- He may have written as many as 92 plays, but only 18 have survived.
- Much of what we know about him comes from a papyrus entitled Life and Race of Eurpides which was discovered in Egypt in 1911. The Papyrus is 2,000 years old, and the author signed it as "Satyrus", which suggests a lot of what's written in it may be somewhat tongue in cheek!
- He wasn't very popular during his lifetime, especially not among women. They took exception with the misogynistic portrayals of his heroines, and according to Satyrus, some of them convened a meeting to discuss what to do about it. Euripides asked his father in law to dress up as a woman so he could attend the meeting and report back. Another playwright of the time, Aristophanes, used the event in one of his comedy plays.
- It wasn't only women who disliked him. Audiences in general didn't like the way he portrayed kings and mythical heroes, as human beings with human weaknesses, and he also made enemies for denouncing the invasion of the island of Melos by Athens. He wrote a play about it, called The Trojan Women, in which Athens enslaves a foreign people. He got exiled for that, and it's said that the people of Athens cheered.
- That said, Euripides represented his society's minorities with sympathy. He even had a child-free heroine - Medea, who said, "Sooner would I stand Three times to face their battles, shield in hand, Than bear one child." Needless to say, the men of the time weren't impressed.
- His father was a shopkeeper called Mnesarchus and his mother's name was Cleito. He was born on Salamis Island.
- When he was born, his parents consulted an oracle, who said that their son was fated to win "crowns of victory". They took that to mean that he was going to be an Olympic athlete and made sure his education included plenty of sport. However, the crowns of victory he won turned out to be in a dramatic festival held in Athens to honour the god Dionysus. He won the festival contest four times.
- Perhaps his less than sympathetic portrayal of women in his work came about because both his two wives, Melite and Cheorine, were unfaithful to him.
- In later life, he lived as a recluse in a cave on Salamis, where he is said to have done a lot of his writing.
- Some of his plays which have survived are Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, Electra and Heracles. Another is Cyclops, which is the only example of a satyr play to survive. A satyr play would be the final play in a series of four. The first three would be tragedies and the satyr play would be a bawdy comedy to lighten the mood at the end.
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Obsidian's Ark
Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.
Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?
When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?
Themes:
Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.
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