Aeschylus (525 BC/524 BC – 456 BC/455 BC) was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict among them; previously, characters interacted only with the chorus. No more than seven of the estimated 92 plays written by Aeschylus have survived into modern times.
Who was Aeschylus?
Aeschylus was a renowned Greek playwright who lived in the 5th century BCE. He was born in 525 BC in Eleusis, a small town about 27 kilometers northwest of Athens in the fertile valleys of western Attica.
Some scholars argue that his date of birth may have been calculated by counting back 40 years from his first victory at the Great Dionysia, but this is not known to be fact.
His family was wealthy and well established. His father, Euphorion, was said to be a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica, though this may have been a story invented later to explain the grandeur of his plays.
According to the 2nd-century AD geographer Pausanias, Aeschylus worked at a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in a dream and commanded him to turn his attention to the emerging art of tragedy.
When he awoke, he immediately began writing his first tragedy and later performed his first play in 499 BC, when he was 26 years old.
Going back to 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, and Cleisthenes came to power.
Cleisthenes’ reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition.
In the last decade of the 6th century BC, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis.
The Persian Wars played a major role in Aeschylus’ life and career.
In 490 BC, he and his brother Cynaegeirus fought to defend Athens against the invading army of Darius the Great of Persia at the Battle of Marathon.
The Athenians emerged victorious, and the triumph was celebrated across the Greek city-states.
Cynaegeirus was killed while attempting to stop a Persian ship from retreating from the shore, and his countrymen honored him as a hero.
In 480 BC, Aeschylus was called into military service for a second time.
He went with his younger brother, Ameinias, to fight against the invading forces of Xerxes I at the Battle of Salamis.
He also fought at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.
Ion of Chios later praised Aeschylus for his military service and his role at Salamis.
Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia. 
Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle, which mistook his bald head for a rock suitable for cracking the shell.
Pliny the Elder added in his Natural History that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object, though this story may simply be legendary or based on a misunderstanding of the imagery on his tomb.
Aeschylus’ work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his tragedies were the only ones permitted to be restaged in later dramatic competitions.
His sons, Euphorion and Euaeon, and his nephew Philocles also became playwrights.
The inscription on Aeschylus’ gravestone makes no mention of his theatrical fame, commemorating only his military achievements:
“Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian, who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela. Of his noble valor, the Grove of Marathon can speak, and the long-haired Persian knows it well.”
So, when put together, it is something like "ES-kuh-lus." Keep in mind that pronunciation may vary slightly, and in the original Greek, it might have been pronounced somewhat differently.The Persians
The earliest of the plays that still exist is The Persians (Persai), performed in 472 BC and based on experiences in Aeschylus' own life, specifically the Battle of Salamis. It is unique among Greek tragedies in treating a recent historical event rather than a heroic or divine myth. The Persians focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris by blaming Persia's loss on the overwhelming pride of its king. It opens with the arrival of a messenger in Susa, the Persian capital, bearing news of the catastrophic Persian defeat at Salamis to Atossa, the mother of the Persian King Xerxes. Atossa then travels to the tomb of Darius, her husband, where his ghost appears to explain the cause of the defeat. It is, he says, the result of Xerxes' hubris in building a bridge across the Hellespont, an action which angered the gods. Xerxes appears at the end of the play, not realizing the cause of his defeat, and the play closes to lamentations by Xerxes and the chorus.Seven against Thebes
