In this episode, we discuss the historicity and some of the major themes of Euripides' surviving plays that he produced against the backdrop of the Peloponnesian War, which include The Children of Herakles, Andromache, Hecuba, The Suppliants, Electra, The Madness of Herakles, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion, Helen, The Phoenician Women, Orestes, and Iphigenia at Aulis (excluding The Bacchae)
480 BC - Euripides is born
455 BC - Euripides competes in his first Dionysia (unknown work)
ca. 442-441 BC - Euripides wins his first victory at the Dionysia (unknown work); Sophocles stages trilogy with Antigone and Ajax (his oldest surviving plays)
438 BC - Euripides stages a tetralogy with Alcestis (mixed satyr/drama) as the fourth play
431 BC - Aeschylus' son, Euphorion, wins first prize at the Dionysia (unknown work); Sophocles places second (unknown work); Euripides places third (trilogy with Medea)
430 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with The Children of Herakles
428 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Hippolytus and takes first place; Sophocles' son, Iophon, places second (unknown work); Ion places third (unknown work)
ca. 428-425 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Andromache
424 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Hecuba
423 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with The Suppliants
ca. mid-410s BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Electra
416 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with The Madness of Herakles
415 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with The Trojan Women and takes second place; defeated by Xenokles (unknown work); third place is unknown
ca. 414-412 BC - Euripides stages trilogies with Iphigenia in Tauris and Ion
412 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Helen
412-408 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with The Phoenician Women
408 BC - Euripides stages trilogy with Orestes
ca. 408-406 BC - Euripides migrates to the court of Archelaos, King of Macedon, where he composed a play in his honor, titled Archelaos (lost work)
406 BC - Euripides dies while in Macedon
405 BC - Euripides' son or nephew posthumously wins first prize at the Dionysia by staging trilogy with his last two completed surviving plays, Iphigenia in Aulis and The Bacchae; the third play, Alcmeon in Corinth, survives only in fragments
Text/Euripides' The Children of Herakles
Text/Euripides' Andromache
Text/Euripides' Hecuba
Text/Euripides' The Suppliants
Text/Euripides' Electra
Text/Euripides' The Madness of Herakles
Text/Euripides' The Trojan Women
Text/Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris
Text/Euripides' Ion
Text/Euripides' Helen
Text/Euripides' The Phoenician Women
Text/Euripides' Orestes
Text/Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis