Trojan Women

Euripides was born in Athens, Greece, around 485 B.C. He became one of the best-known and most influential dramatists in classical Greek culture. Over his career as a poet and dramatist, Euripides wrote approximately 90 plays, 19 of which have survived through manuscripts. Of the three most famous tragic dramatists to come out of ancient Greece—the others being Aeschylus and Sophocles—Euripides was the last and perhaps the most influential. Like all the major playwrights of his time, Euripides competed in the annual Athenian dramatic festivals held in honor of the god Dionysus. He first entered the festival in 455, and he won the first of his four victories in 441. His most famous tragedies, which reinvent Greek myths and probe the darker side of human nature, include Medea, The Bacchae, Hippolytus, Alcestis and The Trojan Women. Euripides’s work is notable for its strong, complex female characters who are represented as both victims and avengers. He often made indirect commentary on current events, as is evident in The Trojan Women, which was written during the Pelopennesian War (431-404 B.C.).