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Euripides
Euripides , 480 or 485-406 BC, Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles . Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time on Salamis. He died in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. He wrote perhaps 92 plays (the first produced in 455); dur...
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Hermione
Hermione , in Greek mythology, the only daughter of Helen and Menelaus . When Helen eloped with Paris, Hermione was abandoned to the care of Clytemnestra. She later married Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. In Euripides' Andromache, she is carried off by Orestes who marries her after he has c...
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Electra
Electra , in Greek mythology. 1 Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. After her mother and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon, Electra, eager for revenge, longed only for the return of her brother, Orestes . The reunion and vengeance of the brother and sister were dramatized by the three great traged...
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Andromache
Andromache , in Greek mythology, Trojan princess, wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax. After the Trojan War she was carried away by Neoptolemus , whose father, Achilles, had slain her husband. She later married Hector's brother Helenus and they jointly ruled Epirus. She is a noble figure in the ...
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes , c.448 BC-c.388 BC, Greek playwright, Athenian comic poet, greatest of the ancient writers of comedy . His plays, the only full extant samples of the Greek Old Comedy, mix political, social, and literary satire. The direct attack on persons, the severity of invective, and the burlesqu...
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Creon
Creon , a name given to several minor legendary Greek kings. In the legend of Oedipus, Creon is the brother of Jocasta and after the death of Oedipus' sons becomes king of Thebes. In Euripides' Medea, Creon is the king of Corinth and is murdered by the vengeful Medea. Apollodorus portrays him as a...
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Lycurgus
Lycurgus c.396-c.325 BC, one of the Ten Attic Orators of the Alexandrian canon; pupil of Isocrates. A capable and honored public official, he administered the state finances from 338 to 326 BC and led (with Demosthenes) the anti-Macedonian party. One of his official acts ordered the editing and pre...
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Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus , in Greek legend, son of Achilles. In the Trojan War he proved himself brave but cruel. He killed Priam at the altar of Zeus and threw Astyanax, son of Hector, from the wall of Troy. After the war he took Andromache as a slave to his kingdom in Epirus. Later he abandoned her for Hermion...
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Alcestis
Alcestis , in Greek mythology, daughter of Pelias . She was won in marriage by Admetus, who fulfilled her father's condition that her suitor come for her in a chariot pulled by a wild boar and a lion. So great was her devotion that when Admetus was granted life by the gods if someone would die in h...
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Hecuba
Hecuba , in Greek mythology, chief wife of Priam, king of Troy. Hecuba bore to Priam 19 children, including Paris, Hector, Troilus, Cassandra, and others who were prominent in the Trojan War. To save Polydorus, her youngest son, from the Greeks, Hecuba sent him to Polymnestor, king of Thrace. After ...
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