the beginning of the tragedy, we see just a sweet, nice girl, happy with the consciousness of her youth, full of joy from her upcoming marriage with the glorious hero of Hellas, Achilles. She is glad to meet her beloved father, but feels that her father is worried about something. She will soon learn that she was brought to Aulis not for marriage with Achilles, but for a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis and that her homeland needs this sacrifice. But the girl does not want to bring life to the altar of her homeland, she wants to live, just live and begs her father not to destroy her: “After all, looking at the light is so sweet, but going down into the underworld is so scary - have mercy” (1218 et seq.). Iphigenia recalls to her father the days of her childhood, when she, caressing her, promised to give him peace in his old age:

I keep everything in my memory, all the words; And you forgot, you are glad to kill me (1230 et seq.).

Iphigenia forces her little brother Orestes to kneel and beg his father to spare her, Iphigenia. Then she exclaims in despair:

What else can I think of to say? For a mortal it is joyful to see the sun, But underground it is so terrible... If someone does not want to live, he is sick: the burden of life, All torment is better than the glory of a dead man (1249-1253).

Further, Euripides shows the indignation of the army, which is eager to go to Troy, and demands that Iphigenia be sacrificed, otherwise there will be no fair wind, otherwise it will not be possible to reach the enemy and defeat him. And so, seeing warriors eager to defend the honor of their homeland, ready to give their lives for it, Iphigenia gradually realizes that it is shameful for her to put her happiness above the common good of the warriors, that she must give her life to defeat the enemy. Even when Achilles tells her of his love and invites her to secretly escape with him, she firmly declares her readiness to die for the honor of the fatherland. So Iphigenia turns from a naive, frightened girl into a heroine who realizes her sacrifice.

9. General conclusion.

In his tragedies, Euripides posed and resolved a number of pressing issues of his time - the question of duty and personal happiness, the role of the state and its laws. He protested against wars of aggression, criticized religious traditions, and promoted ideas of humane treatment of people. His tragedies depict people of great feelings, sometimes committing crimes, and Euripides, as a deep psychologist, reveals the fractures of the soul of such people, their painful suffering. No wonder Aristotle considered him the most tragic poet (Poetics, 13).

Euripides is a great master of constructing the twists and turns of tragedies; for him they are always causally motivated and vitally justified.

The language of tragedies is simple and expressive. The choir no longer plays a big role in his tragedies; it sings beautiful lyrical songs, but does not participate in resolving the conflict.

Euripides was not fully understood by his contemporaries, since his rather bold views on nature, society, and religion seemed too outside the usual framework of the ideology of the majority.

But this tragedian was highly appreciated in the Hellenistic era, when his social and everyday dramas began to enjoy particular popularity, which undoubtedly had a great influence on the dramaturgy of Menander and other Hellenistic writers.

Euripides' brief biography of the ancient Greek philosopher-tragicist and playwright is presented in this article.

Euripides short biography

Euripides' homeland was Salamis. Here he was born around 480 year BC. Historians believe that his parents were rich, but not noble people by birth, but he received an excellent education.

In his childhood, Euripides dreamed of becoming a participant in the Olympic Games (he was a capable gymnast), but his too young age prevented him from taking part in them. Deciding to take a different path, he began to study literature, oratory, and philosophy. His works of innovation by Euripides eloquently testify to the fact that he succeeded in this matter. Euripides' worldview was largely shaped by the teachings of Anaxagoras, Protagoras, and Prodicus. He collected rare books for his personal library, and one day that significant moment came when Euripides decided to write himself.

Euripides began to look for himself in creativity when he turned 18 years old. The first dramatic competition in which he took part with his play Peliad dates back to 455 BC. And only in 440 BC he was first awarded the highest award.

Euripides stayed away from the political and social life of the city and country, but was not completely indifferent to it. He was married twice and twice unsuccessfully. This made the playwright a malicious misogynist in the eyes of the public.

How many plays did Euripides write?

It is reliably known that Euripides composed from 75 to 92 plays, and 17 dramatic works have survived to this day. The most famous are “Medea”, “Electra”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”. Euripides' innovation in writing works was expressed in the fact that more attention was paid to the private lives of people, the everyday side, and the mental suffering of people. Euripides, whose works were highly valued in society, received four awards for productions in Athens. But this seemed not enough to the playwright and, offended, he left the city of Pericles.

Ancient Greek literature

Euripides

Biography

The great playwright was born on Salamis, on the day of the famous victory of the Greeks over the Persians in a naval battle, September 23, 480 BC. e., from Mnesarchus and Cleito. The parents ended up on Salamis among other Athenians who fled from the army of the Persian king Xerxes. The exact connection of Euripides' birthday with the victory is an embellishment that is often found in the stories of the greats by ancient authors. Thus, the Court reports that Euripides’ mother conceived him at the time when Xerxes invaded Europe (May, 480 BC), from which it follows that he could not have been born in September. An inscription on the Parian marble identifies the year of the playwright's birth as 486 BC. e., and in this chronicle of Greek life the name of the playwright is mentioned 3 times - more often than the name of any king. According to other evidence, the date of birth can be attributed to 481 BC. e.

