The terms νόμος and фύσις in Euripides’ tragedies The Children of Heracles and The Suppliant Women in the light of Sophists’ ideas

The terms νόμος (civilized justice) and ϕύσις (natural justice) played an important part in Sophists’ theories and myths about the origins of civilized society. The aim of this article is to show dramatic developments of Sophistic ideas in Euripides’ two political plays The Children of Heracles and The Suppliant Women.Euripides materiam ad dramata scribenda e philosophorum doctrinis hausit. Cum diligenter laborem Euripidis litteratum investigamus, conspicimus poetam in tragoediis suis has quaestiones attigisse, quas sophistae tractavissent, quae sunt: quanta esset vis rethoricae, quod νόμος (lex) et quod φύσις (natura) signifcarent. Cum sophistarum opiniones de lege et de natura considerantur, sophistae dividuntur: sophistae, qui dixerunt legem e natura ortam esse et sophistae, qui dixerunt legem dissimilem esse naturae, quam naturam hi aut legem hominis potentis aut legem inter homines aequalitatis putarent. In commentatione mea ostendere studebam, quod Euripides in suis duabus tragoediis, quae Heraclidae et Supplices inscribuntur, e sophistarum doctrinis hausisset et quas poeta opiniones suas expressisset