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132-599: The institute's inaugural productions began in September 1992 with two Euripides plays: Dionysus and Orestes . Funding initially came from the Japan-Unite States Friendship Commission, Arts International and All Nippon Airlines, according to then-executive producing director Stephen Nisbet. Originally envisioned as a summer institute in Saratoga Springs, New York , SITI has expanded to encompass

264-519: A "spiritual biography", along these lines: However, about 80% of his plays have been lost, and even the extant plays do not present a fully consistent picture of his 'spiritual' development (for example, Iphigenia in Aulis is dated with the 'despairing' Bacchae , yet it contains elements that became typical of New Comedy). In the Bacchae , he restores the chorus and messenger speech to their traditional role in

396-431: A barbarous act to annihilate a city which produced such men" ( Life of Lysander ). Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals Dionysia and Lenaia , and Euripides was travestied more than most. Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays: The Acharnians , Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs . But Aristophanes also borrowed, rather than merely satirized, some of

528-486: A bewildering variety of labels. He has been described as 'the poet of the Greek enlightenment' and also as 'Euripides the irrationalist'; as a religious sceptic if not an atheist, but on the other hand, as a believer in divine providence and the ultimate justice of divine dispensation. He has been seen as a profound explorer of human psychology and also a rhetorical poet who subordinated consistency of character to verbal effect; as

660-463: A change in speakers was loosely denoted with a variety of signs, such as equivalents of the modern dash, colon, and full-stop. The absence of modern literary conventions (which aid comprehension), was an early and persistent source of errors, affecting transmission. Errors were also introduced when Athens replaced its old Attic alphabet with the Ionian alphabet, a change sanctioned by law in 403–402 BC, adding

792-476: A debate between the shades of Aeschylus and Euripides, the god brings Aeschylus back to life, as more useful to Athens, for his wisdom, rejecting Euripides as merely clever. Such comic 'evidence' suggests that Athenians admired Euripides even while they mistrusted his intellectualism, at least during the long war with Sparta. Aeschylus had written his own epitaph commemorating his life as a warrior fighting for Athens against Persia, without any mention of his success as

924-480: A difference in outlook between the three—a generation gap probably due to the Sophistic enlightenment in the middle decades of the 5th century: Aeschylus still looked back to the archaic period , Sophocles was in transition between periods, and Euripides was fully imbued with the new spirit of the classical age . When Euripides' plays are sequenced in time, they also reveal that his outlook might have changed, providing

1056-454: A god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto , and the twin brother of Artemis , goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth). Apollo

1188-412: A healer. Some commonly-used examples are "paion" ( παιών literally "healer" or "helper") "epikourios" ( ἐπικούριος , "succouring"), "oulios" ( οὔλιος , "healer, baleful") and "loimios" ( λοίμιος , "of the plague"). In later writers, the word, "paion", usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of healing . Apollo in his aspect of "healer" has a connection to

1320-526: A joint project with Brigham Young University , using multi-spectral imaging technology to retrieve previously illegible writing (see References). Some of this work employed infrared technology—previously used for satellite imaging—to detect previously unknown material by Euripides, in fragments of the Oxyrhynchus papyri , a collection of ancient manuscripts held by the university. It is from such materials that modern scholars try to piece together copies of

1452-505: A leader of a decadent intellectualism . Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes . Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia , but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources. Traditional accounts of the author's life are found in many commentaries, and include details such as these: He

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1584-524: A loosely structured, simple, and jovial form of entertainment. But in Cyclops (the only complete satyr-play that survives), Euripides structured the entertainment more like a tragedy and introduced a note of critical irony typical of his other work. His genre-bending inventiveness is shown above all in Alcestis , a blend of tragic and satyric elements. This fourth play in his tetralogy for 438 BC (i.e., it occupied

1716-433: A misogynist and a feminist; as a realist who brought tragic action down to the level of everyday life and as a romantic poet who chose unusual myths and exotic settings. He wrote plays which have been widely understood as patriotic pieces supporting Athens' war against Sparta and others which many have taken as the work of the anti-war dramatist par excellence, even as attacks on Athenian imperialism. He has been recognized as

1848-506: A new complication to the task of copying. Many more errors came from the tendency of actors to interpolate words and sentences, producing so many corruptions and variations that a law was proposed by Lycurgus of Athens in 330 BC "that the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides should be written down and preserved in a public office; and that the town clerk should read the text over with the actors; and that all performances which did not comply with this regulation should be illegal." The law

1980-461: A playwright; and Sophocles was celebrated by his contemporaries for his social gifts, and contributions to public life as a state official; but there are no records of Euripides' public life except as a dramatist—he could well have been "a brooding and bookish recluse". He is presented as such in The Acharnians , where Aristophanes shows him to be living morosely in a precarious house, surrounded by

2112-522: A position in the "ever-changing genre" where he could easily move between tragic, comic, romantic, and political effects. This versatility appears in individual plays and also over the course of his career. Potential for comedy lay in his use of 'contemporary' characters, in his sophisticated tone, his relatively informal Greek (see In Greek below), and in his ingenious use of plots centred on motifs that later became standard in Menander's New Comedy (for example

2244-420: A preoccupation with individual psychology and its irrational aspects is evident....In his hands tragedy for the first time probed the inner recesses of the human soul and let passions spin the plot ." The tension between reason and passion is symbolized by his characters' relationship with the gods: For example, Hecuba's prayer is answered not by Zeus, nor by the law of reason, but by Menelaus, as if speaking for

2376-467: A quiver of silver or golden arrows. As the god of mousike , Apollo presides over all music, songs, dance, and poetry. He is the inventor of string-music and the frequent companion of the Muses, functioning as their chorus leader in celebrations. The lyre is a common attribute of Apollo . Protection of the young is one of the best attested facets of his panhellenic cult persona. As a kourotrophos , Apollo

2508-410: A radical change of direction". Euripides is also known for his use of irony. Many Greek tragedians make use of dramatic irony to bring out the emotion and realism of their characters or plays, but Euripides uses irony to foreshadow events and occasionally amuse his audience. For example, in his play Heracles , Heracles comments that all men love their children and wish to see them grow. The irony here

