C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been sent
thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was given up,
and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population, and the
national defense. Mr. Donaldson[1] well remarks, that the patronymic form
of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the attention
of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the time.

Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it is
probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at least
possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense bestowed
upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and
Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and rhetoric in its
sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a successful prowess,
being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean games. Of his skill in
painting, some specimens were preserved at Megara.

His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced the
"Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize
in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a
disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his
"domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance
with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavorable to the
continuance of his popularity.

The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacchae," appears to
have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by
dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works, the
mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of AEschylus, been
associated with the marvelous.

The Athenians vainly craved the