Philologus· 2026Q2
Dating Drama: Euripidean Resolution Chronology Revisited
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- 2026year
Short summary
A recent papyrological discovery validates Euripides' resolution chronology, providing the first external confirmation of this dating method in over two centuries.
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Key points
- Euripides' plays are often undated by ancient sources.
- Metrical phenomena, specifically syllable resolution, can be used to date his plays.
- A recent papyrological discovery validates the existing resolution chronology methodology.
- This validation is the first external confirmation of the resolution chronology in over two centuries.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Most plays by the tragedian Euripides lack a precise date provided by an ancient source. In many cases, however, we can assign a date range to individual plays – both to plays which survive in full, and to those for which only fragments are extant – because of Euripides’ tendency to become more permissive over time as regards certain metrical phenomena, especially the resolution of long syllables into two short syllables, and the substitution of anceps syllables by two short syllables. The present article, first, scrutinises a challenge to the Euripidean resolution chronology made by a prominent modern scholar of tragedy; and, second, employs a recent papyrological discovery concerning Euripidean chronology to reassess the resolution chronology. It turns out that this recent papyrological discovery provides external validation of the methodology used in the resolution chronology – the first such external validation which the chronology has received since Gottfried Hermann noticed the phenomenon in question more than two centuries ago.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Philologus, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Anthropology
AnthropologySocial Sciences