2640-533: A rationalized cosmos, but the speech is ill-suited to her audience, the unsophisticated listener Menelaus, and is found to not suit the cosmos either (her grandson is murdered by the Greeks). In Hippolytus , speeches appear verbose and ungainly, as if to underscore the limitations of language. Like Euripides, both Aeschylus and Sophocles created comic effects, contrasting the heroic with the mundane, but they employed minor supporting characters for that purpose. Euripides

2772-451: A select edition, possibly for use in schools, with some commentaries or scholia recorded in the margins. Similar editions had appeared for Aeschylus and Sophocles—the only plays of theirs that survive today. Euripides, however, was more fortunate than the other tragedians, with a second edition of his work surviving, compiled in alphabetical order as if from a set of his collect works; but without scholia attached. This "Alphabetical" edition

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2904-505: A she-wolf before giving birth. This is given as the reason why Homer describes Apollo as the "wolf-born god". Libanius wrote that neither land nor visible islands would receive Leto, but by the will of Zeus Delos then became visible, and thus received Leto and the children. According to Strabo, the Curetes helped Leto by creating loud noises with their weapons and thus frightening Hera, they concealed Leto's childbirth. Theognis wrote that

3036-405: A short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, studying also painting and philosophy under the masters Prodicus and Anaxagoras . He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis (

3168-443: A skill worth prizes, requiring a long apprenticeship in the chorus. Euripides and other playwrights accordingly composed more and more arias for accomplished actors to sing, and this tendency became more marked in his later plays: tragedy was a "living and ever-changing genre" (cf. previous section, and Chronology ; a list of his plays is below ). The comic poet Aristophanes is the earliest known critic to characterize Euripides as

3300-415: A speech that he seems to have written in defence of himself as an intellectual ahead of his time (spoken by Medea): σκαιοῖσι μὲν γὰρ καινὰ προσφέρων σοφὰ δόξεις ἀχρεῖος κοὐ σοφὸς πεφυκέναι· τῶν δ᾿ αὖ δοκούντων εἰδέναι τι ποικίλον κρείσσων νομισθεὶς ἐν πόλει λυπρὸς φανῇ. ἐγὼ δὲ καὐτὴ τῆσδε κοινωνῶ τύχης [298–302]. If you bring novel wisdom to fools, you will be regarded as useless, not wise; and if

3432-454: A spokesman for destructive, new ideas associated with declining standards in both society and tragedy (see Reception for more). But fifth-century tragedy was a social gathering for "carrying out quite publicly the maintenance and development of mental infrastructure", and it offered spectators a "platform for an utterly unique form of institutionalized discussion". The dramatist's role was not only to entertain but also educate fellow citizens—he

3564-529: A temple. Both orders were abandoned for the Corinthian order gradually during the Hellenistic age and under Rome. The most important temples are: In the myths, Apollo is the son of Zeus , the king of the gods, and Leto , his previous wife or one of his mistresses. Apollo often appears in the myths, plays and hymns either directly or indirectly through his oracles. As Zeus' favorite son, he had direct access to

3696-492: A true indication of worth. For example, in Hippolytus , a love-sick queen rationalizes her position and, reflecting on adultery, arrives at this comment on intrinsic merit: ἐκ δὲ γενναίων δόμων τόδ᾿ ἦρξε θηλείαισι γίγνεσθαι κακόν· ὅταν γὰρ αἰσχρὰ τοῖσιν ἐσθλοῖσιν δοκῇ, ἦ κάρτα δόξει τοῖς κακοῖς γ᾿ εἶναι καλά. [...] μόνον δὲ τοῦτό φασ᾿ ἁμιλλᾶσθαι βίῳ, γνώμην δικαίαν κἀγαθὴν ὅτῳ παρῇ [409–427]. This contagion began for

3828-520: A war theme, so that his plays are an extraordinary mix of elements. The Trojan Women , for example, is a powerfully disturbing play on the theme of war's horrors, apparently critical of Athenian imperialism (it was composed in the aftermath of the Melian massacre and during the preparations for the Sicilian Expedition ), yet it features the comic exchange between Menelaus and Hecuba quoted above, and

3960-665: A year-round program based in New York City , with a summer season in Saratoga. The company believed that contemporary American theater must incorporate artists from around the world and learn from a cross-cultural exchange of dance , music , art , and performance experiences. SITI is noted for combining the Viewpoints process of Anne Bogart with the Suzuki Method of Actor Training of Tadashi Suzuki . Both techniques are alternatives to

4092-401: Is also stated to be Leto's sister. Wanting to escape Zeus' advances, she flung herself into the sea and became a floating rock called Ortygia until the twins were born. When Leto stepped on the rock, four pillars with adamantine bases rose from the earth and held up the rock. When Apollo and Artemis were born, their bodies shone radiantly and a chant was sung by Eileithyia and Lachesis , one of

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4224-501: Is also the bringer of disease and death with his arrows, similar to the function of the Vedic god of disease Rudra . He sends a plague ( λοιμός ) to the Achaeans . Knowing that Apollo can prevent a recurrence of the plague he sent, they purify themselves in a ritual and offer him a large sacrifice of cows, called a hecatomb . The Homeric Hymn to Apollo depicts Apollo as an intruder from

4356-493: Is an issue for many critics, such as Aristotle, who cited Iphigenia in Aulis as an example ( Poetics 1454a32). For others, psychological inconsistency is not a stumbling block to good drama: "Euripides is in pursuit of a larger insight: he aims to set forth the two modes, emotional and rational, with which human beings confront their own mortality." Some think unpredictable behaviour realistic in tragedy: "everywhere in Euripides

4488-742: Is called "the archer" and the bow is also an attribute of Shiva . Rudra could bring diseases with his arrows, but he was able to free people of them and his alternative Shiva is a healer physician god. However the Indo-European component of Apollo does not explain his strong association with omens, exorcisms, and an oracular cult. Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi . In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in