Euripides's father was a respected and apparently rich man, Cleito's mother was engaged in selling vegetables. As a child, Euripides was seriously involved in gymnastics, even won competitions among boys and wanted to get to the Olympic Games, but was rejected due to his youth. Then he took up drawing, without much success, however. Then he began to take lessons in oratory and literature from Prodicus and Anaxagoras and lessons in philosophy from Socrates. Euripides collected books for the library, and soon began to write himself. The first play, Peliad, appeared on stage in 455 BC. e., but then the author did not win due to a quarrel with the judges. Euripides won the first prize for skill in 441 BC. e. and from then on until his death he created his creations. The playwright's social activity was manifested in the fact that he participated in the embassy in Syracuse in Sicily, apparently supporting the goals of the embassy with the authority of a writer recognized throughout Hellas.

Euripides' family life was unsuccessful. From his first wife, Chloirina, he had 3 sons, but divorced her because of her adultery, writing the play “Hippolytus”, where he ridiculed sexual relations. The second wife, Melitta, turned out to be no better than the first. Euripides gained fame as a misogynist, which gave the master of comedy Aristophanes a reason to joke about him.

In 408 BC e. the great playwright decided to leave Athens, accepting the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus. It is not known exactly what influenced Euripides' decision. Historians are inclined to think that the main reason was, if not bullying, then the resentment of a vulnerable creative personality towards his fellow citizens for non-recognition of his merits. The fact is that out of 92 plays, only 4 were awarded prizes at theater competitions during the author’s lifetime, and one play posthumously. The popularity of the playwright among the people is evidenced by Plutarch's story about the terrible defeat of the Athenians in Sicily in 413 BC. e.:

“They were sold into slavery and branded with a horse on their foreheads. Yes, there were those who, in addition to captivity, had to endure this. But even in such extremes, they benefited from self-esteem and self-control. The owners either set them free or highly valued them. And some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside Attica, revered the talent of Euripides. When visitors brought them small excerpts from his works, the Sicilians took pleasure in committing them to memory and repeating them to each other. They say that at that time many of those who returned home warmly greeted Euripides and told him how they received freedom by teaching their master what remained in their memory from his poems, or how, wandering after the battle, they earned food and water for themselves by singing songs from his tragedies."

Archelaus showed honor and demonstrative respect to the famous guest to such an extent that signs of favor were the cause of the death of the king himself. Aristotle, in his work “Politics,” reports about a certain Decamnichus, who was handed over to Euripides for scourging for an insult to him, and this Decamnichus, in revenge, organized a conspiracy, as a result of which Archelaus died. This happened after the death of Euripides himself in 406 BC. e. The death of such a remarkable personality gave rise to legends set forth in the Court:

“Euripides ended his life as a result of the conspiracy of Arrhidaeus from Macedonia and Crateus from Thessaly, poets jealous of the glory of Euripides. They bribed a courtier named Lysimachus in 10 minutes to unleash the royal hounds he was watching on Euripides. Others say that Euripides was torn not by dogs, but by women, when he hurried at night on a date with Craterus, the young lover of Archelaus. Still others claim that he was going to meet Nikodika, Aref’s wife.”

The version about women is a crude joke with a hint of Euripides’ play “The Bacchae,” where maddened women tore the king apart. Plutarch writes about the love of an elderly writer for young men in “Quotes”. The modern version is more down-to-earth - the body of 75-year-old Euripides simply could not withstand the harsh winter in Macedonia.

The Athenians asked permission to bury the playwright in their hometown, but Archelaus wished to leave Euripides' grave in their capital, Pella. Sophocles, having learned about the death of the playwright, forced the actors to play the play with their heads uncovered. Athens erected a statue of Euripides in the theater to honor him after his death. Plutarch conveyed a legend: lightning struck the tomb of Euripides, a great sign that only Lycurgus among the famous people was awarded.

The Athenian playwright Euripides was born in Salamis on September 23, 480 BC. e. His parents, the Athenians Mnesarchus and Cleito, fled to Salamis from Athens, fleeing the army of the Persian king Xerxes.

Euripides's father was a wealthy and respected man, Cleito's mother sold vegetables. In his youth, Euripides practiced gymnastics and drawing, took oratory lessons from Prodicus and Anaxagoras, and studied philosophy from Socrates. Euripides's first play, Peliad, was performed on stage in 455 BC. e.

In 441 BC. the writer won the first prize for his work. Since then he has not stopped writing. He also participated in the embassy to the Sicilian city of Syracuse, thus showing his social activity.

Euripides divorced his first wife, who bore him three sons, because of her infidelity and composed the play Hippolytus, where he ridiculed intimate relationships. His second wife also did not differ in exemplary behavior. Disillusioned with family life, Euripides became a misogynist, which made him the butt of the jokes of the comedy master Aristophanes.

In 408 BC the great playwright left Athens and went to Macedonia at the invitation of King Archelaus, where he died in 406 BC. e. There were many legends about the cause of his death, which claimed that Euripides was the victim of a conspiracy. However, most likely, the elderly playwright simply could not stand the harsh Macedonian winter. Euripides was buried in Pella, the capital of Macedonia, although the Athenians asked permission to return his body to his homeland. In the theater of Athens, a statue of him was erected in memory of the great playwright.