In the time of Euripides, Greek drama reached the zenith of its glory when the works of the great classic triad - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - followed each other in rapid succession. As partial evidence, presented here are the surviving nineteen plays of Euripides.
Euripides was a voluminous writer, the number of his plays being variously stated at from seventy-five to ninety-two, including several satyric dramas. Of these nineteen have survived, with numerous fragments of others, though many of his best works have been lost and more have suffered from interpolations. It now is widely believed that the play Rhesus, which has long been ascribed to Euripides, was probably the work of some other, lesser-know dramatist.
For the tragedians of later times Euripides was the absolute model and pattern, and equally so for the poets of the new comedy. Diphilus called him the "Golden Euripides," and Philemon went so far as to say, with some extravagance, "If the dead, as some assert, have really consciousness, then would I hang myself to see Euripides." He had warm admirers in Alexander the Great and the Stoic Chrysippus, who quoted him regularly in several of his works. Among the Romans, too, he was held in high esteem, serving as a model for tragedy.
Still today, the works of Euripides are variously regarded and continue to be the source of much critical debate. In centuries to come, this will most likely continue and, in itself, will serve to insure the lasting fame of Euripides.
