132 EURIPIDES. of the stirring events of that momentous crisis. His father was certainly a man of property, else how could his son have been a pupil of the extravagant 1 Prodicus? It would appear that he was also born of a good family 2. But this is no argument, as Philo- chorus supposes^, against the implications of Aristophanes^, and the direct statement of Theopompus^, that his mother was a seller of herbs ; for it is quite possible that his father may have made a marriage of disparagement. Like Sophocles, he was well edu- cated. He attended the lectures of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and Pro- tagoras ; and was so well versed in the gymnastic exercises of the day, that he gained two victories in the Eleusinian and Thesean athletic games when only seventeen years old. Mnesarchus had intended that he should enter the lists of Olympia among the younger combatants, but some objection was raised against him on the score of age, and he was excluded from the contest^. To his other accomplishments he added a taste for painting, which he cul- tivated with some success ; a few specimens of his talents in this respect were preserved for many years at Megara. He brought out his first Tragedy, the Peliades, in (B.C.) 455', consequently at an earlier age than either of his predecessors. He was third on this occasion, but gained the first prize fourteen years after®, and also in
- See Rhein. Mus. for 1832, p, 2 2 fol.
2 Athenseus, x. p. 424. 3 Apud Suid, Evpnr.
- UpoirrjXaKt^o/M^uas opQa vixas virb
'Evpnridov, toO ttjs XaxavoTrojXrjTpias. Thesmoph. 386. Again, speaking of Euripides, the female orator says — "Aypia yap rjp-ois, (S yvvacKes, dpq! /ca/cct, "At' ev dypioiai tols Xaxdvois aurbs rpacpeis. 455. Dicseopolis, in the Acharnians, among his other requests, says to Euripides— HiKavbiKO. fioi, 86s, fJLTjTpodev dedeyfi^voi. 454. The same insinuation is more obscurely conveyed in the Equites — Ni/c. TTcDs hv ovv TTore WiiTOLp!' hv avrb drJTa KOfxpevpLirLKQ)'i ; Arjfi. M?7 fioi ye, /xtj fioi, p.T] diacTKavdiKicrris. I'J. And in the Ranee: Aiax- "AX7?^es, J ttol ttjs dpovpaias 6eov ; 839. ^ Euripidis poette matrem Theopompus agrestia olera vendentem victum quaesisse dicit. Noct. Alt. xv. 20. ^ Mnesarchus, roborato exercitatoque filii sui corpore, Olympiam certaturura inter athletas pueros deduxit. Ac primo quidem in certamen per ambiguam setatem receptus non est. Post Eleusinio et Thesseo certamine pugnavit et coronatus est. Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. xv. 20. Arund, Marble, No. 61. It appears, however, that he had applied himself to dramatic composition before this. Aul. Gell. XV. 20. See Hartung, Euri'pides Resti- tutus, I. pp. 6 sqq. s Ai'und, Marble, 6r.
