Origins and Life of Euripides III

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M = reading of the whole MS tradition
m = reading of part of the MS tradition
P = reading on a papyrus
 

1 φασὶ cf. FGrHist 328 F 219 δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν Σαλαμῖνι σπήλαιον κατασκευάσαντα ἀναπνοὴν ἔχον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ἐκεῖσε διημερεύειν φεύγοντα τὸν ὄχλον. ὅθεν καὶ ἐκ θαλάσσης λαμβάνει τὰς πλείους τῶν ὁμοιώσεων. σκυθρωπὸς δὲ καὶ σύννους καὶ αὐστηρὸς ἐφαίνετο καὶ μισόγελως καὶ μισογύνης καὶ μισογόνης Westermann : καὶ μισογρόνης m : καὶ ἰσογροίης m : om. m : del. Schwartz, καθὰ καὶ Ἀριστοφάνης αὐτὸν αἰτιᾶται·

στρυφνὸς ἔμοιγε προσειπεῖν {Εὐριπίδης} {Εὐριπίδης} Schwartz.

1 They say that he furnished a cave on Salamis whose opening faced the sea and spent his days there, fleeing the crowds. For this reason he takes most of his similes from the sea. He gave the impression of being sullen, gloomy and crabbed, as well as laughter-hating and misogynistic. For this Aristophanes, too, finds fault with him:

‘I find {Euripides} sour to talk to.’

2 λέγουσι δὲ αὐτὸν γήμαντα τὴν Μνησιλόχου θυγατέρα Χοιρίλην Χοιρίλην Kannicht (cf. Vita Ia (8)) : Χοιρίλλην M καὶ νοήσαντα τὴν ἀκολασίαν αὐτῆς γράψαι πρῶτον τὸ δρᾶμα τὸν Ἱππόλυτον πρῶτον τὸ δρᾶμα τὸν Ἱππόλυτον Schwartz : πρώτων τὸ δρᾶμα τὸν Ἱππόλυτον m : πρῶτον δρᾶμα τὸν Ἱππόλυτον Dindorf : δρᾶμα τὸν πρότερον Ἱππόλυτον Kirchhoff : πρότερον τὸ δρᾶμα τὴν Ἱππόλυτην m, ἐν ὧι τὴν ἀναισχυντίαν θριαμβεύει τῶν γυναικῶν, ἔπειτα δὲ αὐτὴν ἀποπέμψασθαι. λέγοντος δὲ τοῦ γήμαντος αὐτὴν “σωφρονεῖ σωφρονεῖ Bloch : σωφρονεῖν M παρ’ ἐμοί”, “δύστηνος εἶ” ἔφη “εἰ γυναῖκα γυναῖκα del. Schwartz δοκεῖς παρ’ ὧι μὲν αὐτὴν σωφρονεῖν, παρ’ ὧι δὲ μή Nauck observed that the story is a fiction based on El. 923-4.”. ἐπιγῆμαι δὲ αὐτὸν δευτέραν, ἣν εὐρὼν ἀκολαστοτέραν προχειροτέρως εἰς τὴν κατὰ τῶν γυναικῶν βλασφημίαν ἐθρασύνετο. αἱ δὲ γυναῖκες ἐβουλήθησαν αὐτὸν κτεῖναι εἰσελθοῦσαι εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον, ἐν ὧι γράφων διετέλει.

2 They say that, after marrying Choirile the daughter of Mnesilochus, when he realized that she was licentious, he first wrote the play Hippolytus, in which he proclaims the impudence of women, and then divorced her. When the man who subsequently married her said, ‘She is modest with me,’ he said, ‘You are a poor wretch if you think that a woman is modest with one man and with another not so.’ They say that he married a second woman, and when he discovered that she was even more licentious than the first he readily became bolder in his slander of women. The women wanted to kill him, going into the cave in which he spent his time writing.

3 διαβάλλεται δὲ ὑπὸ φθόνου ὡς τὸν Κηφισοφῶντα εἶχε συμποιοῦντα αὐτῶι τὰς τραγωιδίας.

3 A slanderous accusation was made, motivated by envy, that he had Cephisophon composing his tragedies with him.

4 λέγει δὲ καὶ Ἕρμιππος Fr. 94 Wehrli Διονύσιον τὸν Σικελίας τύραννον μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ Εὐριπίδου τάλαντον τοῖς κληρονόμοις αὐτοῦ πέμψαντα λαβεῖν τὸ ψαλτήριον καὶ τὴν δέλτον καὶ τὸ γραφεῖον, ἅπερ ἰδόντα κελεῦσαι τοὺς φέροντας ἐν τῶι Μουσῶν ἱερῶι ἀναθεῖναι ἐπιγράψαντα τοῖς αὐτοῦ αὐτοῦ M : αὑτοῦ Nauck ⟨καὶ⟩ ⟨καὶ⟩ Pflugk, Kirchhoff Εὐριπίδου ὀνόμασι. διὸ καὶ ξενοφιλώτατον κεκλῆσθαί φασι διὰ τὸ μάλιστα ὑπὸ ξένων φιλεῖσθαι· ὑπὸ γὰρ Ἀθηναίων ἐφθονεῖτο.

4 Hermippus says that, after Euripides’ death, Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, sent a talent to his heirs for his harp, writing tablet and stylus, and that, when he had seen them, he ordered those who brought them to dedicate them in the shrine of the Muses, inscribing them with his and Euripides’ names. For this reason, they say that he is called ‘most loved by foreigners’, since foreigners loved him exceedingly. For the Athenians were jealous of him.

5 μειρακίου δέ τινος ἀπαιδευτοτέρου στόμα δυσῶδες ἔχειν ὑπὸ φθόνου αὐτὸν εἰπόντος, “εὐφήμει” ἔφη· “μέλιτος καὶ Σειρήνων γλυκύτερον στόμα”.

5 Once, when, a rather uneducated young lad said maliciously that he had bad breath, he replied, ‘Hush! My mouth is sweeter than honey and the Sirens.’

Relevant guides	Euripides