Euripides

Born around 480 BC, Euripides became one of the most important playwrights of ancient Greece. He is traditionally linked with Athens and wrote during the city's great classical period, when drama was central to public life and religious festivals.

Ancient sources credit him with around 90 plays, though only a fraction survive complete. Even so, those surviving tragedies had enormous influence: works such as Medea, Hippolytus, The Trojan Women, Electra, and The Bacchae are still read and performed because of their emotional force and their interest in people under extreme pressure.

What makes Euripides stand out is the way he brings mythic stories close to ordinary human feeling. His characters often argue, doubt, suffer, and surprise us, which gives his drama a vivid modern edge even after more than two thousand years. He died in 406 BC, but his work remained central to theater, literature, and the study of tragedy.