30. The following are the extant plays which can be dated from distinct notices:
| B.C. 438. | Ol. 85.3, | Alcestis | B.C. 413. | Ol. 91.4, | Helena. | |
| B.C.„ 431. | Ol.„ 87.1, | Medea. | B.C.„ 408. | Ol.„ 92.4, | Orestes. | |
| B.C.„ 428. | Ol.„ 87.4, | Hippolytus. | B.C.„ 407. | Ol.„ 93.2, | Phœnissæ. | |
| B.C.„ 416. | Ol.„ 91.1, | Troades. |
Some others can be approximately fixed from allusions in Aristophanes, when they were recent, viz. the Heraclidæ and Hecuba about Ol. 88; and the posthumous Bacchæ and Iphigenia in Aulis, in Ol. 93, the third year of which was the last of the poet's life. The remainder, to whose date we have no clue except inferences from style, are the Raging Heracles, Andromache, Ion, Tauric Iphigenia, Supplices, Electra, and the satyric Cyclops.
The fixing of the undated plays from internal evidence is of course a favourite occupation with the learned, partly on metrical grounds, such as those of Dindorf, who thinks a preference for dactylico-trochaic metres indicates early, and for glyconic metres late dates in the poet's life; partly, again, on æsthetic grounds, such as the irrelevance of the chorus or the prominence of monodies. But all these arguments can be refuted by the very same evidence, and there is no possibility either of placing the plays in their chronological order, or, if we did, of learning aught from it concerning the mental history of this many-sided and ever-changing dramatist, who is perfectly mature in our earliest work, the Alcestis, and has lost nothing in power and beauty when he reached the end of his labours. Had he indeed lived to perfect the Iphigenia in Aulis, it would certainly have been the finest of all his extant plays.
I shall therefore discard the order of time, and seek to group together the plays according to their artistic resemblances, so that we may first inquire into the broad features of Euripides' plots, and then proceed to consider his characters.
31. Before proceeding to discuss the plots, I may premise that though the poet generally, perhaps always,
