The plays of Euripides are not so subtle in structure as those of Sophocles. He cared more for striking situations than for articulated plots, more for thrilling scenes than for unity and symmetry of the whole. But he made a special study of the recognition as leading to the denouement. Another innovation of Eu ripides was the introduction of the prologue. In the very beginning he gives the entire set ting of the piece, relates all the circumstances. This mechanical opening has been criticized as flat and jejune. But he worked on a different plan from Sophocles. Like Lessing, he be lieved that the audience should know more than the characters themselves. He disdained to excite vulgar curiosity. So he conceived the prologue as an integral part of the play. Moreover, he leaves the most important part untold; the audience does not know at the outset how the poet proposes to treat the myth; hence the pleasure of surprise is not entirely lacking. The audience enjoys also the sudden revelations to the individual char acters. Furthermore, the Greeks cared more for the quiet contemplation of situations than we do. Nevertheless, this practice of beginning the play with a prologue became a mannerism and was justly ndiculed by Aristophanes. Eu ripides' plays have also a mechanical ending— when the conflict seems insoluble, the deus ex machina interfere expressly to solve diffi culties, to cut the cords atwain that seem too intrinse to loose. This is not high antique
art; but the flaw-hunters unduly emphasize the defect. Many of the plays also break in two in the middle. This is, indeed, a fault. Nevertheless, the scenes are interesting, some times stirring. Often the thoughts expressed are not adapted to the speaker ; and the choral odes frequently seem irrelevant The poet's monodies constitute an undue proportion of the lyrical element.
We have 80 titles of plays, but very few fixed dates. There are 19 extant dramas —18 tragedies and one satyr drama ('Cyclops'). The 'Rhesus,' regularly printed in the editions of the Euripidean corpus, is certainly not by Eu ripides. The earliest extant play is the 'Alcestis) (438); the most famous is the 'Medea) (4.31); but probably the two greatest tragedies are the (428) and the (407). One of the most interesting is the 'Iphigenia in Tauris) (414) and the most charming the 'Ion) (about 416). The other plays with approximate dates are 'Iphigenia in Aulis> (407), 'Orestes) (408), (410), 'Helen) (412), 'Electra) (413), ‘Troades) (415), 'Andromache) (417), (418), (420), 'Hecuba) (424), (430). See ALcEsns; MEDEA.