4620-502: Is concerned with the health and education of children, and he presided over their passage into adulthood. Long hair, which was the prerogative of boys, was cut at the coming of age ( ephebeia ) and dedicated to Apollo. The god himself is depicted with long, uncut hair to symbolise his eternal youth. Apollo is an important pastoral deity, and he was the patron of herdsmen and shepherds. Protection of herds, flocks and crops from diseases, pests and predators were his primary rustic duties. On

4752-727: Is connected with the Ancient Macedonian word "pella" ( Pella ), stone . Stones played an important part in the cult of the god, especially in the oracular shrine of Delphi ( Omphalos ). George Huxley considered the identification of Apollo with the Minoan deity Paiawon, worshipped in Crete, to have originated at Delphi. In the Homeric Hymn , Apollo appears as a dolphin carrying Cretan priests to Delphi, to which site they evidently transfer their religious practices. Apollo Delphinios or Delphidios

4884-537: Is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu . As the patron deity of Delphi ( Apollo Pythios ), Apollo is an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle and also the deity of ritual purification. His oracles were often consulted for guidance in various matters. He was in general seen as the god who affords help and wards off evil, and is referred to as Alexicacus ,

5016-436: Is not to sit beside Socrates and chatter, casting the arts aside and ignoring the best of the tragedian’s craft. To hang around killing time in pretentious conversation and hairsplitting twaddle is the mark of a man who's lost his mind In The Frogs , written when Euripides and Aeschylus were dead, Aristophanes has the god Dionysus venturing down to Hades in search of a good poet to bring back to Athens. After

5148-409: Is shown to be flawed, as if Euripides were exploring the problematical nature of language and communication: "For speech points in three different directions at once, to the speaker, to the person addressed, to the features in the world it describes, and each of these directions can be felt as skewed". For example, in the quotation above, Hecuba presents herself as a sophisticated intellectual describing

5280-468: Is that Heracles will be driven into madness by Hera and will kill his children. Similarly, in Helen , Theoclymenus remarks how happy he is that his sister has the gift of prophecy and will warn him of any plots or tricks against him (the audience already knows that she has betrayed him). In this instance, Euripides uses irony not only for foreshadowing but also for comic effect—which few tragedians did. Likewise, in

5412-607: Is the man <who> is roasting a new play for Euripides, and Socrates is laying down the kindling. [...] Euripides bolted together with Socrates Aristophanes alleged that the co-author was a celebrated actor, Cephisophon, who also shared the tragedian's house and his wife, while Socrates taught an entire school of quibblers like Euripides: χαρίεν οὖν μὴ Σωκράτει παρακαθήμενον λαλεῖν ἀποβαλόντα μουσικὴν τά τε μέγιστα παραλιπόντα τῆς τραγῳδικῆς τέχνης. τὸ δ᾿ ἐπὶ σεμνοῖσιν λόγοισι καὶ σκαριφησμοῖσι λήρων διατριβὴν ἀργὸν ποιεῖσθαι, παραφρονοῦντος ἀνδρός So what's stylish

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5544-620: The Bacchae , Pentheus's first threat to the god Dionysus is that if Pentheus catches him in his city, he will 'chop off his head', whereas it is Pentheus who is beheaded at the end of the play. The spoken language of the Euripidean plays is not fundamentally different in style from that of Aeschylus or Sophocles—it employs poetic meters , a rarefied vocabulary, fullness of expression, complex syntax, and ornamental figures, all aimed at representing an elevated style. But its rhythms are somewhat freer, and more natural, than that of his predecessors, and

5676-511: The City Dionysia , the famous Athenian dramatic festival, in 455 BC, one year after the death of Aeschylus ; and did not win first prize until 441 BC. His final competition in Athens was in 408 BC. The Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis were performed in 405 BC, and first prize was awarded posthumously. He won first prize only five times. His plays, and those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, indicate

5808-599: The Hellenistic Age , a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer , Demosthenes , and Menander . Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy , some of which are characteristic of romance . He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on

5940-466: The Sicilian expedition led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides' lyrics to their enemies in return for food and drink ( Life of Nicias 29). Plutarch also provides the story that the victorious Spartan generals, having planned the demolition of Athens and the enslavement of its people, grew merciful after being entertained at a banquet by lyrics from Euripides' play Electra : "they felt that it would be

6072-587: The Stanislavski -based Method training which has dominated American stage and screen for generations. Over their history, the company produced more than forty shows. In October 2020, SITI announced they would stop producing shows in 2022, although classes would continue. Its final performances were of A Christmas Carol at Bard College. This United States theatre–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Euripides Euripides ( c.  480  – c.  406 BC )

6204-420: The chorus could dance, a space for actors (three speaking actors in Euripides' time), a backdrop or skene , and some special effects: an ekkyklema (used to bring the skene's "indoors" outdoors) and a mechane (used to lift actors in the air, as in deus ex machina ). With the introduction of the third actor (attributed to Aeschylus by Themistius; to Sophocles by Aristotle), acting also began to be regarded as

6336-494: The toponymic epithet Abaeus ( Ἀπόλλων Ἀβαῖος , Apollon Abaios ), was important enough to be consulted by Croesus . His oracular shrines include: Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo. Many temples were dedicated to Apollo in Greece and the Greek colonies. They show the spread of the cult of Apollo and the evolution of Greek architecture, which was mostly based on the rightness of form and on mathematical relations. Some of

6468-416: The "averter of evil". Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius . Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he is also a god who could bring ill health and deadly plague with his arrows. The invention of archery itself is credited to Apollo and his sister Artemis. Apollo is usually described as carrying a silver or golden bow and

6600-544: The 'recognition scene'). Other tragedians also used recognition scenes, but they were heroic in emphasis, as in Aeschylus's The Libation Bearers , which Euripides parodied in Electra (Euripides was unique among the tragedians in incorporating theatrical criticism in his plays). Traditional myth with its exotic settings, heroic adventures, and epic battles offered potential for romantic melodrama as well as for political comments on

