A collection of Aeschylus’s four other plays (other as in besides the Orestia trilogy).

The Persians: Seems mostly of historical interest, as Aeschylus was apparently at the battle of Salamis. The play tells of the Persians learning of their defeat. I feel like a modern analogous play would have far more gloating.

Seven against Thebes: Part of Aeschylus’s four plays covering the Oedipus story, the others are lost. Interesting, this covers the part of the story not told by Sophocles. A large part of it consists of the so-called shield scene where each of the seven are described and matched up with someone from the city. The end of the play was altered to match Sophocles’s Antigone.

Prometheus Bound: Some believe this was written by someone else, perhaps Aeschylus’s son. This finds Prometheus punished for helping humans after Zeus determined to destroy them. While some of the play is about Prometheus, and the knowledge he has that will save him, a large part is about Io’s future, which relates to The Supplicants.

The Supplicants: Although part of a different tetraology, the story here is summarized in Prometheus Bound. In this play the Chorus (i.e. the supplicants) are the protagonist, looking to avoid a forced marriage. This is the middle play, so the eventually climax (the woman are forced to marry, and all but one end up killing their husbands) happens off screen. There’s some interesting ideas here. They seek the help of Argos, but helping them could mean Argos entering into a war. And though it is only spelled out through inference, Argos ends up being ruled as a tyrant by the end.

All of these pale compared to the Orestia, but perhaps that’s unfair since none contain their companion pieces. I have to admit after reading most (especially The Persians) I felt like nothing happened. It’s not appropriate, but the convention seems to mostly invert “Show, don’t Tell” that predominates writing standards now.

I definitely think The Supplicants was my favorite, despite it being the middle play.

This is a great collection of plays, beautifully translated and helpfully annotated in this Penguin edition. The story of Prometheus is one of the most powerful and poignant in Greek mythology, and Aeschylus tells it with real feeling. The other plays in this collection are great as well. Seven Against Thebes continues the story of the aftermath of the whole Oedipus debacle, and in the process captures the horror of living in an ancient walled city under siege. The Suppliants, with its story about refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East and searching for asylum in Europe felt surprisingly timely. We've been having the same immigration debate for well over 2,000 years now apparently. The last play in the collection is the Persians, and it's an interesting work for several reasons. Aeschylus was a veteran of the wars against the Persians, and when he wrote this it wasn't ancient myth, but very recent history. It's actually an important historical source for what happened at the battle of Salamis. It's funny because the play is presented as a tragedy, but what was tragedy for the Persians was glory for the Greeks, and it's fun to imagine those Greek audiences positively glowing with schadenfreude as they watched it. All these plays are interesting glimpses into ancient Greek culture with passages of great beauty and power. Still well worth reading after so many centuries.

“misfortune wanders everywhere, and settles now upon one and now upon another.”

We don't read Aeschylus today for dramatic depth or nuance. In Prometheus Bound, for instance, there is nothing like subtlety or character growth. Instead, like most of classical drama, the works are exercises in mythology and pedagogical theme. Even so, digging a bit into these remains far more enlightening than any Wikipedia article or contemporary blogger is likely to offer.

Prometheus, for instance, is portrayed as the noble victim (a role Milton will later grant Lucifer) against a cruel tyrant whose justice is absolute and arbitrary. Zeus's loyal subjects are devoted through fear alone; their morality is purely transactional. The idea that one could hold principles above one's own life is--in Aeschylus's time (and ours)--a quaint and impotent virtue of a past era. Thus the Titans have fallen or gone into hiding with only Prometheus publicly displayed as immortal pariah, not spared even the mercy of death for his suffering. Along the way, near kin, sympathetic family, and fellow cursed victims visit him.

Prometheus has much to say, of course, about his devotion to mankind, and we can also see him as proud, defiant, and devoted to a justice which may return generations later after still more have cruelly suffered. His arguments are straightforward and oft-repeated; the strategies offered by his visitors are also simple and poorly-reasoned, but we aren't looking for nuance. In the classical theater, the message feels hammered, the tragedy wrought in extremes.

