Fragments and Fragmentary Plays

Abstract

Since the year 2000 collected editions of Euripides’ fragmentary remains have at last opened them to full access and appreciation. This chapter traces that development, describing their nature, problems, and rewards, and ending with illustrative case studies from fragmentary plays. The largest Greek anthology to survive antiquity, primarily gnomological and including both prose and verse, is that of Stobaeus. It was the source for a few brief gnomologies from Euripides printed in the mid to late sixteenth century, and the sole source for the first general poetic anthology, of Grotius. In the twentieth-century annotated editions of individual plays at last became practicable, usually following important papyrus finds and usually equipped with substantial introductory essays debating reconstruction. In contrast with European and particularly German scholars, Anglophones were slow to consider the importance of fragments to appreciating Euripides’ whole oeuvre.

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