6732-776: The 2nd and 3rd century CE, those at Didyma and Claros pronounced the so-called "theological oracles", in which Apollo confirms that all deities are aspects or servants of an all-encompassing, highest deity . "In the 3rd century, Apollo fell silent. Julian the Apostate (359–361) tried to revive the Delphic oracle, but failed." Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Claros and Didyma . His oracular shrine in Abae in Phocis , where he bore

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6864-532: The Alphabet edition; and, possibly, the other two tragedians would appear just as genre-bending as this "restless experimenter", if we possessed more than their "select" editions. See Extant plays below for listing of "Select" and "Alphabetical" plays. Apollo Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology . Apollo has been recognized as

6996-514: The Byzantine period, following a change in script (from uncial to minuscule ), and many were "homophonic" errors—equivalent, in English, to substituting "right" for "write"; except that there were more opportunities for Byzantine scribes to make these errors, because η, ι, οι and ει, were pronounced similarly in the Byzantine period. Around 200 AD, ten of the plays of Euripides began to be circulated in

7128-778: The Cave of Euripides , where a cult of the playwright developed after his death). "There he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky". The details of his death are uncertain. It was traditionally held that he retired to the "rustic court" of King Archelaus in Macedonia , where he died in 406 BC. Some modern scholars however claim that in reality Euripides may have never visited Macedonia at all, or if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists. Such biographical details derive almost entirely from three unreliable sources: The next three sections expand on

7260-582: The Doric word apella ( ἀπέλλα ), which originally meant "wall," "fence for animals" and later "assembly within the limits of the square." Apella ( Ἀπέλλα ) is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia ( ἐκκλησία ). R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai and suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form * Apal un . Several instances of popular etymology are attested by ancient authors. Thus,

7392-608: The Greeks most often associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι ( apollymi ), "to destroy". Plato in Cratylus connects the name with ἀπόλυσις ( apolysis ), "redemption", with ἀπόλουσις ( apolousis ), "purification", and with ἁπλοῦν ( [h]aploun ), "simple", in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, Ἄπλουν , and finally with Ἀειβάλλων ( aeiballon ), "ever-shooting". Hesychius connects

7524-468: The Hellenistic period (as mentioned in the introduction) and, due to Seneca's adaptation of his work for Roman audiences, "it was Euripides, not Aeschylus or Sophocles, whose tragic muse presided over the rebirth of tragedy in Renaissance Europe." In the seventeenth century, Racine expressed admiration for Sophocles, but was more influenced by Euripides ( Iphigenia in Aulis and Hippolytus were

7656-504: The appearance of things there was the permanent principle of mathematics. The Doric order dominated during the 6th and the 5th century BC but there was a mathematical problem regarding the position of the triglyphs, which could not be solved without changing the original forms. The order was almost abandoned for the Ionic order , but the Ionic capital also posed an insoluble problem at the corner of

7788-451: The architects were trying to achieve this esthetic perfection. From the earliest times there were certain rules strictly observed in rectangular peripteral and prostyle buildings. The first buildings were built narrowly in order to hold the roof, and when the dimensions changed some mathematical relations became necessary in order to keep the original forms. This probably influenced the theory of numbers of Pythagoras , who believed that behind

7920-400: The bands fastened onto him and declared that he would be the master of lyre and archery, and interpret the will of Zeus to humankind. He then started to walk, which caused the island to be filled with gold. The island Delos used to be Asteria , a goddess who jumped into the waters to escape the advances of Zeus and became a free-floating island of the same name. When Leto got pregnant, Hera

8052-465: The beginning of the common era , but the Doric form, Apellon ( Ἀπέλλων ), is more archaic, as it is derived from an earlier * Ἀπέλjων . It probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios ( Ἀπελλαῖος ), and the offerings apellaia ( ἀπελλαῖα ) at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai ( ἀπέλλαι ). According to some scholars, the words are derived from

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8184-570: The capital of ancient Macedonia ) and Πελλήνη ( Pellēnē / Pellene ). The Hittite form Apaliunas ( x-ap-pa-li-u-na-aš ) is attested in the Manapa-Tarhunta letter . The Hittite testimony reflects an early form * Apeljōn , which may also be surmised from the comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων . The name of the Lydian god Qλdãns /kʷʎðãns/ may reflect an earlier /kʷalyán-/ before palatalization, syncope, and

8316-426: The chorus considers Athens, the "blessed land of Theus", to be a desirable refuge—such complexity and ambiguity are typical both of his "patriotic" and "anti-war" plays. Tragic poets in the fifth century competed against one another at the City Dionysia , each with a tetralogy of three tragedies and a satyr play . The few extant fragments of satyr plays attributed to Aeschylus and Sophocles indicate that these were

8448-402: The city regards you as greater than those with a reputation for cleverness, you will be thought vexatious. I myself am a sharer in this lot. Athenian tragedy in performance during Euripides' lifetime was a public contest between playwrights. The state funded it and awarded prizes. The language was metrical, spoken and sung. The performance area included a circular floor (called orchestra ) where

8580-500: The claims of each of these sources, respectively. Euripides was the youngest in a group of three great tragedians, who were almost contemporaries: his first play was staged thirteen years after Sophocles' debut, and three years after Aeschylus's Oresteia . The identity of the trio is neatly underscored by a patriotic account of their roles during Greece's great victory over Persia at the Battle of Salamis —Aeschylus fought there, Sophocles

8712-608: The democratic order. Thus, for example, Odysseus is represented in Hecuba (lines 131–32) as "agile-minded, sweet-talking, demos-pleasing", i.e. similar to the war-time demagogues that were active in Athens during the Peloponnesian War . Speakers in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles sometimes distinguish between slaves who are servile by nature and those servile by circumstance, but Euripides' speakers go further, positing an individual's mental, rather than social or physical, state as