Even so, reading it today still feels oddly apropos as morality and principle seem harder to come by, as transactional values seem more prevalent. Prometheus gave mankind fire, but with it the entirety of art and craft, of learning and culture. What must be done with it?

how did he know

Aeschylus' drama is evidently first in Greek tragedy, with its quality reduced by the constraints placed on plays. With only two characters in dialogue and high language, Aeschylus is harder to follow and enjoy. Nevertheless, the stories themselves are largely good. The Persians deals with the vice of hubris, but the story is very thin and the themes are not too complex. Similar with Seven Against Thebes, while missing the other two plays in the trilogy make it harder to judge, the depth only really materialises at the end. The Suppliants is too difficult to judge without the aid of the trilogy. The best of the four plays is certainly Prometheus Bound (which is worrying as we are not sure if Aeschylus wrote it), with a provokingly impious treatment of Zeus' justice. Again the greatest tragedy is that we don't have the sequels, nevertheless the play holds well on its own unlike the previous two.

After reading the contents of "Prometheus Bound" I can wholeheartedly recommend anyone read it. This play presents various different real-life and hypothetical dilemmas and important themes while being written almost 2,500 years ago. The play not only provides important dilemmas and themes to consider but also warns of tyrannical rule and presents a situational duality between free will and fate. With modern-day ties linked to protests and dictatorship, this cautionary tale remains relevant to this day. The characters are well-developed, especially Prometheus, whose defiance and suffering inspire sympathy and admiration. The dialogue is poetic and engaging, and the play's structure and pacing build towards a powerful climax. Overall, "Prometheus Bound" is a timeless classic that deserves its place in the canon of Western literature.

1) Filottete (Sofocle) - 4 stelle.
Mi è piaciuta molto questa tragedia! Pur essendo nel complesso piuttosto statica, si è fatta leggere con interesse ed emozione!
Belli i personaggi, bello il tema trattato, bello anche lo scenario dell’isola selvaggia e deserta! :)
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

2) Agamennone (Eschilo) - 4 stelle
Sempre affascinante leggere un testo così antico. E’ proprio l’espressione di un altro modo di pensare. Come dice Enrico Medda in una delle note, in questa tragedia, ancor più nel seguito della trilogia, non c’è una contrapposizione tra giusto e ingiusto, ma tra diverse concezioni di giustizia.
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

3) Coefore (Eschilo) - 4 stelle
Come quasi tutti i capitoli di mezzo delle trilogie, è un po’ appeso, meno incisivo del primo (il terzo devo ovviamente ancora leggerlo), ma comunque interessante.
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

4) Eumenidi (Eschilo) - 4 stelle
Da quando a scuola lessi il riassunto di questa trilogia, mi venne il desiderio di leggerla perché una cosa in particolare mi aveva grandemente affascinato: la scena d’inizio di questa tragedia. La Pizia si prepara ad accogliere i pellegrini in cerca di profezie, e si ritrova davanti Oreste, con le mani ancora insanguinate, circondato dalle Erinni che dormono. Penso che sia una scena fantastica, non so come potevano essere i costumi all’epoca, ma anche solo con la fantasia è un’immagine spettacolare, questo ragazzo che per forza di cose si trova a familiarizzare con questi esseri mostruosi! :)
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

5) Aiace (Sofocle) - 4 stelle
Ma sapete che Sofocle era proprio bravo a scrivere? ;) Anche questa tragedia mi è piaciuta molto, nonostante la storia, stavolta, non fosse particolarmente interessante.
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

6) Sette contro Tebe (Eschilo) - 4 stelle
Forse dopo l’Orestea mi sarà difficile provare le stesse emozioni per un’altra tragedia greca, però sono sempre una lettura che mi piace moltissimo. Situazioni assurde, scelte incomprensibili, il fato che sovrasta ogni cosa e impone il suo volere… eppure si parla sempre di sentimenti umani, e per questo colpiscono ancora oggi, a millenni di distanza, noi lettori che apparentemente non abbiamo il benché minimo tratto in comune con questi personaggi. E’ tutto un po’ una metafora, efficace sempre, allora come oggi.
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

7) Trachinie (Sofocle) - 4 stelle
Conoscevo già il mito su cui si basa questa tragedia, sapevo quindi come la storia sarebbe andata a finire. Poi, è una tragedia, perciò il finale tristissimo pieno di morte e sciagura era previsto, però devo dire che l’ho trovato davvero molto deprimente.
Tenuto conto di tutto ciò, comunque mi è piaciuto leggere questa tragedia, non l’ho trovata per nulla pesante o noiosa, e anche se non credo sia una di quelle che mi rimarrà impressa com’è accaduto invece qualche altra volta, è stata una bella lettura.
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

