The History of Ancient Greece Podcast: 053

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