8844-551: The earliest temples, especially in Crete , do not belong to any Greek order. It seems that the first peripteral temples were rectangular wooden structures. The different wooden elements were considered divine , and their forms were preserved in the marble or stone elements of the temples of Doric order . The Greeks used standard types because they believed that the world of objects was a series of typical forms which could be represented in several instances. The temples should be canonic , and

8976-610: The empire of the Hittites , and from there into Greece. Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans , fighting against the Achaeans , during the Trojan War . He is pictured as a terrible god, less trusted by the Greeks than other gods. The god seems to be related to Appaliunas , a tutelary god of Wilusa ( Troy ) in Asia Minor, but the word is not complete. The stones found in front of

9108-674: The extent that after the failure of the Sicilian Expedition , many Athenian captives were released, simply for being able to teach their captors whatever fragments they could remember of his work. Less than a hundred years later, Aristotle developed an almost "biological' theory of the development of tragedy in Athens: the art form grew under the influence of Aeschylus, matured in the hands of Sophocles, then began its precipitous decline with Euripides. However, "his plays continued to be applauded even after those of Aeschylus and Sophocles had come to seem remote and irrelevant"; they became school classics in

9240-551: The external order of tragedy but missed its entire meaning". This view influenced Friedrich Nietzsche , who seems, however, not to have known the Euripidean plays well. But literary figures, such as the poet Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning , could study and admire the Schlegels, while still appreciating Euripides as "our Euripides the human" ( Wine of Cyprus stanza 12). Classicists such as Arthur Verrall and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff reacted against

9372-423: The female sex with the nobility. For when those of noble station resolve on base acts, surely the base-born will regard such acts as good. [...] One thing only, they say, competes in value with life, the possession of a heart blameless and good. Euripides' characters resembled contemporary Athenians rather than heroic figures of myth. For achieving his end Euripides' regular strategy is a very simple one: retaining

9504-463: The final defeat of his city. It is said that he died in Macedonia after being attacked by the Molossian hounds of King Archelaus, and that his cenotaph near Piraeus was struck by lightning—signs of his unique powers, whether for good or ill (according to one modern scholar, his death might have been caused instead by the harsh Macedonian winter). In an account by Plutarch , the catastrophic failure of

9636-482: The future he would punish a slanderous woman in Thebes ( Niobe ), so he did not want to be born there. Leto then went to Thessaly and sought the help of the river nymphs who were the daughters of the river Peneus. Though he was initially fearful and reluctant, Peneus later decided to let Leto give birth in his waters. He did not change his mind even when Ares produced a terrifying sound and threatened to hurl mountain peaks into

9768-472: The gates of Homeric Troy were the symbols of Apollo. A western Anatolian origin may also be bolstered by references to the parallel worship of Artimus ( Artemis ) and Qλdãns , whose name may be cognate with the Hittite and Doric forms, in surviving Lydian texts . However, recent scholars have cast doubt on the identification of Qλdãns with Apollo. The Greeks gave to him the name ἀγυιεύς agyieus as

9900-497: The hands of Leto's offspring. However, on Zeus' orders, Boreas carried away Leto and entrusted her to Poseidon . To protect her, Poseidon took her to the island Ortygia and covered it with waves so that the sun would not shine on it. Leto gave birth clinging to an olive tree and henceforth the island was called Delos. Other variations of Apollo's birth include: Aelian states that it took Leto twelve days and twelve nights to travel from Hyperborea to Delos. Leto changed herself into

10032-478: The inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of ... that cage which is the theatre of Shakespeare's Othello , Racine's Phèdre , of Ibsen and Strindberg ," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw . His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as

10164-409: The island, she sat down against a palm tree and asked Apollo to be born. During the childbirth, swans circled the island seven times, a sign that later on Apollo would play the seven-stringed lyre. When Apollo finally "leapt forth" from his mother's womb, the nymphs of the island sang a hymn to Eileithyia that was heard to the heavens. The moment Apollo was born, the entire island, including the trees and

10296-407: The island. Delos then revealed to Leto that Apollo was rumoured to be the god who will "greatly lord it among gods and men all over the fruitful earth". For this reason, all the lands were fearful and Delos feared that Apollo would cast her aside once he is born. Hearing this, Leto swore on the river Styx that if she is allowed to give birth on the island, her son would honour Delos the most amongst all

10428-420: The island. Thus, clutching a palm tree, Leto finally gave birth after labouring for nine days and nine nights, with Apollo "leaping forth" from his mother's womb. The goddesses washed the newborn, covered him in a white garment and fastened golden bands around him. As Leto was unable to feed him, Themis , the goddess of divine law, fed him nectar and ambrosia . Upon tasting the divine food, the child broke free of

10560-504: The literary conventions that modern readers expect: there was still no spacing between words; little or no punctuation; and no stage directions; but abbreviated names denoted changes of speaker; lyrics were broken into "cola" and "strophai", or lines and stanzas; and a system of accentuation was introduced. After this creation of a standard edition, the text was fairly safe from errors, besides slight and gradual corruption introduced with tedious copying. Many of these trivial errors occurred in

10692-427: The lyrics often seem dislocated from the action, but the extent and significance of this is "a matter of scholarly debate". See Chronology for details about his style. Euripides has aroused, and continues to arouse, strong opinions for and against his work: He was a problem to his contemporaries and he is one still; over the course of centuries since his plays were first produced he has been hailed or indicted under

10824-559: The main criterion for success (the system of selecting judges appears to have been flawed), and merely being chosen to compete was a mark of distinction. Moreover, to have been singled out by Aristophanes for so much comic attention is proof of popular interest in his work. Sophocles was appreciative enough of the younger poet to be influenced by him, as is evident in his later plays Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus . According to Plutarch, Euripides had been very well received in Sicily, to

10956-438: The mind of Zeus and was willing to reveal this knowledge to humans. A divinity beyond human comprehension, he appears both as a beneficial and a wrathful god. Pregnant with the offsprings of Zeus, Leto wandered through many lands wanting to give birth to Apollo. However all the lands rejected her out of fear. Upon reaching Delos, Leto requested the island to shelter her, and that in return her son would bring fame and prosperity to