Seven against Thebes (Hepta epi Thebas), which was performed in 467 BC, picks up a contrasting theme, that of fate and the interference of the gods in human affairs. It also marks the first known appearance in Aeschylus' work of a theme which would continue through his plays, that of the polis (the city) being a vital development of human civilization. The play tells the story of Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of the shamed King of Thebes, Oedipus. The sons agree to alternate in the throne of the city, but after the first year Eteocles refuses to step down, and Polynices wages war to claim his crown. The brothers go on to kill each other in single combat, and the original ending of the play consisted of lamentations for the dead brothers. A new ending was added to the play some fifty years later: Antigone and Ismene mourn their dead brothers, a messenger enters announcing an edict prohibiting the burial of Polynices; and finally, Antigone declares her intention to defy this edict. The play was the third in a connected Oedipus trilogy; the first two plays were Laius and Oedipus, likely treating those elements of the Oedipus myth detailed most famously in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The concluding satyr play was The Sphinx.The Suppliants
Aeschylus would continue his emphasis on the polis with The Suppliants in 463 BC (Hiketides), which pays tribute to the democratic undercurrents running through Athens in advance of the establishment of a democratic government in 461. In the play, the Danaids, the fifty daughters of Danaus, founder of Argos, flee a forced marriage to their cousins in Egypt. They turn to King Pelasgus of Argos for protection, but Pelasgus refuses until the people of Argos weigh in on the decision, a distinctly democratic move on the part of the king. The people decide that the Danaids deserve protection, and they are allowed within the walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests. The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed a long-assumed (because of The Suppliants' cliffhanger ending) Danaid trilogy, whose constituent plays are generally agreed to be The Suppliants, The Aegyptids and The Danaids. A plausible reconstruction of the trilogy's last two-thirds runs thus: In The Aegyptids, the Argive-Egyptian war threatened in the first play has transpired. During the course of the war, King Pelasgus has been killed, and Danaus comes to rule Argos. He negotiates a peace settlement with Aegyptus, as a condition of which, his fifty daughters will marry the fifty sons of Aegyptus. Danaus secretly informs his daughters of an oracle predicting that one of his sons-in-law would kill him; he therefore orders the Danaids to murder the Aegyptids on their wedding night. His daughters agree. The Danaids would open the day after the wedding. In short order, it is revealed that forty-nine of the Danaids killed their husbands as ordered; Hypermnestra, however, loved her husband Lynceus, and thus spared his life and helped him to escape. Angered by his daughter's disobedience, Danaus orders her imprisonment and, possibly, her execution. In the trilogy's climax and dénouement, Lynceus reveals himself to Danaus, and kills him (thus fulfilling the oracle). He and Hypermnestra will establish a ruling dynasty in Argos. The other forty-nine Danaids are absolved of their murderous crime, and married off to unspecified Argive men. The satyr play following this trilogy was titled Amymone, after one of the Danaids.The Oresteia
The most complete tetralogy of Aeschylus' work that still exists is the Oresteia (458 BC), of which only the satyr play is missing. In fact, the Oresteia is the only full trilogy of Greek plays by any playwright that modern scholars have uncovered. The trilogy consists of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (Choephoroi), and The Eumenides. Together, these plays tell the bloody story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos.Agamemnon
Agamemnon describes his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, who was angry both at Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia and at his keeping the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra enters the palace even though she knows she will be murdered by Clytemnestra as well, knowing that she cannot avoid her gruesome fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will surely avenge his father.
The Libation Bearers
The Libation Bearers continues the tale, opening with Clytemnestra's account of a nightmare in which she gives birth to a snake. She orders Electra, her daughter, to pour libations on Agamemnon's tomb (with the assistance of libation bearers) in hope of making amends. At the tomb, Electra meets Orestes, who has returned from protective exile in Phocis, and they plan revenge upon Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus together. They enter the palace pretending to bear news of Orestes' death, and when Clytemnestra calls in Aegisthus to share in the news, Orestes kills them both. Immediately, Orestes is beset by the Furies, who avenge patricide and matricide in Greek mythology.
