ABSTRACT
IN T R O D U C T IO N T he Euripidean plays discussed below very likely appeared between 430 and 415 B.C. T he three Sophoclean plays, on the other hand, are notoriously difficult to date. Oedipus Rex is perhaps the most certain to fall in this period; the other two are considered here because they illum inate and are illum inated by two of the Euripidean plays confidently placed in these years. First, Sophocles’ Women o f Trachis and Euripides’ Hercules Furens both depend indirectly on Aeschylus’ Oresteia - especially the Agamemnon: both Sophocles and Euripides tell the story of H eracles’ return as a variation on that of Agamemnon. Second, the Oresteia has an even more direct influence on the Electra plays of both playwrights. Thus the four plays, at once sim ilar in being connected to the Oresteia yet different in their m anner of connection, form a natural unit.In the rem aining six plays the nature and extent of im itation and allusion vary widely. Some provide little more in the way of allusion than the early Aeschylean plays; others seem closer to the early work of Euripides and Sophocles, although never as extensively allusive as the plays discussed in the last chapter. As a whole, the plays help further to establish patterns of allusion and im itation seen in the earlier plays. In addition, they provide examples of some techniques seen first in this period and then repeated in later plays as well.
