Righter Monthly Review

  Volume 3                      July 2010                       Issue 7 

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A contemporary of Sophocles, Euripides was born around 484 B.C. on Salamis and died in 406 in Macedonia. His first competition was in 455 when he came in third. His initial first prize came in 442, but out of about 92 plays, Euripides won only 4 more first prizes -- the last, posthumously. Despite winning only limited acclaim during his lifetime, Euripides was the most popular of the three great tragedians for generations after his death. Euripides died in 407/406, not in Athens, but in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. Euripides was in Macedonia either in self-imposed exile or at the king's invitation. An improbable variety of explanations for his death shows how controversial Euripides was: "He is said to have been killed by hunting dogs, either accidentally let loose on him or deliberately set on him by enemies or rivals, or torn apart by women."

Bust of Euripides:
Roman marble copy of a

4th-century Greek original

in the

Museo Pio-Clementino, Rome, Italy

Born in Salamis in 480 BC

Died in Macedonia in 406 BC

Occupation: Playwright