11088-514: The models for his plays Iphigénie and Phèdre ). Euripides' reputation was to take a beating in the early 19th century, when Friedrich Schlegel and his brother August Wilhelm Schlegel championed Aristotle's 'biological' model of theatre history, identifying Euripides with the moral, political, and artistic degeneration of Athens. August Wilhelm's Vienna lectures on dramatic art and literature went through four editions between 1809 and 1846; and, in them, he opined that Euripides "not only destroyed

11220-497: The more popular Apollo. A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship. The name of Apollo's mother Leto has Lydian origin, and she was worshipped on the coasts of Asia Minor . The inspiration oracular cult was probably introduced into Greece from Anatolia , which is the origin of Sibyl , and where some of the oldest oracular shrines originated. Omens, symbols, purifications, and exorcisms appear in old Assyro - Babylonian texts. These rituals were spread into

11352-428: The mouths of characters, such as these words of his heroine Medea : [...] ὡς τρὶς ἂν παρ᾿ ἀσπίδα στῆναι θέλοιμ᾿ ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ τεκεῖν ἅπαξ [250–251]. I would rather stand three times with a shield in battle than give birth once. The textual transmission of the plays, from the 5th century BC, when they were first written, until the era of the printing press, was a largely haphazard process. Much of Euripides' work

11484-483: The mythical and heroic setting that it can seem like Euripides aimed at parody. For example, in The Trojan Women , the heroine's rationalized prayer elicits comment from Menelaus: ΕΚΑΒΗ: [...] Ζεύς, εἴτ᾿ ἀνάγκη φύσεος εἴτε νοῦς βροτῶν, προσηυξάμην σε· πάντα γὰρ δι᾿ ἀψόφου βαίνων κελεύθου κατὰ δίκην τὰ θνήτ᾿ ἄγεις. ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΣ: τί δ᾿ ἔστιν; εὐχὰς ὡς ἐκαίνισας θεῶν [886–889]. Hecuba : [...] Zeus, whether you are

11616-400: The name Apollo with the Doric ἀπέλλα ( apella ), which means "assembly", so that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he also gives the explanation σηκός ( sekos ), "fold", in which case Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds. In the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα ( pella ) means "stone," and some toponyms may be derived from this word: Πέλλα ( Pella ,

11748-536: The necessity of nature or the mind of mortal men, I address you in prayer! For proceeding on a silent path you direct all mortal affairs toward justice! Menelaus : What does this mean? How strange your prayer to the gods is! Athenian citizens were familiar with rhetoric in the assembly and law courts, and some scholars believe that Euripides was more interested in his characters as speakers with cases to argue than as characters with lifelike personalities. They are self-conscious about speaking formally, and their rhetoric

11880-404: The north. The connection with the northern-dwelling Dorians and their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars. The family-festival was dedicated to Apollo ( Doric : Ἀπέλλων ). Apellaios is the month of these rites, and Apellon is the "megistos kouros" (the great Kouros). However it can explain only the Doric type of the name, which

12012-481: The noun Paeon to designate both a god and that god's characteristic song of apotropaic thanksgiving and triumph. Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo and afterwards to other gods: to Dionysus , to Apollo Helios , to Apollo's son Asclepius the healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It

12144-428: The old gods. And the perhaps most famous example is in Bacchae where the god Dionysus savages his own converts. When the gods do appear (in eight of the extant plays), they appear "lifeless and mechanical". Sometimes condemned by critics as an unimaginative way to end a story, the spectacle of a "god" making a judgement or announcement from a theatrical crane might actually have been intended to provoke scepticism about

12276-421: The old stories and the great names, as his theatre required, he imagines his people as contemporaries subjected to contemporary kinds of pressures, and examines their motivations, conduct and fate in the light of contemporary problems, usages and ideals. As mouthpieces for contemporary issues, they "all seem to have had at least an elementary course in public speaking". The dialogue often contrasts so strongly with

12408-549: The original plays. Sometimes the picture is almost lost. Thus, for example, two extant plays, The Phoenician Women and Iphigenia in Aulis , are significantly corrupted by interpolations (the latter possibly being completed post mortem by the poet's son); and the very authorship of Rhesus is a matter of dispute. In fact, the very existence of the Alphabet plays, or rather the absence of an equivalent edition for Sophocles and Aeschylus, could distort our notions of distinctive Euripidean qualities—most of his least "tragic" plays are in

12540-464: The other hand, Apollo also encouraged the founding of new towns and the establishment of civil constitutions, is associated with dominion over colonists , and was the giver of laws. His oracles were often consulted before setting laws in a city. Apollo Agyieus was the protector of the streets, public places and home entrances. In Hellenistic times, especially during the 5th century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios ,

12672-418: The other lands. Assured by this, Delos agreed to assist Leto. All goddesses except Hera also came to aid Leto. However, Hera had tricked Eileithyia , the goddess of childbirth, to stay on Olympus, due to which Leto was unable to give birth. The goddesses then convinced Iris to go bring Eileithyia by offering her a necklace of amber 9 yards (8.2 m) long. Iris did accordingly and persuaded Eileithyia to step onto

12804-529: The personification of the Sun. Although Latin theological works from at least 1st century BCE identified Apollo with Sol , there was no conflation between the two among the classical Latin poets until 1st century CE. Apollo ( Attic , Ionic , and Homeric Greek : Ἀπόλλων , Apollōn ( GEN Ἀπόλλωνος ); Doric : Ἀπέλλων , Apellōn ; Arcadocypriot : Ἀπείλων , Apeilōn ; Aeolic : Ἄπλουν , Aploun ; Latin : Apollō ) The name Apollo —unlike

12936-464: The position conventionally reserved for satyr plays) is a "tragedy", featuring Heracles as a satyric hero in conventional satyr-play scenes: an arrival, a banquet, a victory over an ogre (in this case, death), a happy ending, a feast, and a departure for new adventures. Most of the big innovations in tragedy were made by Aeschylus and Sophocles, but "Euripides made innovations on a smaller scale that have impressed some critics as cumulatively leading to

