In existographies, Euripides (c.480-406BC) (IQ:180|#175) (Cattell 1000:99) [RGM:81|1,500+] (FA:10) (ACR:7) (CR:19) was a Greek philosopher and tragedian playwright noted for introducing the term "bios", the etymological root of the modern "bio-" prefix, for his general "question everything" philosophy, for his view that god was was an invention of a wise man, and for his views on the natural admixture of good and evil.
Bios | Life
The prefix bio-, supposedly, meaning “life” in Greek, according to Georg Misch (1950), originated in one of the works of Euripides. [1]
Euripides scholars E.H. Blakeney (1904) gives the following footnoted discussion on Euripides’ bio- usage: [2]
Here we see the etymology of "bio" intertwined with theology (i.e. meaning "union with god") and afterlife ideas (e.g. meaning "life after death"), among other issues.
The c.495BC fragment 48 (Ѻ) of Heraclitus, however, also uses the term “βίος” in the sense of life.
Quotes | By
The following are related quotes:
“It was a wise man that invented god.”
— Euripides (c.450BC), “Concerning God” (Ѻ); oft-attributed, incorrectly, in 20th century (Ѻ), to Plato, in the form “He was a wise man that invented god”; James Haught (pg. 21), e.g., cites Plato’s attributed dialogue (Ѻ) Sisyphus (Ѻ) dialogue as the source
“Question everything.”
— Euripides (c.440BC) (Ѻ)
“A man’s most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.”
— Euripides (c.430BC) (Ѻ)
“The good and bad cannot be kept apart; but there is some commingling, which is well.”
— Euripides (c.420BC), Source; cited by Plutarch (100AD) in his Moralia as an early variant of the good and evil commingling principle
References
1. Misch, Georg. (1950). A History of Autobiography in Antiquity, Part 1 (pg. 62). Psychology Press.
2. Blakeney, E.H. (1904). Euripides: Hercules Furens (note #664, pgs. 99-100). William Blackwood and Sons.
3. Plutarch. (c.100AD). Isis and Osiris; in: Plutarch's Moralia, Volume Five: Isis and Osiris. The E at Delphi. The oracles at Delphi no longer given in verse (§44) . The obsolescence of oracles (Introduction: Victor Hanson). Harvard University Press.
External links
● Euripides – Wikipedia.
