This edition by Richard Porson (1759-1808) of Euripides' plays was published posthumously in 1820. It contains the Greek text of Euripides' four most popular plays: Hecuba, Orestes, The Phoenician Women and Medea, which had previously been published as individual titles. Each play is preceded by a list of manuscript witnesses and accompanied by a running Latin commentary, containing detailed text-critical, exegetical and philological notes. The volume is introduced by a Latin preface and supplement which expound Porson's theories on the metrical rules followed by Attic poets. Porson explains how he used these theories as a tool to make judgements between variant readings. These critical texts on the tragedies have been widely used by students of classical Greek tragedy and a number of English translations have been based on his reconstructed text. Porson's commentaries have been used by many generations of classical students in both Latin and English translation.
