Two excellent plays (Prometheus Bound & Seven Against Thebes), full of darkness and apocalyptic drama, and two pretty boring pageant masques.

The 3 star rating is for the translation and this particular edition . Not necessarily for the plays themselves .

Prometheus bound - I love that this explored Gods in a different light . What do we call Gods ? Especially when they do more harm than good . Prometheus has always been a figure cloaked in mystery and misery for me and this somehow added to his enigma . Io's has one of the saddest stories ever even by Ancient Greek standard . Her opening speech was particularly powerful and heart wrenchingly beautiful .

Suppliants - Definitely a play that is different in tone than the other ones . I found it ironic that the Danaids are asking mainly for the help of Zeus FROM rapists . The suffering he and Hera caused Io ( Their ancestor ) was just too raw in my mind . Anyway , this was interesting . The way Pelasgus handled everything was fun to witness .

Seven against Thebes - Possibly my favorite from this collection . This was so moving and beautiful . The way the events unfolded mirrored the way they did in Oedipus the king . The way Aeschylus questioned the idea of free will in myths was in contrast to Sophocles . And Antigone and Ismene's mourning was beautifully rendered . The way the chorus split away at the end !! I fell for this play tbh.

Persians - This was unique . Instead of a myth or a legend , actual history is the main focus here . I loved the little parts where Athens is praised . We can actually see the author trying to please the group of Athenians sitting in front of him . As a whole , this was informative and enjoyable .

Thoughts on the collection - I didn't really like this edition because the notes were lacking in content . I also didn't enjoy the writing that much . So I'm going to try out different editions and translations .

I am reviewing this as Prometheus Bound only
In the past year or so I have attempted to read through a few of Aeschylus' works though have struggled finishing any of them, this being the first, I think the idea of watching Prometheus suffer on a rock is interesting but I regret to say it doesn't hold the same appeal of the works of Euripides or Sophocles to me personally.
I will say that the setting lends very well to the fact that it is a play and it the first footnote is correct then it makes for a very compelling conversation in that regard.
Prometheus is a very cool guy, but in this he just seems like a cocky man who can't be wrong due to him falsifying his story to the chorus and whining to Io.
I will say that Aeschylus thrives on arguments with the climactic debate/argument between Hermes and Prometheus is especially well written
Despite the negativity of this review, maybe on a second reading I might feel a little different and more willing to enjoy Aeschylus play.

The four plays (Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes and The Persians) are 2,500 year-old classics covering interesting elements of Greek mytho-history. The introduction serves to contextualise well, hinting at the strong presence of women as a thread through the plays; divine expectation, capriciousness and punishment are also themes that spring from the source material.

I'm familiar with Vellacott's translations, primarily his work on Euripedes and thought they were excellent. I found this translation somewhat wooden and did struggle to keep interested at points (Seven Against Thebes was a particular moment). So at times I cross-referenced against the Greek text online and did my own translation of some paragraphs which gave me a renewed appreciation for Vellacott's lyrical work here. I think any problems with flow are down to the source material: fragmented pages (some having not survived the trials of time) and Aeschylus's style.

I do feel that the text is light on annotation. There are some few translation endnotes but they're arbitrarily given and plenty in the text remains unexplained.

This probably remains the standard entry point for these plays.

This collection of plays contains 4 out of 7 of Aeschylus' surviving plays: Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes and The Persians. Of these I preferred Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes over the other two, though they are all very good plays and are worth reading for anyone interested in Ancient Greece.

Prometheus Bound was really cool. The other plays in this volume (The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants) were totally forgettable. Ironically, Prometheus Bound is the only play with disputed authorship (it is so unlike Aeschylus's other plays that it is thought that it could have been written by his son, Euphorion, or someone else).

Prometheus Bound: This play is about the tyranny of Zeus. In this regard it reminded me a lot of Paradise Lost. Just as in Paradise Lost, where the fallen angel Satan says, "Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n", Prometheus, chained to a rock in the desolate wastes of the northern Caucasus, has this exchange with Hermes:

PROMETHEUS: I can tell you for sure, I wouldn’t exchange my misfortunes for your servitude. HERMES: Oh, I suppose it’s better to be in servitude to this rock than to be the faithful messenger of my father, Zeus!

