According to an ancient notice preserved among the marginal notes (scholia) in our medieval manuscripts, Euripides’ Andromache was not produced at Athens and hence the Athenian production record does not supply a date. The same notice tells us that the author name on the play was not Euripides but Democrates. We have no idea what led to these two odd circumstances. About its Euripidean authorship there can be no doubt. On the basis of its metrical practice the play seems datable to the mid 420s B.C. It is possible that the unsympathetic portrayal of the Spartan characters Menelaus and Hermione owes some of its animus (see especially 445-52) to the contemporary war with Sparta.
Like many of Euripides’ plays, Andromache is set i…
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Citation: Kovacs, David. "Andromache". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 September 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13365, accessed 21 November 2024.]
