From Aristophanes to modern times, the role and presentation of the gods in Euripidean tragedy have been the topic of intense discussion and disagreement. At one pole of interpretation, critics suggest that Euripidean tragedy had outgrown the Greek theological tradition and retained the received elements of divine participation in myth either as a separable adjunct, to be dismissed when attention is focused on the real issues of human psychology, or as an ironic exposure of the absurdity or immorality of everyday religious beliefs. At the other pole, Euripidean gods are viewed as provident and potentially merciful in interactions complicated by the blindness and failings of faith of imperfect humans. In between these extremes are many possible gradations. The questions related to this discussion are literary, cultural, and religious, and they include, among others, the following: what is the relationship of a framing divine prologue and epilogue to the dramatic scenes within the frame? To what degree are these framing scenes integrated into the play, or to what degree are they openly marked as distinct from the other scenes? What effect do they have on the audience's interpretation of the actions, behavior, and decisions of the human characters between these frames, and on the audience's assessment of the order or disorder, morality or amorality, of the represented tragic world? Does tragedy's representation of the gods belong, as some argue, to a poetic tradition that really has little to tell us about actual Greek religious practice or belief?