The theme of freedom versus slavery permeates this play. "Power", Zeus's henchman, tells Hephaestus as he unwillingly binds Prometheus to the rock, "Everything is burdensome, except ruling over the gods: no one is free but Zeus." The Chorus of Oceanids wails, "New rulers wield the helm on Olympus, and Zeus rules arbitrarily by new-made laws." There is a long scene featuring Io that is intended to showcase Zeus's cruelty - Zeus lusted after her and turned her into a cow to hide her from Hera. Hera discovered her, of course, and sent stinging flies to chase her across the entire world. Prometheus, perhaps sympathizing with her as another victim of Zeus or perhaps because he knew that her 13th-generation descendant Heracles would free him, foretells her wanderings. They are actually really cool:
"You, child of Inachus, take my words to heart, so that you may learn how your journey will end. In the first place, starting from here, turn towards the sunrise and travel over the uncultivated plains. You will come to the nomad Scythians, who dwell in wicker homes, off the ground, on strong-wheeled wagons, armed with far-shooting bows. Do not go near them: go on through and out of their country, keeping your path close to the rocky coast of the groaning sea. Next, on your left hand, dwell the Chalybes, workers in iron: beware of them, for they are savage and not safe for strangers to approach. You will then come to the Violent River, not inaptly named; do not cross it... until you come to Caucasus itself, the highest of mountains, where the river pours its strength out from the very summit. After crossing over those peaks close to the stars, you must take the way to the south, where you will come to the man-hating host of the Amazons... They will be very glad to guide you on your way. You will then come to the Cimmerian isthmus, right at the narrow gateway to the lake; with a bold heart you must leave it and cross the Maeotic channel. Your crossing will in all future time be much spoken of among men, and the channel will be named after it: Bosporus, ‘Strait of the Cow’. ... When you have crossed the stream that parts the two continents, go on towards the fiery rising of the sun, crossing a waveless sea, until you reach the land of the Gorgons, the plain of Cisthene, where the Phorcides dwell, three ancient maidens of swan-like aspect, owning an eye in common and having only a single tooth, whom neither the sun with his rays, nor the moon by night, ever looks upon; and near them their three winged sisters, the snake-tressed Gorgons, haters of humans, whom no mortal can look on and draw another breath... You must beware of the sharp-toothed, unbarking hounds of Zeus, the griffins, and the one-eyed, horse-riding host of the Arimaspians, who dwell by the stream of the river Pluto, which flows with gold: do not go near them. You will then come to a land at the furthest bounds of earth, to a black tribe that dwells at the sources of the sun, where flows the river Aethiops. Follow the bank of this river until you come to the cataract where the Nile pours down from the Bybline Mountains its holy stream, good to drink from. It will lead you to the three-cornered land of Nilotis, where, Io, you are destined to found a settlement far from home for yourself and your children."

Prometheus complains, "Do you think that the autocrat of the gods is equally brutal in all his dealings? That god, because he wanted to sleep with this mortal girl, imposed these wanderings on her!" I couldn't help but feel disgust of Zeus myself - the play does a great job of portraying him as a cruel, lustful, uncaring tyrant.

Prometheus is Zeus's foil - one of the old gods who has sacrificed himself to help humans. Whereas Zeus had planned to destroy humanity, Prometheus interceded on our behalf: "Of those wretched creatures, mortals, he took no account at all – on the contrary, he wanted to obliterate the race altogether and create another new one. And no one resisted that plan except me. I had the courage to do it, and rescued mortals from the fate of being shattered and going to Hades." In an ancient Greek version of "You're Welcome", sung by Maui in Moana, Prometheus lists all of the amazing things he's done for humans: He freed them from fear of death by giving them hope; he gave them fire (just as Maui did); "I showed them the hard-to-discern risings and settings of stars. I also invented for them the art of number, supreme among all techniques, and that of combining letters into written words, the tool that enables all things to be remembered and is mother of the Muses. And I was the first to bring beasts under the yoke as slaves to the yoke-strap and the pack-saddle, so that they might relieve humans of their greatest labours; and I brought horses to love the rein and pull chariots, making them a luxurious ornament for men of great wealth. And it was no one other than me who invented the linen-winged vehicles in which sailors roam the seas... I showed them how to mix gentle curative drugs, with which they can now defend themselves against all kinds of diseases. I also systematized many kinds of seercraft. I was the first to interpret from dreams what actual events were destined to happen; I made known to them the difficult arts of interpreting significant utterances and encounters on journeys; I defined precisely the flight of crook-taloned birds..., and the smoothness of internal organs, and what colour bile should have if it is to be pleasing to the gods, and the mottled appearance and proper shape of the liver-lobe; I wrapped the thigh bones and the long chine in fat and burnt them, guiding mortals towards a skill of making difficult inferences, and opening their eyes to the signs the flames gave, which till then had been dark to them. So much for that; but as for the things hidden beneath the earth that benefit humanity – copper, iron, silver and gold – who can claim to have discovered them before I did?... To sum up everything in a short sentence: know that all the skills that mortals have come from Prometheus."

