Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/118

104 tells us, of seeking his pupils among youths of high rank. (Plat. Apol. p. 19, e.; Stallb. ad loc.; Arist. Rhet. iii. 14. § 9; Philostr. Vit. Soph. Prodicus.) It is said that the future distinction of Euripides was predicted by an oracle, promising that he should be crowned with "sacred garlands," in consequence of which his father had him trained to gymnastic exercises; and we learn that, while yet a boy, he won the prize at the Eleusinian and Thesean contests (see Dict. of Ant. pp. 374, 964), and offered himself, when 17 years old, as a candidate at the Olympic games, but was not admitted because of some doubt about his age. (Oenom. ap. Euseb. Praep. Evan. v. 33; Gell. xv, 20.) Some trace of his early gymnastic pursuits is remarked by Mr. Keble (Prael. Acad. xxix. p. 605) in the detailed description of the combat between Eteocles and Polynices in the Phoenissae. (v. 1392, &c.) Soon, however, abandoning these, he studied the art of painting (Thom. Mag. Vit. Eur.; Suid. s. v.), not, as we learn, without success; and it has been observed that the veiled figure of Agamemnon in the Iphigeneia of Timanthes was probably suggested by a line in Euripides' description of the same scene. (Iph. in Aul. 1550; Barnes, ad loc.; comp. Ion, 183, &c.) To philosophy and literature he devoted himself with much interest and energy, studying physics under Anaxagoras, and rhetoric, as we have already seen, under Prodicus. (Diod. i. 7, 38; Strab. xiv. p. 645 ; Heracl. Pont. Alleg. Homer. § 22.) We learn also from Athenaeus that he was a great book-collector, and it is recorded of him that he committed to memory certain treatises of Heracleitus, which he found hidden in the temple of Artemis, and which he was the first to introduce to the notice of Socrates. (Athen. i. p. 3, a.; Tatian, Or. c. Graec. p. 143, b.; Hartung, Eur. Rest. p. 131.) His intimacy with the latter is beyond a doubt, though we must reject the statement of Gellius (l. c.), that he received instruction from him in moral science, since Socrates was not born till B. C. 468, twelve years after the birth of Euripides. Traces of the teaching of Anaxagoras have been remarked in many passages both of the extant plays and of the fragments, and were impressed especially on the lost tragedy of Melanippa the Wise. (Orest. 645, 971; Pors. ad loc.; Plat. Apol. p. 26, d. e.; Troad. 879, Hel. 1014; Fragm. Melanipp., ed. Wagner, p. 255; Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 26; Hartung, p. 109; Barnes, ad Eur. Heracl. 529; Valck. Diatr. c. 4, &c.) The philosopher is also supposed to be alluded to in the Alcestis (v. 925, &c.; comp. Cic. Tusc. Disp. iii. 14). "We do not know," says Müller (Greek Literature, p. 358), "what induced a person with such tendencies to devote himself to tragic poetry." He is referring apparently to the opposition between the philosophical convictions of Euripides and the mythical legends which formed the subjects of tragedy; otherwise it does not clearly appear why poetry should be thought incompatible with philosophical pursuits. If, however, we may trust the account in Gellius (l. c.), it would seem,—and this is not unimportant for our estimation of his poetical character,—that the mind of Euripides was led at a very early period to that which afterwards became the business of his life, since he wrote a tragedy at the age of eighteen. That it was, therefore, exhibited, and that it was probably no other than the Rhesus are points unwarrantably concluded by Hartung (p. 6, &c.), who ascribes also to the same date the composition of the Veiled Hippolytus. The representation of the Peliades, the first play of Euripides which was acted, at least in his own name, took place in B. C. 455. This statement rests on the authority of his anonymous life, edited by Elmsley from a MS. in the Ambrosian library, and compared with that by Thomas Magister; and it is confirmed by the life in the MSS. of Paris, Vienna, and Copenhagen. In B. C. 441, Euripides gained for the first time the first prize, and he continued to exhibit plays until B. C. 408, the date of the Orestes. (See Clinton, sub annis.) Soon after this he left Athens for the court of, king of Macedonia, his reasons for which step can only be matter of conjecture. Traditionary scandal has ascribed it to his disgust at the intrigue of his wife with Cephisophon, and the ridicule which was showered upon him in consequence by the comic poets. But the whole story in question has been sufficiently refuted by Hartung (p. 165, &c.), though objections may be taken to one or two of his assumptions and arguments. The anonymous author of the life of Euripides reports that he married Choerilla, daughter of Mnesilochus, and that, in consequence of her infidelity, he wrote the Hippolytus to satirize the sex, and divorced her. He then married again, and his second wife, named Melitto, proved no better than the first. Now the Hippolytus was acted in B. C. 428, the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes in 414, and at the latter period Euripides was still married to Choerilla, Mnesilochus being spoken of as his with no hint of the connexion having ceased. (See Thesm. 210, 289.) But what can be more unlikely than that Euripides should have allowed fourteen years to elapse between his discovery of his wife's infidelity and his divorce of her? or that Aristophanes should have made no mention of so piquant an event in the Thesmophoriazusae? It may be said, however, that the name Choerilla is a mistake of the grammarians for Melitto; that it was the latter whose infidelity gave rise to the Hippolytus; and that the intrigue of the former with Cephisophon, subsequent to 414, occasioned Euripides to leave Athens. But this is inconsistent with Choerilla's age, according to Hartung, who argues thus:—Euripides had three sons by this lady, the youngest of whom must have been born not later hanthan [sic] 434, for he exhibited plays of his father (?) in 404, and must at that time, therefore (?), have been thirty years old (comp. Hartung, p. 6); consequently Choerilla must have become the wife of Euripides not later than 440. At the time, then, of her alleged adultery she must have been upwards of fifty, and must have been married thirty years. But it may be urged that Choerilla may have died soon after the representation of the Thesmophoriazusae (and no wonder, says Hartung, if her death was hastened by so atrocious an attack on her husband and her father!), and Euripides may then have married a young wife, Melitto, who played him false. To this it is answered, that it is clear from the Frogs that his friendship with Cephisophon, the supposed gallant, continued unbroken till his death. After all, however, the silence of Aristophanes is the best refutation of the calumny. [.] With respect to the real reason for the poet's removal into Macedonia, it is clear that an invitation from Archelaus, at whose court the highest honours