EURIPIDES, eu-riVrel-ei, a celebrated tragic poet, born at Salamis on the day of the defeat of Xerxes' army, 23rd September, 480 R. c.; he studied eloquence under Prodicus, ethics under Socrates, and physics under Anaxa goras ; he applied himself to the drama, and his works became so popular that the unfor tunate companions of Igicias in his expedition against Syracuse obtained their freedom by reciting passages from his compositions ; he often retired to a solitary cave near Salamis, where he finished his best pieces. The hos tility between him and his senior Sophocles gave oppoitunity to Aristophanes to ridicule them both ; the ridicule and envy to which he was continually exposed obliged him to retire at last to the court of King Archelaus of Mace donia, where he was well received. When walking alone, he was attacked by Archelaus's dogs and torn to pieces, 406. Euripides wrote
seventy-five tragedies, of which only nineteen are extant : he is peculiarly happy in delineat ing the passion of love, and, as Aristotle re marks, represented men not as they ought to be, but as they are. He was majestic in per son, and his deportment was always grave and serious ,. he was very slow in composing ; he was such an enemy to women as to merit the epithet purollipur,, ; he was, however, twice married, but divorced from both wives.
EURIPUS, a narrow strait separat ing Eubcea from Bwotia, spanned by a bridge at Chalcis. Its flux and reflux, which con tinued regular during eighteen or nineteen days, and were unsettled the rest of the month, greatly puzzled the ancients ; and it is said that Aristotle drowned himself in it because he could not discover its cause.