Euripides -- Criticism and interpretation; Mythology, Greek, in literature; Tragedy
The Lives can best be read in the edition of the _Scholia_ by Ed.
Schwartz (Berlin, 1887). To this must now be added the fragments of
Satyrus in _Oxyrhyncus Papyri_, vol. ix. (also contained, though without
Dr. Hunt's introduction, in Arnim's _Supplementum Euripideum_; see
above). The ancient references to the facts of Euripides' life are
admirably collected in vol. i. of Nauck's small text of _Euripides_. See
also Wilamowitz's _Herakles_, pp. 1-40.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE PLAYS.--Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Analecta
Euripidea_ (Berlin, 1875). Grace Macurdy, _The Chronology of the
extant Plays of Euripides_ (Columbia University, 1905).
LOST PLAYS.--Fragments in Nauck; see above. No complete
translation. A good many of the lost plays are treated and
fragments translated in the Appendix to Murray's _Euripides,
Athenian Drama_, vol. ii.; see above. The classical work on this
subject is still Welcker's _Griechische Tragoedie_, a great book: 3
vols. (Leipzig, 1839-41.) Hartung's _Euripides Restitutus_, 2 vols.
(Hamburg, 1844), is uncritical and somewhat prejudiced against
Welcker, but has much charm.
ANTIQUITIES, ETC.--The standard book is Haigh's _Attic Theatre_,
3rd edition, by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge (Oxford, 1907). See also
_Greek Tragedy_ by J. T. Sheppard (Cambridge Manuals) and _Greek
Drama_ by Barnet in Dent's Series.
PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK NAMES
Greek names have mostly come to the modern world through Latin and
consequently are generally given in their Latin form. Thus in Latin the
K-sound was denoted by C; KH by CH, AI- by AE; OU- by U; U by Y, which
is really a Greek letter taken over into Latin for this express purpose.
Also one or two common terminations are given in their Latin form,
Homêros becoming Homerus, Apollon Apollo, and Alexandros Alexander. This
difference in writing did not mean a difference in pronunciation; the
Latin _Aeschylus_ was pronounced (except perhaps in the termination)
exactly like the Greek "_Aiskhulos_," _Thucydides_ like "_Thoukudides_."
The conventional English pronunciation follows the Latin form and
pronounces all vowels and diphthongs as in English, except that E is
always pronounced, and never used merely to lengthen a previous vowel:
e.g., "Euripides" rhymes with "insipid ease," not with "glides,"
"Hermione" roughly with "bryony," not with "tone." OE and AE are
pronounced as one syllable, like "ee" in "free," except when marked as
two syllables, as "Arsinoë." EU as in "feud." Of the consonants C is
pronounced as in English, CH as K. The only difficulty then is to know
where the stress comes and what vowels are long or short.
By Latin custom, if the last syllable but one is long, it will have the
stress (as _surprísing_, _everlásting_, _Achílles_, _Agamémnon_); if the
last syllable but one is short, the stress will be on the syllable
before (as _ádamant_, _dángerous_, _Aéschylus_, _Thucýdides_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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