Thought of Euripides
As a thinker, Euripides was far ahead of his day. His scope was broad. Social, philosophical, and theological problems were all treated in various degrees in his plays.
Unlike Aeschylus, Euripides had no positively formulated theology to present. He was interested not so much in strictly religious problems as he was in those of ethics, in the representation of man confronting the evil and pain of existence, sometimes strong, sometimes pathetically frail in his resistance. Though not an orthodox believer in the pagan anthropomorphic god of his day, Euripides was not an atheist. He criticized the orthodox views of the gods in the light of morality and reason. He did not write to discredit the power of the deities of his day. Rather, he emphasized their power; but he depicted them as he found them, possessing both good and evil qualities : he showed the gods, as she showed human, as they were, not as they ought to be. Often they were eternal elemental forces in eternal conflict with one another; man was subject to them, he was part of their battleground and he could expect small consideration from them. It was man’s job to adapt himself to these forces as best he could. The careful, detailed, psychological study of this struggle to adapt, of this battle to resolve the conflict occurring between individuals or within a single individual, is an important element of many of Euripides’ tragedies.
He is the poet of the world’s grief. He feels the pitifulness of human life, as of children suffering helplessly what they do not know and can never understand. No poet’s ear has ever been so sensitively attuned as his to the still, sad music of humanity.
