The analysis of the "Cretans" will inevitably focus on two points from the surviving fragments, for which we can have a comprehensive picture and opinion, and from which, in combination with the surviving works, valuable information may emerge regarding the position that the Cretans hold in the work of the great tragic poet, as well as concerning the thought of Euripides. These are a) the Entrance of the initiates of Idaean Zeus (fragment I), and b) the monologue of Pasiphae (fragment III, lines 4-41).

For all other fragments, we would only be able to draw hypothetical and uncertain conclusions. The "Cretans" is a curious and quite subversive work. The fragments are few, yet valuable for two reasons. First, because there is no "indirect tradition" for the work, as it is not mentioned by any anthologist, lexicographer, or mythographer of the Hellenistic period, as is usually the case. And second, because the fragments that are preserved today come from copyists of the 2nd century A.D. Consequently, a peculiar silence surrounds the "Cretans".

The text follows the edition of Diggle (1998). Fragments II.0 and III.0 constitute a critical synthesis for the needs of this edition, while the text also includes fragments from the stereotypical edition of Nauck (1964).