Compton, Todd M. 2006. Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History. Hellenic Studies Series 11. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Compton.Victim_of_the_Muses.2006.
Chapter 13. Euripides: Sparagmos of an Iconoclast
This is early, quite sober evidence, though one wonders what asebeia had to do with antidosis, whether it was actually part of the charge, or whether it was supportive character defamation. But it is significant that the charge haunts Euripides in a law case. Lefkowitz characteristically argues against the historicity of this reference, suggesting that such stories resulted from emphasis on Plato’s trial, or from Old Comedy. [11] But Aristotle was born only twenty-two years after Euripides’ death; one wonders if the philosopher, himself a shrewd and sober critic, would be susceptible to complete fantasy after such a short period of time.
Footnotes