EURIPIDES, a celebrated Grecian tragic poet, was born in the first year of the 75th Olympiad, (about 453 B. C.) in the island of Salamis, whither his parents had retired, a short time previous to the invasion of Attica by Xerxes. In consequence of the false interpretation of an equivocal oracle, he was destined, by his father, for the profession of an athletic champion ; but his own natural genius soon directed him to very different pur suits. Ile is said to have studied rhetoric under Prodi ens, natural philosophy under Anaxagoras, and morals under Socrates. This last, however, although affirmed by various authors, appears to be a mistake ; for, upon a reference to chronology, it will be found, that Socrates was twelve or thirteen years younger than Euripides; which makes it very improbable that the latter could have stood in the relation of pupil to the former. But it is pretty certain, that a great friendship and intimacy subsisted between these two eminent men ; in so much that Socrates, who in general disapproved of dramatic exhibitions, seldom appeared at the theatre, unless when the tragedies of Euripides were to he performed.
At an early age, Euripides imbibed a strong partiali ty for the study of philosophy ; but perceiving the dan gers and persecutions to which those exposed them selves, who ventured to combat vulgar prejudices, and to controvert the popular opinions, he was induced to abandon his favourite pursuits, and devoted himself, from his eighteenth year, to the composition of drama tic poetry, in which he soon rose to the highest emi nence. He wrote a great number of tragedies, which were held in the highest estimation during his own time, and have been admired by the best scholars and most learned critics of all ages. He was the contemporary and rival of Sophocles, with whom he repeatedly contested the palm of superiority in the composition of tragic po etry. Like many of the great men of that age, he ex perienced the biting ridicule of the celebrated comic writer Aristophanes ; and, in consequence of the sar casms of that formidable wit, it is said he resolved to withdraw from Athens to the court of Archelaus of Ma cedon, a great patron of learned men, by whom he was hospitably received, and raised to high honours. Here,
however, he met with a most tragical fate ; for, while he was walking in a wood, according to his custom, absorb ed in profound meditation, he was encountered and torn to pieces by the prince's dogs, who happened to be at that time engaged in hunting. Archelaus lamented his death, and gave him a magnificent funeral. When the news of his fate reached Athens, the inhabitants were so grieved at the event, that the whole city went into mourn ing. His great rival Sophocles, with a soul superior to vulgar jealousy, also manifested his grief in the most unequivocal manner. He ordered a tragedy to be per formed upon the occasion, at which he himself and the actors appeared in deep mourning. The circumstances of the death of Euripides, however, are variously report ed; but we have given the most current tradition re garding it; and the event seems to have happened when he was about 75 years of age.
Euripides is said to have been the author of ninety two tragedies, of which nineteen still remain. His per formances seldom gained the prize ; yet they were much esteemed by the Greeks, and so highly venerated among the Sicilians, that when the Athenian army, commanded by Nicias, was defeated in Sicily, the soldiers purchased their lives and liberties by reciting the verses of Euripi des. Ills plays abound so much in moral sentences, and philosophical maxims, that he was called the philoso pher of the stage. By many, he has been considered as the most accomplished of all the ancient tragic poets, although the critics are divided in their opinions con cerning the superior claims of /Eschylus, Sophocles, and the subject of this article. Quintilian seems unwilling to decide, yet he evidently gives the palm to Euripides, (Inst. Or. lib. x. cap. I.) He is inferior to the two first, perhaps, in majesty, sublimity, and force ; but he is generally allowed to surpass them in morality and pa thos ; and in the declamatory eloquence of the stage he is probably unrivalled. Aristotle calls him the most tragical of all the poets.