As far as historians can tell, Euripides was born in the Greek city-state of Athens around 484 B.C. to parents affluent enough to provide their son a good education and a library of philosophical works. He received training in athletics and won prizes in athletic competitions. Euripides also served briefly in the army, an obligation of Athenian youths. He then became a scholar and moved among the rich intellectual environment of the Sophist thinkers, although he always maintained his independence from them. Euripides knew the philosopher Anaxagoras, who speculated that energy from tiny "atoms" of matter drove the universe, not the gods; he socialized with the Sophist Protagoras, who ostensibly read his radical treatise, Concerning the Gods in Euripides's home; and he was a friend and contemporary of the great playwright Socrates (Elec-tra), who frequently attended his plays.

While such a life seems rich and fulfilling...