Euripides was an innovative ancient Greek playwright, a reformer of classical tragedy, and the great “philosopher of the stage.”
One of the first in ancient Greek drama, Euripides turned to the inner world of the hero—to his soul and thoughts. Preserving the old tragic form, with mythological and legendary plots and names, a chorus and masks, Euripides rose to depicting universal human passions and suffering. In his tragedies, he addresses the most important philosophical and moral problems—the nature of gods and people, the crisis of Athenian democracy, the rights of slaves, the fate of women, and relationships in the family.