Euripides was last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Legend has it he was born in 480 BCE in Salamís on the day of the Persian War's greatest naval battle. Little is known of his life outside of his plays. It is known that he served as a diplomat to Sicily and was very skeptical of Greek religion.
Ancient sources point to 92 plays attributed to Euripides, although only 19 remain. Like most playwrights in Greece, Euripides competed in the famous Dionysian dramatic festivals although it was not until his fourteenth attempt that he won a first prize. Over the course of his career he won just four times, which is considerably less than Aeschylus (13) and Sophocles (20) He died in Macedonia in 406, although after his death his fame overshadowed both Aeschylus and Sophocles. In fact his last play The Bacchae was performed posthumously and won first prize at the Dionysus festival.
Euripides reshaped the formal structure of traditional tragedy and produced shows with strong women characters and smart slaves. Of all the ancient Greek dramatists he seem the most modern with his focus on the inner thoughts and motivations of his characters.
He was a frequent target of his rival Aristophanes' humor. He appears as a character in The Acharnians and most memorably in The Frogs, where Dionysus travels to Hades to bring Euripides back from the dead. After a competition of poetry, the god opts to bring Aeschylus instead.
Euripides' greatest plays are Alcestis, Medea, Electra, and The Bacchae. Also notable is Cyclops, the only complete satyr play currently in existence.

Medea (Spoiler Alert)

One of the few ancient Greek plays still produced widely in theatres worldwide. The lead is still considered one of the major roles for women actors. It was notable at the time for being one of the first plays, along with Sophocles’ Antigone, with a female lead and an all female chorus.
Neither main characters, Medea or Jason, can be viewed as the tragic hero as both fall prey to jealousy and revenge.
The play opens in Corinth, where Jason has brought Medea after romancing her away during the stealing of Golden Fleece in the Argonaut. During the voyage, Medea and Jason have had two children together. But Jason has dumped her in favour of the daughter of Cornith’s King Creon, Glauce. Medea is grieving over her loss, and her elderly nurse fears what she might do to herself or her children.
Creon is also worried that Medea might do something bad and decides to send her out of Corinth immediately. Medea pleads for one day's grace before she leaves, but spends the next day plotting the deaths of Jason, Glauce, and Creon.
Jason arrives to confront Medea and explain why he chose to leave her for Glauce. He says he would be stupid to miss the opportunity to marry a royal princess. As Medea is only a barbarian woman, she can become as his mistress once he is married. Medea, and the chorus reject Jason’s excuses. She reminds of all that she had given up to come with Jason and that she had saved his life once. Jason offers to pay her off. But those gifts are rejected. Jason is dismissed.
Medea is then visited by Aegeus, King of Athens. Medea begs him to protect her, in return for her help in his wife conceiving a child. Aegeus unwittingly promises to give her refuge provided she can escape to Athens.
Medea decides to poison two golden robes in hopes that Glauce will not be able to resist wearing them. Medea also decides to kill her own children to hurt Jason in the worst way possible.
Jason is recalled and Medea falsely apologies for her earlier outburst and gives the robes as a gift for the wedding. As related by a messenger Glauce is killed by the poisoned dress, and Creon is also killed by the poison while attempting to save her.
Medea then exits with a knife to kill her children. As the chorus laments her decision, the children are heard screaming. Jason rushes to the scene to punish her for the murder of Glauce and learns that his children too have been killed. Medea then appears above the stage in the chariot of the sun god Helios with the bodies of the children. She escapes to Athens with Jason left grieving.
Although the play is considered one of the great plays of world theatre at the time the Athenian audience did not react well. However, it has also been argued that Medea was awarded third place because the competition at that particular festival was so fierce, not because the Athenians were in any way opposed to the play's content.
Medea has been adopted as a feminist heroine because she was one of the first strong female characters who did not accept her fate as meted out by her male partners. Some scholars actually think the play has the opposite message warning of the erratic and radical ways of women. Moderation of everything was one of the central Greek ideas, the result being balance and harmony and the play can be seen as a plea for moderation.

Electra

Many poets and playwrights tackled the same subjects and both Aeschylus and Euripides wrote plays about the return of Agamemnon and the murder of his wife Clytemnestra. Aeschylus’ Orestian Trilogy covers the entire story from the return of the Greeks at the end Trojan War to the trial of Orestes. Euripides also wrote a trilogy although one play, Electra, stands out from the others and takes a very different take on the legend.
The background to the story is the same in both Euripides’ and Aeschylus’ plays. At the start of the Trojan War, the Greek king Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigeneia to appease the goddess Artemis and allow the Greek army to set sail for Troy. His wife Clytemnestra never forgave him, and when he returned from the war 10 years later, she and her lover Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon.
Electra is Agamemnon and Clytemnestra’s daughter but she is married off to a farmer, in order to prevent her from having a royal child who might come back to avenge the king’s murder.
The farmer is kind to her and has not even taken her virginity. Electra rages at  being cast out of her house and at her mother's adultery with Aegisthus. Her brother Orestes, escaped Clytemnestra and has now returned to Argos bent on revenge. They arrive at the house of Electra and her husband where Electra is eager to help her brother in bringing down Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
An old servant goes to lure Clytemnestra to Electra's house by telling her that her daughter has had a baby, while Orestes sets off and kills Aegisthus. He returns with the body but is unable to murder his own mother. However, when Clytemnestra arrives at the house, Electra kill her. However both Orestes and Electra are overcome with guilt. At the end of the play, Clytemnestra's deified brothers Castor and Polydeuces appear. They tell Electra and Orestes that their mother received just punishment but that their matricide was still a shameful act, and they then instruct the siblings on what they must do to atone and purge their souls of the crime.