Scholia on Euripides' Rhesus by Scholia on Euripides

The Scholia on Euripides' Rhesus is a corpus of ancient grammatical and exegetical commentary on the tragedy of that name, traditionally attributed to Euripides. It aggregates notes from earlier Hellenistic and Roman scholars, offering a multifaceted analysis of the play. The commentary encompasses glosses on obscure vocabulary, explanations of mythological and historical references, observations on textual variants and conjectures, and notes on dramaturgy and metrical structure. It occasionally provides literary interpretation, including assessments of plot and character that frequently draw comparisons with the narrative of Homer's Iliad. Transmitted through medieval manuscripts, with the 14th-century Vatican Greek manuscript 909 being a principal source, the scholia represent a compilation of earlier, now lost, critical traditions, resulting in textual variations among the surviving copies. As a key document of ancient scholarship, this work is an indispensable resource for philologists editing the text of Rhesus and for historians of classical literary criticism, preserving valuable fragments of lost grammatical literature and insights into the ancient reception of Euripidean drama.