Rhesus (play)

Rhesus
Odysseus and Diomedes stealing Rhesus' horses, red-figure situla by the Lycurgus Painter, ca. 360 BC.
Written by	Euripides (disputed)
Chorus	Trojan sentries
Characters	Odysseus Hector Diomedes Aeneas Paris Dolon Athena Messenger Shepherd Muse Rhesus
Date premiered	Unknown
Original language	Ancient Greek
Subject	Trojan War
Genre	Athenian tragedy
Setting	Before Hector's tent at the gates of Troy

Rhesus (Greek: Ῥῆσος, Rhēsos) is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. Its authorship has been disputed since antiquity,^[1] and the issue has invested modern scholarship since the 17th century when the play's authenticity was challenged, first by Joseph Scaliger and subsequently by others, partly on aesthetic grounds and partly on account of peculiarities in the play's vocabulary, style and technique.^[2] The conventional attribution to Euripides remains controversial.

Rhesus takes place during the Trojan War, on the night when Odysseus and Diomedes make their way covertly into the Trojan camp. The same event is narrated in book 10 of Homer's epic poem, the Iliad.