A Study On The Skepticism Of Euripides' Tragedy

Euripides (480-406 BC) is one of the three Greek tragic poets. His works reflect the political and ideological crisis during the decline of Athenian democracy in the slave society. He also has made outstanding contributions to ancient Greek drama on the development of theme and to the extension of forms.This thesis is mainly aimed at analyzing the skepticism revealed from the extant tragedy of Euripides as well as the skepticism system it consist of. The skepticism has been divided into three parts to discuss which are God-Religion, Masculine-Hero and Political System. By analyzing the specific manifestations and the main features from every aspects of the skepticism, this thesis is trying to unveil the "cognizance and discovery of human being" behind the skepticism. Then it explored the times and social reality, ethical culture and the personal thoughts which caused the born of the skepticism.This thesis contains four chapters beside the Introduction and Conclusion. In the introduction part, it introduces the basic information about the life of Euripides and his works, and it also summarizes the study achievement at home and abroad as well as the latest study statement. Meanwhile it points out the realistic meaning to study the skepticism. In the end, it defines the conception of skepticism in the work of Euripides in the meaning of reviewing outward and inward world with the skepticism. The skepticism shows that human beings had walked into "inward awakening" from "outward negation". It is a humanistic turning point in the history of ancient Greek tragedy. The three parts stereo definition and analysis of the skepticism is followed by at this point.The first chapter is focusing on Euripides's skepticism of God-Religion. Different from the Supreme God in ancient Greek's mind, Euripides questioned the old belief through the characters in his plays. Combined with the irony to "Deus ex machine", the God-Men Antagonism behind the tragedy is revealed as the topic, and human beings found out themselves from the antagonism.The second chapter questioned the ancient Greek's thoughts about heroes and women. By created a collection of figures of anti-hero men and idealized women, the poet established his own skepticism toward masculine-hero. Moreover, he juxtaposed masculine-hero and feminine-hero creatively which exceeded the gender difference to confess the real humanity.The third chapter concentrates on the ancient Greek political system. Through investigates the development of Athenian democracy, I sum up Euripides's skepticism on political system which composed of opposing autarchy and war as well as advocating democracy and equality. The poet expressed his reflections on human being's sociality and the pursuit of the best living statement by his skepticism.The last chapter seeks for the origins of Euripides's skepticism from several parts. First is the times, Euripides was living in the time when ancient Greece was trapped in the civil war, the decline of the democratic system aroused the poet's ponder on the reason for the social inequality. In the ethos point of view, it was Greek's liberate intellectuality and the moderate temperance as the cultural earth that cultivate the mature of skepticism. In the personal thoughts part, it was the friendship with the natural philosopher, the sophists and Socrates and their influence on the ideology that inspired Euripides to become "a philosopher on stage".In the end, the Conclusion generalized the whole thesis that Euripides's skepticism is an affirmative to human beings. In addition, it also supplemented other aspects of Euripides's skepticism and discussed the significant as well as the limitation of it.