Greek · -480–-406
Euripides challenged the conventions of Greek tragedy, bringing psychological realism and moral ambiguity to the stage. His contemporaries found him controversial; he won only four first prizes during his lifetime compared to Sophocles' eighteen. Yet later generations preferred his work, and more of his plays survive than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles combined. Medea, The Bacchae, and Hippolytus present characters driven by passion rather than fate, women and slaves given voices, and gods whose justice seems capricious. Aristophanes mocked him; Aristotle criticized him; but audiences from the Renaissance onward have found his psychological insight remarkably modern.