Page "Euripides" Paragraph 60

The original production dates of some of Euripides's plays are known from ancient records, such as lists of prize-winners at the Dionysia, and approximations are obtained for the remainder by various means.

Both the playwright and his work were travestied by comic poets such as Aristophanes, the known dates of whose own plays thus serve as a terminus ad quem for those of Euripides, though sometimes the gap can be considerable ( e. g. twenty-seven years separate Telephus, known to have been produced in 438 BC, from its parody in Thesmophoriazusae in 411 BC!

) References in Euripides's plays to contemporary events provide a terminus a quo, though sometimes the references might even precede a datable event ( e. g. lines 1074-89 in Ion describe a procession to Eleusis, which was probably written before the Spartans occupied it during the Peloponnesian War ).

Other indications of dating are obtained by stylometry and this section therefore is an appropriate place to consider some aspects of his style as a Greek poet.