Prometheus is chained to a rock because he stole fire from Hephaestus's forge and gave it to humans. And yet this act of rebellion has allowed Prometheus to wrest some form of agency away from Zeus for himself: as he says, "I did the wrong thing intentionally, intentionally, I won’t deny it: by helping mortals, I brought trouble on myself."

In addition, and unlike in Paradise Lost, Prometheus knows that there is one thing more powerful than Zeus - destiny. "CHORUS: Well, who is the steersman of Necessity? PROMETHEUS: The triple Fates and the unforgetting Furies. CHORUS: You mean Zeus is less strong than these? PROMETHEUS: Certainly he cannot escape destiny." There was a prophecy that a certain woman would bear a son more powerful than his father. Prometheus is the only one (besides his mother, Themis/Gaia) who knows the identity of the mother of Zeus's future replacement. So until Prometheus tells Zeus this secret, Zeus is basically rolling the dice every time he satisfies his lust. Prometheus, as a prophetic god, knows that he will eventually be freed by Heracles and that his knowledge of the identity of the woman will enable him to broker a treaty with Zeus. I'm not sure how to square this with the play's theme of freedom via free will - Prometheus maintains his sense of agency by rebelling against the tyrant of the gods, but he only feels secure in doing this because he knows that destiny will force Zeus to eventually free him.

The Persians: Written in the aftermath of the Persian Wars, this play was kind of like a classy victory lap around the Persians. Classy because Aeschylus portrays the Persians (particularly the mother of Xerxes and the ghost of Darius) very sympathetically - both characters are wise, thoughtful, dutiful, etc. But it's a victory lap because Aeschylus indulges in really inflating the scale of the disaster of the Persians' loss against the Greeks - Xerxes comes back in rags, his entire army ruined. There is much lamenting about how there are no more men left in Susa, and they list the names of the countless Persian generals who lost their lives in the waves off Salamis.

Seven Against Thebes: This play shows a short but climactic episode of the Oepidan cycle of stories. Oepidus, apparently not content with murdering his father and marrying his mother, curses his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, to kill each other. Eteocles becomes king of Thebes and banishes Polyneices. Smelling blood, Argos and some other places gather an army to march on Thebes and bring Polyneices with them. The play starts with Eteocles organizing the defense of Thebes. He and Polyneices meet at one of the seven gates and kill each other. The end.

The Suppliants: This play shows a short and not even climactic episode of the story of how the Danaids flee from Egypt pursued by their gross and lustful cousins the Aegyptids. Descendants of Io, the 50 Danaids will eventually marry their 50 cousins and murder them all on their wedding night - all but one, Hypermnestra, who spares her cousin-husband Lyncaeus. That pair goes on to rule Argos and create the dynasty that includes Perseus and Heracles. However, this play just covers the arrival of the Danaids in Argos and their pleading with King Pelasgus to grant them asylum. The interesting part of this play, to me, is that the Danaids are said to have dark skin as they are from Egypt. This is interesting to me because there seems to be no negative associations with dark skin other than indicating that they are foreigners. Also very intriguing to me is that that means that Hypermnestra and Lyncaeus were dark-skinned, Egyptian-origin rulers of Argos and that this is canon in Greek mythology, and also that Perseus was 1/8 African. Moreover, Perseus himself married another African, Andromeda, daughter of the king of Ethiopia, implying that Heracles was also 1/8-plus-some-change African. Combined with the Phoenician origins of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and the Lydian origins of Pelops (who gave his name to the Peloponnesian peninsula) and his descendants Agamemnon king of Mycenae and Menelaus king of Sparta, and it is really interesting how Greek mythology acknowledges without any apparent bias the huge influence that other nations and ethnicities had on the development of Greek institutions and culture.

shorts

Four Quick short plays. I envision a small acting troop performing these in a park or busy city center. All taken from Greek myth with long dialogues.

Os versos estão marcados no papel. Isso aqui, portanto, é um "resumo do resumo" porque há muitas coisas que já precisam ser digitadas e copiar todos os versos aqui levaria tempo.



OS PERSAS

A população persa espera o retorno dos soldados.
O coro mostra-se confiante quanto a vitória do exército persa. Contudo, a rainha-mãe conta seus maus presságios. Em seguida, o mensageiro anuncia a derrota persa e assegura que o rei Xerxes está vivo. Segue-se a isso as histórias de como cada comandante persa foi morto.
A vitória grega foi atribuída a um Nume, e não por mérito do próprio exército, uma vez que os persas detinham uma expressiva superioridade numérica.
Com o relato do mensageiro concluído, o Coro canta o sofrimento dos persas.
A rainha, buscando acalmar os temores, levou libações funerárias ao antigo rei Dário, que respondeus às súplicas de sua mulher e apareceu em sua frente.
A última parte da tragédia é composta pelo Coro e Xerxes, que juntos sofrem pelas perdas causadas.



