The Tragedies of Euripides

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The Tragedies of Euripides
EuripidesTragedies1781v1.jpg

Title page from The Tragedies of Euripides, volume one, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.

Author Euripides
Editor {{{editor}}}
Translator Robert Potter
Published London: Printed for J. Dodsley, Pall-Mall
Date 1781-1783
Edition {{{edition}}}
Language English
Volumes 2 volume set
Pages {{{pages}}}
Desc. 4to (29 cm.)
Location [[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
  [[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]
Frontispiece, volume two.
Euripides was an Athenian tragic poet/playwright who lived c. 485-406 BCE, making him the youngest of the three great Athenian tragedians – the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles.[1] Little is known about his life, though we do know that he was interested in the human mind and therefore associated with sophists such as Anaxagoras, Socrates and Protagoras, disregarding the temptation of using his fame to become a prominent political player in Athens.[2] Euripides won just four victories at the famous Dionysia theater competition, ranking him much lower than Aeschylus and Sophocles, with 13 and 18 victories respectively.[3] However, more than twice of Euripides’ plays have survived to modern times than of Aeschylus or Sophocles.[4] Euripides allegedly wrote 92 plays, 80 for which titles are known, and 19 of which are extant.[5] Extreme emotions and unorthodox events are prevalent in Euripides’ writing (often shown through the use of the Chorus) as his characters battle societal pressures, torturous situations, and inner conflicts – highlighting “his awareness that personality is inherently a fragmented thing, different aspects being displayed at different times.”[6] Though toward the end of his life, not only did Euripides leave plays unperformed, but his plays became less tragic offering audiences an easier experience without having to face painful reality as closely.[7] Additionally, the importance of the Chorus and the prevalence of songs decreased in these later plays.[8]


This particular collection of Euripides’ tragic plays is in two volumes containing all of his eighteen extant tragedies. The first volume includes The Bacchae, Ion, Alcestis, Medea, The Phoenician Virgins, Hippolytus, The Suppliants, Hercules, and The Heraclidae. The second volume includes Iphigenia in Aulis, Rhesus, The Trojan Dames (The Trojan Women), Hecuba, Helena, Electra, Orestes, Iphigenia in Tauris, and Andromache. The only extant work excluded is Cyclops, a satyr play.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Potter's Euripides. 2.v. 4to." This was one of the sets kept by Thomas Jefferson. He later sold a copy of "Euripides, Eng. by Potter" to the Library of Congress in 1815, but it no longer exists to verify Wythe's prior ownership.[9] Both the Brown Bibliography[10] and George Wythe's Library[11] on LibraryThing include the London 1781-1783 edition based on E. Millicent Sowerby's inclusion of that edition in Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson. The Wolf Law Library purchased a copy of the same edition.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary speckled calf with flat spines with red morocco lettering pieces. Purchased from Blackwell Rare Books.

View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

  1. ↑ "Euri'pidēs” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
  2. ↑ Ibid.
  3. ↑ "Euripidēs" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. by John Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
  4. ↑ Ibid.
  5. ↑ "Euri'pidēs” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.
  6. ↑ Ibid.
  7. ↑ "Euripidēs" in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World.
  8. ↑ Ibid.
  9. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:532 (no.4530).
  10. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
  11. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed February 27, 2014.

External Links

Read volume two of this book at Hathi Books.

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