Why was Euripides denounced by Aristophanes?

 

Ans. Euripides was considered to be modern in tone and sentiment. He was essentially intellectual. It was a period of intellectual awakening. He had a speculative bent of mind and gave an explanation which was rational. It was his explanation of life and things. Sun could not be taken as a god by him. He had a little belief in the traditional Hellenic culture. We find hardly any traditional values in a few of his plays. He was a realist in the true sense of the term. He applied realism in his characters and also to the incidents of  the legends. He did not possess the ideal grandeur, seen in the plays of Aeschylus. His tone was homely. Euripides presented his characters without any mask on. Euripidean characters compel over love, while the characters of Aeschylus command our admiration. The denigration of one god does not confirm that he was a sceptic. Euripides was often haunted by doubt and uncertainty of the age. He was not a speculative thinker and philosopher and believed in a Supreme Being.

 

Euripides sought to explain whether the Supreme Being was the source of all life and regulator of human fortune. Love and poetry were inseparably blended. God is symbol of joy and happiness. Euripides was dubbed as an atheist, it appears untenable.