Suppliant Maidens/Persians/Prometheus/Seven Against Thebes

aeschylus herbert weir smyth

Aeschylus (ca. 525-456 BCE), author of the first tragedies existing in European literature, was an Athenian born at Eleusis. He served at Marathon against Darius in 490, and again during Xerxes' invasion, 480-479. Between 478 and 467 he visited Sicily, there composing by request "Women of Aetna." At Athens he competed in production of plays more than twenty times, and was rewarded on at least thirteen occasions, becoming dominant between 500 and 458 through the splendour of his language and his dramatic conceptions and technique.

Of his total of 80-90 plays seven survive complete. The "Persians" (472), the only surviving Greek historical drama, presents the failure of Xerxes to conquer Greece. "Seven against Thebes" (467) was the second play of its trilogy of related plays on the evil fate of the Theban House. Polyneices tries to regain Thebes from his brother Eteocles; both are killed. In "Suppliant Maidens," the first in a trilogy, the daughters of Danaus arrive with him at Argos, whose King and people save them from the wooing of the sons of their uncle Aegyptus. In "Prometheus Bound," first or second play of its trilogy about Prometheus, he is nailed to a crag, by order of Zeus, for stealing fire from heaven for men. Defiant after visitors' sympathy and despite advice, he descends in lightning and thunder to Hell. The Oresteia (458), on the House of Atreus, is the only Greek trilogy surviving complete. In "Agamemnon," the King returns from Troy, and is murdered by his wife Clytaemnestra. In "Libation-Bearers," Orestes with his sister avenges their father Agamemnon's death by counter-murder. In "Eumenides," Orestes, harassed by avenging Furies, is arraigned by them at Athens for matricide. Tried by a court set up by Athena, he is absolved, but the Furies are pacified.

We publish in Volume I four plays; and in Volume II the Oresteia and some fragments of lost plays.

Genres classicsplaysdramamythologyfictionpoetryliteraturegreecetheatreancient

624 pages, cloth

First published January 1,-0470

This edition

Format: 624 pages, cloth
Published: December 15, 2006 by Loeb Classical Library
ISBN: 9780674991606
ASIN: 0674991605
Language: English

About the author

aeschylus

Greek Αισχύλος, Esquilo in Spanish, Eschyle in French, Eschilo in Italian, Эсхил in Russian.

Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC – c. 456 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.
Only seven of Aeschylus's estimated 70 to 90 plays have survived. There is a long-standing debate regarding the authorship of one of them, Prometheus Bound, with some scholars arguing that it may be the work of his son Euphorion. Fragments from other plays have survived in quotations, and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyri. These fragments often give further insights into Aeschylus' work. He was likely the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia is the only extant ancient example. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). This work, The Persians, is one of very few classical Greek tragedies concerned with contemporary events, and the only one extant. The significance of the war with Persia was so great to Aeschylus and the Greeks that his epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright.