Euripides: Phaethon

Examines the manuscript evidence of the surviving text of the Phaethon of Euripides and offers many decipherments.

Professor Diggle has examined all the manuscript evidence and offers many decipherments. He gives a text of the play and of the hypothesis, a commentary and appendices, and he discusses the treatment of the Phaethon myth in classical literature. He also attempts a reconstruction of the plot of the play.The surviving text of the fragmentary Phaethon of Euripides depends chiefly on two sources: two pages from a Euripidean manuscript, written about A.D. 500, and a papyrus of the third century B.C., which contains a substantial part of the parodos. These sources are supplemented by a number of citations in classical authors and by a recently published fragmentary hypothesis. Professor Diggle has examined all the manuscript evidence and offers many decipherments. He gives a text of the play and of the hypothesis, an exegetical commentary, prolegomena and appendices, in which he discusses the treatment of the Phaethon myth in classical literature and attempts a reconstruction of the plot of the play.