13068-446: The pre-Lydian sound change *y > d. Note the labiovelar in place of the labial /p/ found in pre-Doric Ἀπέλjων and Hittite Apaliunas . A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo "The One of Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter". Apollo's chief epithet was Phoebus ( / ˈ f iː b ə s / FEE -bəs ; Φοῖβος , Phoibos Greek pronunciation: [pʰó͜i.bos] ), literally "bright". It

13200-411: The precursor of New Comedy and also what Aristotle called him: 'the most tragic of poets' ( Poetics 1453a30). And not one of these descriptions is entirely false. — Bernard Knox Aeschylus gained thirteen victories as a dramatist; Sophocles at least twenty; Euripides only four in his lifetime; and this has often been taken as indication of the latter's unpopularity. But a first place might not have been

13332-452: The prehistory of Apollo worship, which he termed "a Dorian-northwest Greek component, a Cretan-Minoan component, and a Syro-Hittite component." In classical times, his major function in popular religion was to keep away evil, and he was therefore called "apotropaios" ( ἀποτρόπαιος , "averting evil") and "alexikakos" ( ἀλεξίκακος "keeping off ill"; from v. ἀλέξω + n. κακόν ). Apollo also had many epithets relating to his function as

13464-552: The primitive god Paean ( Παιών-Παιήων ), who did not have a cult of his own. Paean serves as the healer of the gods in the Iliad , and seems to have originated in a pre-Greek religion. It is suggested, though unconfirmed, that he is connected to the Mycenaean figure pa-ja-wo-ne (Linear B: 𐀞𐀊𐀺𐀚 ). Paean was the personification of holy songs sung by "seer-doctors" ( ἰατρομάντεις ), which were supposed to cure disease. Homer uses

13596-426: The protector god of public places and houses who wards off evil and his symbol was a tapered stone or column. However, while usually Greek festivals were celebrated at the full moon , all the feasts of Apollo were celebrated on the seventh day of the month, and the emphasis given to that day ( sibutu ) indicates a Babylonian origin. The Vedic Rudra has some functions similar to those of Apollo. The terrible god

13728-651: The related older name Paean —is generally not found in the Linear B ( Mycenean Greek ) texts, although there is a possible attestation in the lacunose form ]pe-rjo-[ (Linear B: ] 𐀟𐁊 -[) on the KN E 842 tablet, though it has also been suggested that the name might actually read " Hyperion " ([u]-pe-rjo-[ne]). The etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων ( pronounced [a.pól.lɔːn] in Classical Attic ) had almost superseded all other forms by

13860-457: The religious and heroic dimension of his plays. Similarly, his plays often begin in a banal manner that undermines theatrical illusion. Unlike Sophocles, who established the setting and background of his plays in the introductory dialogue, Euripides used a monologue in which a divinity or human character simply tells the audience all it needs to know to understand what follows. Aeschylus and Sophocles were innovative, but Euripides had arrived at

13992-457: The remainder is derived from elsewhere. P contains all the extant plays of Euripides, L is missing The Trojan Women and latter part of The Bacchae . In addition to L, P, and many other medieval manuscripts, there are fragments of plays on papyrus. These papyrus fragments are often recovered only with modern technology. In June 2005, for example, classicists at the University of Oxford worked on

14124-420: The river. But Leto herself declined his help and departed, as she did not want him to suffer for her sake. After being turned away from various lands, Apollo spoke again from the womb, asking his mother to take look at the floating island in front of her and expressing his wish to be born there. When Leto approached Asteria, all the other islands fled. But Asteria welcomed Leto without any fear of Hera. Walking on

14256-422: The sake of rhetorical display"; and one spring to the defence: "His plays are remarkable for their range of tones and the gleeful inventiveness, which morose critics call cynical artificiality, of their construction." Unique among writers of ancient Athens, Euripides demonstrated sympathy towards the underrepresented members of society. His male contemporaries were frequently shocked by the heresies he put into

14388-485: The same locality. Lycia was sacred to the god, for this Apollo was also called Lycian. Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an oracular deity in the archaic period , and the frequency of theophoric names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia testify to his popularity. Oracular sanctuaries to Apollo were established in other sites. In

14520-405: The tattered costumes of his disreputable characters (and yet Agathon , another tragic poet, is discovered in a later play, Thesmophoriazusae , to be living in circumstances almost as bizarre). Euripides' mother was a humble vendor of vegetables, according to the comic tradition, yet his plays indicate that he had a liberal education and hence a privileged background. Euripides first competed in

14652-449: The three Moirai . Scorning the advances of Zeus, Asteria transformed herself into a bird and jumped into a sea. From her, an island rose which was called Ortygia. When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant with Zeus' child, she decreed that Leto can give birth only in a place where sun does not shine. During this time, the monster Python also started hounding Leto with an intent of killing her, because he had foreseen his death coming at

14784-518: The time of Euripides, traditional assumptions are constantly under challenge, and audiences therefore have a natural affinity with the Euripidean outlook, which seems nearer to ours, for example, than the Elizabethan. As stated above, however, opinions continue to diverge, so that modern readers might actually "seem to feel a special affinity with Sophocles"; one recent critic might dismiss the debates in Euripides' plays as "self-indulgent digression for

14916-487: The tragedian's methods; he was himself ridiculed by Cratinus , another comic poet, as: ὑπολεπτολόγος, γνωμιδιώτης, εὐριπιδαριστοφανίζων a quibbler of words, a maker of maxims, a Euripidaristophaniser According to another comic poet, Teleclides , the plays of Euripides were co-authored by the philosopher Socrates: Μνησίλοχός ἐστ᾿ ἐκεῖνος, <ὃς> φρύγει τι δρᾶμα καινόν Εὐριπίδῃ, καὶ Σωκράτης τὰ φρύγαν᾿ ὑποτίθησιν. [...] Εὐριπίδης σωκρατογόμφους. Mnesilochus

