Euripides’ Oedipus: A Response to Liapis*

summary:

This article examines the hypothesis, recently advanced by Vayos Liapis in this journal (TAPA 144: 307–70), that most of the quotation fragments of Euripides’ Oedipus belong not to that play but to a much later rhetorical exercise. It argues that the overwhelming majority of the faults alleged by Liapis are fully compatible with Euripidean language and style; and that even if the authenticity of one or two fragments can be called into question, there is no evidence to support the view that they come from a work written centuries after Euripides’ death.