Of the three poets of Greek tragedy whose work survives, Euripides is the one whose plays survive in the largest number (eighteen, in contrast to seven each for Aeschylus and Sophocles). His plays are notable for containing both tragic pathos and the nimble play of ideas. In antiquity, at least from the time shortly after his death about 407 or 406 B.C., Euripides was immensely popular and his dramas were performed wherever theatres existed. His influence continued through later antiquity and into the Renaissance and beyond, shaping French, German, Italian, and English literature until well into the twentieth century.

For the biography of Euripides, as for those of most ancient writers, reliable evidence is in short supply. By the time curiosity about the poet's life developed, almost all the means to satisfy it had disappeared. The biographical tradition passes on conjectures based both on Euripides' plays and on his...