The Grammarian’s Choice: The Popularity of Euripides’ Phoenissae in Hellenistic and Roman Education

One of the most popular texts studied at various levels of instruction was the Phoenissae of Euripides. The author uses this tragedy in order to show the type of work students did on a literary text, particularly under the tutelage of the grammarian. This chapter draws primarily upon the school papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt exercises written by students and teachers and, in some cases, books meant for educational contexts which allow us to verify the contents of ancient education. The popularity of Phoenissae in education corresponds exactly to the strong favor it enjoyed among the cultivated public. It is appropriate at the start to evaluate a reason sometimes put forward to account for the popularity of Phoenissae in and out of school: its presumed frequent revivals on stage. Moreover, even evidence for the revival of other classical dramas in the Hellenistic and Roman period is not completely unambiguous. Keywords: Euripides' Phoenissae ; Hellenistic period; Roman education