Ten plays /

　　the first playwright of democracy, euripides wrote with enduring insight and biting satire about social and political problems of athenian life. in contrast to his contemporaries, he brought an exciting--and, to the greeks, a stunning--realism to the "pure and noble form" of tragedy. for the first time in history, heroes and heroines on the stage were not idealized: as sophocles himself said, euripides shows people not as they ought to be, but as they actually are. 　　the first playwright of democracy, euripides wrote with enduring insight and biting satire about social and political problems of athenian life. in contrast to his contemporaries, he brought an exciting--and, to the greeks, a stunning--realism to the "pure and noble form" of tragedy. for the first time in history, heroes and heroines on the stage were not idealized: as sophocles himself said, euripides shows people not as they ought to be, but as they actually are. 　　the first playwright of democracy, euripides wrote with enduring insight and biting satire about social and political problems of athenian life. in contrast to his contemporaries, he brought an exciting--and, to the greeks, a stunning--realism to the "pure and noble form" of tragedy. for the first time in history, heroes and heroines on the stage were not idealized: as sophocles himself said, euripides shows people not as they ought to be, but as they actually are. 　　 作者简介： 　　little is known of the life of euripides. he was born about 485 b.c. on the island of salamis and may have begun a career as a painter before writing in the drama competitions in 455 b.c. during his lifetime his plays were often produced, but he won the athenian drama prize only four times. he died in 406 b.c.