SETE CONTRA TEBAS

Etéocles enviou espiões ao exército inimigo de Argos, para que assim soubesse como seria o ataque de seu irmão, Polinices. Ao retornar, o mensageiro anuncia os sete comandantes que atacarão a cidade, que são respondidos com outros sete comandantes por Etéocles, sendo ele mesmo o sétimo.
Os espião retorna novamente e nomeia cada um dos comandantes, contando qual das portas eles atacarão, e Etéocles movimenta os seus de acordo com o adversário que achava mais adequado.
Ao saber que o sétimo atacante era seu irmão, Etéocles relembra das palavras de seu pai, que disse que ambos seriam mortos pelas mãos um do outro. O Coro tenta impedi-lo, mas não obtém sucesso, pois ele insiste que deve cumprir a vontade dos deuses.
Após a batalha, o Mensageiro anuncia ao Coro que a guerra fora vencida, mas que a profecia de Édipo realizou-se. Em seguida, inicia-se a história de Antígona, de Sófocles, na qual a irmã se recusa a cumprir a ordem do novo rei de não sepultar Polinices.



AS SUPLICANTES

As Danaiades, descendentes de Io, as cinquenta filhas do rei Dânao, fogem dos filhos de Egito, que desejavam casar-se com elas, para Argos. Na cidade, são recebidas pelo rei que questiona sua origem. O Coro responde invocando sua ascendência com Io.
Em seguida, pedem a ajuda do rei para que não sejam obrigadas a se casarem com os filhos de Egito. A princípio, o rei se recusa por temer trazer males à cidade, mas logo cede quando as danaiades ameaçam se enforcar junto às estátuas dos deuses.
Na cidade, o navio de soldados de Egito é visto. Dânao assegura as filhas que a cidade as defenderá e o Coro proclama prefirir a morte a se casar.
O rei interrompe o Arauto quando este tentava raptar as mulheres e oferece a elas uma residência para que possam ser protegidas.

How does one approach reviewing Aeschylus or any of the classics? One is dealing with a work which is thousands of years old and in and of itself a piece of history. Add to that problem that for most of us, there is no choice but to read translations of the work, rather than the original. In addition, there are only a few works remaining from only three sources (unless the authorship has been incorrectly given), so one is left to compare Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, and given that Aeschylus was writing much earlier than the others the comparison would be rather difficult given the changes that Aeschylus made to Greek Theatre. What one can discuss is how readable the translations are, and the supporting material.

Aeschylus I, number 145 in the Loeb Classical Library contains four of Aeschylus’ plays: “Persians”, “Seven Against Thebes”, “Suppliants”, and “Prometheus Bound”. The edition I have read is the 2008 publication which was edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. In the preface, Mr. Sommerstein discusses the state of the Aeschylus volumes prior to this publication and what he attempts to accomplish with this new translation and publication of the plays. This is followed by a superb introduction which discusses Aeschylus, his life, his works, Greek Theatre, and what happened to the plays in history to bring them to the point they are now at. This is followed by the standard Bibliography, Sigla, and Abbreviations which one expects from a Loeb edition, and that brings us to the plays themselves.

Each of the plays is preceded by a section detailing the specifics of the play. When it was believed to be first performed, whether it won the Dionysia competition, what parts of the play may be suspect, what is believed to be the other plays in the production and what is known about those plays. The footnotes in the translations of the plays themselves are also quite extensive, as information about the decisions made in the translation are covered as well as more information to better help understand any unspoken meanings that Aeschylus may have been trying to convey. The translations themselves are excellent. I have read a few translations of some of these plays, and Mr. Sommerstein has done an outstanding job of helping the reader understand the play.

“Persians” opens with the council of Susa (i.e. the chorus) unsure of the fate of their army and concerned because so many men went to war so far away. They are joined by the Queen Mother, Atossa who is also concerned, because of a dream she had. News of the disaster arrives by messenger, and all are distraught. Atossa asks the chorus to summon the ghost of Darius, who at first is completely unaware of what has occurred, and then curses the hubris of his son Xerxes who led his vast army to this disaster, and then prophesizes the defeat at Plataea. Eventually Xerxes himself arrives in rags and laments the defeat and what it means to Persia.

