Melanippe the Wise

Euripides wrote to plays with the title Melanippe, distinguished as Melnaippe the Wise and Melanippe the Captive. We do not know when Melanippe the Wise was produced. It is alluded to in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae (546-8), and so must have been performed before the production of that comedy in 411 BC. The date range for performance given here is therefore between the date of Euripides' first competition (see Life of Euripides) and 412 BC. Though some argument may be made for setting it in the 420s on metrical grounds (see Collard, Cropp and Lee, Euripides Selected Fragmentary Plays I (Warminster, 1997), p. 247). The performance venue and location is not certain, but it is assumed here that this play would have been performed in Athens.