Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/22

xviii understand why, simply for appearance' sake, the latter are counted by tens), I have followed Paley, with, I believe, but one deviation in this volume, viz., where, in the Hippolytus, l. 817 sqq., I have adopted Mahaffy and Bury's strophic arrangement.

I have taken the plays in the commonly received chronological order. This gives to the reader the interest of tracing the development of the poet's genius (so far as can be judged from eighteen plays remaining out of about eighty), and seems preferable to the plan, adopted by earlier translators, of grouping the plays according to subjects (Trojan War, House of Thebes, etc.), since the interest of a continuous story thus obtained is marred by the fact that certain plays of the same group (e.g., Hecuba, Troades, Helena) are inconsistent with each other, involving situations mutually exclusive, the poet not having followed the same legend throughout the series. Subjoined is a list of the plays in chronological order (conjectural), dates being given where regarded as fairly certain:—

480 Euripides born. Year of Thermopylæ and Salamis.

455 First representation of a play by Euripides.

439 Alcestis.

431 Medea. Peloponnesian War begins, lasting till after Euripides' death.

429 Hippolytus.

Hecuba.

Ion.

420 Suppliants. Athens allied with Argos, and at war with Thebes.

Andromache.

Heracleidæ. Athens at war with Argos.