Greek Playwrights

Greek playwrights are people who wrote the plays before they are performed, in other words, they write the script of the play. One of these playwrights is Euripides. He was the tragedian of Athens, which means that he wrote the tragic plays, such as Medea. He was born on Salamis Island in around 480BC. His parents were Cleito (his mother) and Mnesarchus (his father) was a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. When an Oracle said that his son was destined to win "crowns of victory", Mnesarchus insisted that Euripides should train for a job in athletics, but Euripedes was destined to be a playwright, even though he won only 5 times. He served for a short time as a dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His schooling …show more content…
He was born in Eleusis, a town north-west of Athens. When he was young he worked at a vineyard, until, according to some, the Greek god Dionysus appeared to him in a dream, saying that he should start writing tragedies. As soon he woke up he started writing his first tragedy, and his first performance was at 499BC when he was only 26 years of age. The Persian war played a big part in Aeschylus’ life. He and his friend Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens, though Cynegeirus died trying to prevent a Persian ship from leaving Athens. In 480BC he was recalled into military service against King Xerxes the 1st’s invading forces in the battle of Salamis. In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting Gela, the city where he died in either 456 or 455 BC. Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle which had mistaken his bald head for a rock which was hard enough for shattering the shell of the tortoise. Pliny the Younger said that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to prevent a prophecy that said he would be killed by a falling object, but no one can say this is true or not, because this might just be a misinterpreted picture on his