8) Persiani (Eschilo) - 4 stelle
Mi è piaciuta molto questa tragedia, anche se la parte del Coro l’ho trovata noiosa perché troppo ripetitiva. Mi è piaciuto che rappresentasse, una volta tanto, un evento storico e non mitologico, e mi è piaciuto che decidesse di mostrarcelo da un punto di vista originale, quello dei vinti. Intendiamoci, solo dal loro punto di vista, non certo dalla loro parte, perché comunque lo scopo di Eschilo era esaltare i Greci e la loro famosa vittoria. In ogni caso una lettura molto piacevole e interessante!
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

9) Edipo Re (Sofocle) - 4 stelle
La grandezza di autori come Sofocle sta nell’essere stati in grado di raccontare qualcosa che tutti già conoscevano, e renderlo comunque appassionante. La storia di Edipo è così, strafamosa che noi lettori/spettatori vediamo la tragedia avvicinarsi a poco a poco agli ignari personaggi, ma non per questo siamo meno coinvolti emotivamente.
E allora fissa il tuo occhio al girono estremo e non dire felice uomo mortale, prima che abbia varcato il termine della vita senza aver patito dolore.
(Corifeo nell’explicit)
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodilegg...

10) Elettra (Sofocle) - 3 stelle
Il voto un po’ più basso del solito è dovuto al fatto che non amo particolarmente questa parte del mito, e non sono riuscita a farmi coinvolgere come è accaduto per altre tragedie, ma alla fine comunque il libro mi è piaciuto e, pur non concordando con lei, ho apprezzato molto la protagonista.
https://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileg...

Unlike his successor Sophocles, Aeschylus is extremely difficult on the modern reader. He is our earliest surviving example of drama, and this clearly shows. This is theater at its most primitive state. Undeveloped, with much growing up to do. Aeschylus wrote about seventy plays, of which only six (and one's authorship being disputed) now survive. Only one of his trilogies remain, The Oresteia, and three of his plays were part of trilogies that are now lost. The Persians is a historical curiosity for being the oldest play in existence; and unique among Greek tragedies for its subject matter being based on a recent historical event.

Aeschylus's verse is known for its grandeur, and for its lack of action. His plays are made completely of speeches, with no action happening on stage. This fact combined with the piety of the writing makes the plays painful to get through, despite their short length. Some plays make the readers scratch their heads in wondering why they were chosen by copyists to remain down through the generations. Why The Suppliants or The Seven Against Thebes? These are questions still unanswered.

For the casual reader of Greek literature, Aeschylus is a trying author to read. For the average reader I would simply leave him unrecommended (Except for The Oresteia and Prometheus Bound, both of which are quite good for those interested). For those interested in Greek tragedy without dealing with the extravagantly outdated verse, Sophocles is the recommended course. I have not yet read Euripides, but from what I've seen he is also probably much easier to relate to as well. Aeschylus's writings remains important for Greek academics and historians, but as enjoyable reading there is much to be desired.

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.

It's a shame three of these four plays are all part one of separate trilogies of which the other parts have been lost. This makes the plays seem somewhat dull and incomplete, but are certainly not terrible. They are simply lacking in when it comes to plot. If you compare them to the first play in the one trilogy of Aeschylus which is still intact (Oresteia), it is similarly slow-moving and would be fairly dull if taken by itself. The other two plays in Oresteia develop the story gradually and the final play finishes quite brilliantly.

What is known of the Prometheus series seems like it ends in a similar fashion to Oresteia, reconciling the polarized perspectives of deities at odds with each other via the intriguing actions of a mediating third-party. Less is known of The Suppliants and Seven Against Thebes, but like the Orestes trilogy they also deal with strife and violent crime between family members. Each of the three stories with this theme construct a scenario where the violent clash between family members cannot be escaped and the ability to willingly step away from tragedy is of minimal importance against the greater theme of their bitterly inevitable fate.

Because these trilogies remain only in their opening fragments and due to the playwright's style of gradually developing plots, it's difficult to give the same high praise as to the Oresteia, which remains to us in full.

Prometheus is by far and away the stand out of this little collection of Greek drama - fragments of longer trilogies that were otherwise lost. The grandeur and drama of Prometheus Bound is spectacular, but the other three plays included in this edition just don't measure up.