15048-421: The tragic plot, and the play appears to be the culmination of a regressive or archaizing tendency in his later works (for which see Chronology below). Believed to have been composed in the wilds of Macedonia, Bacchae also dramatizes a primitive side to Greek religion, and some modern scholars have interpreted this particular play biographically, therefore, as: One of his earliest extant plays, Medea , includes

15180-510: The views of the Schlegels and Nietzsche, constructing arguments sympathetic to Euripides, which involved Wilamowitz in this restatement of Greek tragedy as a genre: "A [Greek] tragedy does not have to end 'tragically' or be 'tragic'. The only requirement is a serious treatment." In the English-speaking world, the pacifist Gilbert Murray played an important role in popularizing Euripides, influenced perhaps by his anti-war plays. Today, as in

15312-438: The vocabulary has been expanded to allow for intellectual and psychological subtleties. Euripides has been hailed as a great lyric poet. In Medea , for example, he composed for his city, Athens, "the noblest of her songs of praise". His lyrical skills are not just confined to individual poems: "A play of Euripides is a musical whole...one song echoes motifs from the preceding song, while introducing new ones." For some critics,

15444-404: The waters, became gold. Asteria bathed the newborn, swaddled him and fed him with her breast milk. The island had become rooted and was later called Delos. Hera was no longer angry, as Zeus had managed to calm her down; and she held no grudge against Asteria, since Asteria had rejected Zeus in the past. Pindar is the earliest source who explicitly calls Apollo and Artemis as twins. Here, Asteria

15576-651: Was a Greek tragedian of classical Athens . Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles , he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete ( Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined —he became, in

15708-399: Was a sea-god worshipped especially in Crete and in the islands. Apollo's sister Artemis , who was the Greek goddess of hunting, is identified with Britomartis (Diktynna), the Minoan "Mistress of the animals". In her earliest depictions she was accompanied by the "Master of the animals", a bow-wielding god of hunting whose name has been lost; aspects of this figure may have been absorbed into

15840-417: Was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC, with parents Cleito (mother) and Mnesarchus (father), a retailer from the deme of Phlya . On receiving an oracle that his son was fated to win "crowns of victory", Mnesarchus insisted that the boy should train for a career in athletics. But the boy was destined for a career on the stage (where he was to win only five victories, one of these posthumously). He served for

15972-669: Was combined with the "Select" edition by some unknown Byzantine scholar, bringing together all the nineteen plays that survive today. The "Select" plays are found in many medieval manuscripts, but only two manuscripts preserve the "Alphabetical" plays—often denoted L and P, after the Laurentian Library at Florence, and the Bibliotheca Palatina in the Vatican, where they are stored. It is believed that P derived its Alphabet plays and some Select plays from copies of an ancestor of L, but

16104-469: Was expected to have a message. Traditional myth provided the subject matter, but the dramatist was meant to be innovative, which led to novel characterizations of heroic figures and use of the mythical past as a tool for discussing present issues. The difference between Euripides and his older colleagues was one of degree: his characters talked about the present more controversially and pointedly than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, sometimes even challenging

16236-551: Was in this way that Apollo had become recognized as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won. In the Iliad , Apollo is the healer under the gods, but he

16368-439: Was just old enough to celebrate the victory in a boys' chorus, and Euripides was born on the very day of the battle. The apocryphal account, that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island, was a late tradition, probably symbolizing the isolation of an intellectual ahead of his time. Much of his life, and his whole career, coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece, but he did not live to see

16500-445: Was lost or corrupted; but the period also included triumphs by scholars and copyists, thanks to whom much was recovered and preserved. Summaries of the transmission are often found in modern editions of the plays, three of which are used as sources for this summary. The plays of Euripides, like those of Aeschylus and Sophocles, circulated in written form. But literary conventions that we take for granted today had not been invented—there

16632-424: Was more insistent, using major characters as well. His comic touches can be thought to intensify the overall tragic effect, and his realism, which often threatens to make his heroes look ridiculous, marks a world of debased heroism: "The loss of intellectual and moral substance becomes a central tragic statement". Psychological reversals are common and sometimes happen so suddenly that inconsistency in characterization

16764-413: Was no spacing between words; no consistency in punctuation, nor elisions; no marks for breathings and accents (guides to pronunciation, and word recognition); no convention to denote change of speaker; no stage directions; and verse was written straight across the page, like prose. Possibly, those who bought texts supplied their own interpretative markings. Papyri discoveries have indicated, for example, that

16896-423: Was soon disregarded, and actors continued to make changes until about 200 BC, after which the habit ceased. It was about then that Aristophanes of Byzantium compiled an edition of all the extant plays of Euripides, collated from pre-Alexandrian texts, furnished with introductions and accompanied by a commentary that was "published" separately. This became the "standard edition" for the future, and it featured some of

17028-400: Was told that Leto's son would become more dear to Zeus than Ares. Enraged by this, Hera watched over the heavens and sent out Ares and Iris to prevent Leto from giving birth on the earth. Ares, stationed over the mainland, and Iris, over the islands, threatened all the lands and prevented them from helping Leto. When Leto arrived at Thebes, fetal Apollo prophesied from his mother's womb that in

17160-464: Was venerated as the slayer of the monstrous serpent Python . For the Greeks, Apollo was the most Greek of all the gods, and through the centuries he acquired different functions. In Archaic Greece he was the prophet , the oracular god who in older times was connected with "healing". In Classical Greece he was the god of light and of music, but in popular religion he had a strong function to keep away evil. Walter Burkert discerned three components in

17292-531: Was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollo's role as the god of light. Like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature . Apollo's birthplace was Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos . Delphi and Actium were his primary places of worship. Apollo

17424-515: Was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire . In the traditionally Celtic lands, he was most often seen as a healing and sun god. He was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character. Apollo is considered the most Hellenic (Greek) of the Olympian gods . The cult centers of Apollo in Greece, Delphi and Delos , date from the 8th century BCE. The Delos sanctuary was primarily dedicated to Artemis , Apollo's twin sister. At Delphi, Apollo

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