“Seven Against Thebes” begins after Thebes has been under siege for a time, and on a day when it has been prophesized (by Teiresias) that the city will be assaulted on that very day. A scout arrives and gives Eteocles a description of what has happened outside the city and then leaves to gather more information. Eteocles comments on what he has been told and leaves to oversee the defenses. The Theben maidens arrive (i.e. The Chorus) and describe the fear and terror felt inside the city. Eteocles returns and tries to shame the women into being silent and thus not spread any more fear, they agree and Eteocles once again leaves to inspect the defenses. The Chorus continues to comment until the scout returns and Eteocles rushes back to talk to him. The scout describes each of the seven captains who are assaulting the seven gates, finishing with Polyneices Eteocles discusses how each will be dealt with, and when he learns that is brother is at the seventh gate, he decides to go there to face his brother himself. The Chorus is left alone as both the scout and Eteocles have left the stage. The scout returns and we learn that Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other. The ending is a bit uncertain as it appears that Atigone and Ismene were added to the play for a later production. However, there is a dispute over what to do with the bodies of the two brothers.

“Suppliants” is about the Danaids who are fleeing a forced marriage and make a plea to King Pelasgus of Argos to protect them. He lets the Argive people make the decision, which is to help the Danaids. An Egyptian herald arrives to try to force the Danaids to return for the marriage, but King Pelasgus threatens the herald and pushes the Danaids to go within the walls of Argos for protection. For me, this was the most difficult play to follow, there was not much in the way of action, and significant sections of it are missing or were added in which makes it all the more difficult.

“Prometheus Bound” is the last of the plays in this volume, and along with “Persians” is the most enjoyable one to read. Some question whether Aeschylus actually wrote the play, but regardless it is an interesting one. The play opens with Prometheus being escorted to the wrong to which he will be bound by Power (Kratos), Violence (Bia), and Hephaestus, the smith. Violence never utters a word, nor does Prometheus himself during this initial period, but Power mocks Prometheus and Hephaestus is empathetic to Prometheus’s position. Power pushes Hephaestus until the job is done, and then the three leave Prometheus alone. For the remainder of the play Prometheus is chained to the rock, lamenting his position, and talking to those who come to see him, such as the daughters of Oceanus (Chorus), Oceanus, Io, and at the end Hermes. The play pits the tyranny of Zeus against Prometheus and his (Prometheus’s) love for man.

This is an excellent edition of the Loeb library, and the new translations of Aeschylus are quite good. One could argue that any edition of classic works deserves five stars, but in this case it is really earned.

Although I thought it was worthwhile to finish up reading the rest of Aeschylus' extant plays, they do not have the same urgency about them that The Oresteia did. The assumption is that these are the surviving plays from other trilogies, and so much of the thematic drive is lost.

None of the plays are bad, though I thought The Suppliant Maidens to be the least interesting. The Persians seems to be unique more for the subject matter than the actual play, and Seven Against Thebes is much less dramatic than I thought it would be.

Prometheus Bound seems to me to be the standout, dealing as it does with the idea of the Rebel and the Usurpation of power, as well as the idea of Justice. There are other ideas at work here as well, and I thought David Grene's short introduction was excellent for it scope and succinctness.

At some point in the past, I had read another translation of Prometheus Bound--whether it was the fault of the translation or not, I can't say, but I remember that it didn't hold my interest well. This time, for whatever reason, I thought it was engrossing.

In this edition, Suppliant Maidens and The Persians are translated by Seth Benardete. Seven Against Thebes and Prometheus are translated by David Grene.

Every Greek tragedy that we are fortunate to have is excellent and absolutely worth reading. This review is not for these tragedies as a collection or individually. That is a very different task that I think is best done through reading a good study of Greek tragedy. Rather, this is about the Chicago translations generally, and this one in particular. These are all very good translations that, as I understand from both friends who read these in the Greek and friends who are Classicists, are faithful to the Classic Greek. There is supplementary material but not too much to sway the reader. Also, these volumes are excellent for reading groups and the classroom since the standard pagination on the margins is very close to the original, such as you might find in a Loeb. They are worth the extra money.

A couple of the plays in this edition are included simply because they are a few of the seven surviving plays of Aeschylus. All are part of trilogies where the other two parts are lost. Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes are quality depictions of the stories of the god who suffered for bringing the light of knowledge to humanity and the fatal confrontation of Polyneices and Eteocles, sons of Oedipus, for control of Thebes. The Persians is a contemporary depiction of the recent triumph over Xerxes. All are good examples of Greek tragedy, although none are supremely great. For that, we fortunately have the examples of The Oresteia by the same playwright. Personally, Oresteia aside, I prefer Sophocles. Still, I would love to see somebody stage Prometheus, if only to see an actor perform while chained to a rock.