Euripides

Euripides (480-406 BC) Euripides was born in 480 BC, supposedly on the day of the Greek victory of Salamis. A prediction was made at his birth, that he would receive the ‘crowns of victory’. His father believing this provided him with the training of the athletics, a very respectable field at that time in Greece. He had wrote in total 90 plays but today only 19 survives. His fathers name was either Mnesarchus or Mnesarchide and his mothers name was Cleito. Later on in his life he married a woman called Melito and had three sons. In 408 BC he was invited by the King Archelaus of Macedon to live in Macedonia, as he  might have been in danger in Athens  for some of his  idea’s. While in Macedonia he wrote the play The Bacchae, which most people argue is his great masterpiece. He had won the competition at the City of Dionysia four times in his life time, he had received at fifth prize however that was after his death. A criticism of Euripides is that his plays often lack focus and suffers from weak structures, however he reshaped Greek tragedy by introducing strong female characters and intelligent serving class. He would also make the audience think about the integrity of the myths at a time…