Rhesus (play)

Rhesus
Odysseus and Diomedes stealing Rhesus' horses, red-figure situla by the Lycurgus Painter, ca. 360 BC.
Written byEuripides (disputed)
ChorusTrojan sentries
CharactersOdysseus
Hector
Diomedes
Aeneas
Paris
Dolon
Athena
Messenger
Shepherd
Muse
Rhesus
Date premieredUnknown
Original languageAncient Greek
SubjectTrojan War
GenreAthenian tragedy
SettingBefore Hector's tent at the gates of Troy

Rhesus (‹See Tfd›Greek: Ῥῆσος, Rhēsos) is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. Its authorship has been disputed since antiquity,[1] and the issue has invested modern scholarship since the 17th century when the play's authenticity was challenged, first by Joseph Scaliger and subsequently by others, partly on aesthetic grounds and partly on account of peculiarities in the play's vocabulary, style and technique.[2] The conventional attribution to Euripides remains controversial.

Rhesus takes place during the Trojan War, on the night when Odysseus and Diomedes make their way covertly into the Trojan camp. The same event is narrated in book 10 of Homer's epic poem, the Iliad.

  1. ^ B. M. W. Knox, "Minor Tragedians", pp. 87–93, in P. E. Easterling & B. M. W. Knox (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. I: Greek Literature, CUP, Cambridge, 1989, pp. 90–91.
  2. ^ W. Ritchie, The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides, CUP, Cambridge, 1964, ISBN 9780521060936, p. vii.