III.

A New Consciousness

In contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides represented the new moral, social, and political movements that were taking place in Athens towards the end of the 5th century bc. It was a period of enormous intellectual discovery, in which “wisdom” ranked as the highest earthly accomplishment. Anaxagoras had just proven that air was an element, and that the Sun was not a divinity but matter. New truths were being established in all departments of knowledge, and Euripides, reacting to them, brought a new kind of consciousness to the writing of tragedy. His interest lay in the thought and experience of the ordinary individual rather than in the experiences of legendary figures of the heroic past.

Although Euripides drew on the old mythology, he treated its characters in a realistic fashion; they were no longer idealized symbols remote from commonplace life, but contemporary Athenians. Euripides shared in the intellectual scepticism of the day, and his plays challenged the religious and moral dogmas of the past, which had not yet fallen into disbelief among the people. His moods and attitudes shifted between extremes, sometimes within the boundaries of the same play; he was capable of the bitter, realistic observation of human weaknesses and corruption, and yet just as often his work reflected respect for human heroism, dignity, and more tender sentiments.