The Eumenides
The final play of The Eumenides, addresses the question of Orestes' guilt. The Furies pursue Orestes from Argos and into the wilderness. Orestes makes his way to the temple of Apollo and begs him to drive the Furies away. Apollo had encouraged Orestes to kill Clytemnestra, and so bears a portion of the guilt of the act. But the Furies belong to the older race of the Titans, and Apollo is unable to drive them away. He sends Orestes to the temple of Athena, with Hermes as a guide. There, the Furies track him down and, just before he is to be killed, the goddess Athena, patron of Athens, steps in and declares that a trial is necessary. Apollo argues Orestes' case and, after the jury splits their vote, Athena decides against the Furies. She also renames them the Eumenides, or kindly ones, and declares that thereafter all future hung juries should result in acquittal, since mercy should take precedence over harshness. The Eumenides specifically extols the importance of reason in the development of laws, and, like The Suppliants, lauds the ideals of a democratic Athens.
Prometheus Bound
In addition to these six works, a seventh tragedy, Prometheus Bound, is uniformly attributed to Aeschylus by ancient authorities. Since the late nineteenth century, however, modern scholarship has increasingly doubted this ascription largely on stylistic grounds. Its production date is also in dispute, with theories ranging from the 480's BC to as late as the 410's. The play consists mostly of static dialogue, as throughout the play Prometheus is bound to a rock as punishment for providing fire to humans. The god Hephaestus, the Titan Oceanus, and the chorus of Oceanids all express sympathy for the Titan's plight. Prometheus meets Io, a fellow victim of Zeus' cruelty; he prophesies for her future travels, and reveals that one of her descendants will eventually free Prometheus. The play closes with Zeus sending Prometheus into the abyss because the Titan refuses to divulge the secret of a potential marriage that could be the Olympian's downfall. The Prometheus Bound appears to have been the first play in a trilogy called the Prometheia. In the second play, Prometheus Unbound, Heracles frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that had been sent daily to eat the Titan's perpetually regenerating liver. Perhaps foreshadowing his eventual reconciliation with Prometheus, we learn that Zeus has released the other Titans whom he imprisoned at the conclusion of the Titanomachy. In the trilogy's conclusion, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, the Titan finally warns Zeus not to lie with the sea nymph Thetis, for she is fated to give birth to a son greater than the father. Not wishing to be overthrown, Zeus marries Thetis off to the mortal Peleus; the product of that union will be Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War. After reconciling with Prometheus, Zeus perhaps inaugurates a festival in his honor at Athens.Influence on Greek drama and culture
When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre had only just begun to evolve, although earlier playwrights like Thespis had expanded the cast to include an actor who was able to interact with the chorus. Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for greater dramatic variety, while the chorus played a less important role. He is sometimes credited with introducing skenographia, or scene-decoration, though Aristotle gives this distinction to Sophocles. Aeschylus is moreover said to have made innovations in costuming making the costumes more elaborate and dramatic, and having his actors wear platform boots (cothurni) to make them more visible to the audience. According to a later account of Aeschylus' life, as they walked on stage in the first performance of the Eumenides, the chorus of Furies were so frightening in appearance that they caused young children to faint, patriarchs to piss themselves, and pregnant women to go into labor.
Overall, though, he continued to write within the very strict bounds of Greek drama: his plays were written in verse, no violence could be performed on stage, and the plays had to have a certain remoteness from daily life in Athens, either by relating stories about the gods or by being set, like The Persians, in far-away locales. Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis. The Oresteia trilogy particularly concentrated on man's position in the cosmos in relation to the gods, divine law, and divine punishment. Aeschylus' abiding popularity is perhaps most evident in the praise the comic playwright Aristophanes gives him in The Frogs, produced some half-century after Aeschylus' death.Influence outside of Greek Culture
Aeschylus' works were influential beyond his own time. Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Regius Professor of Greek Emeritus at Oxford University) wrote extensively on Wagner's relationship reverence of Aeschylus and the ensuing effect on his works. Michael Ewans argues in his Wagner and Aeschylus. The 'Ring' and the 'Oresteia' (London: Faber. 1982) that the influence was so great as to merit a direct comparison, character by character, of Wagner's 'Ring' and Aeschylus' 'Orestia.' Reviews of his book, while not denying Lloyd-Jones' views that Wagner read and respected Aeschylus, refute Ewans' arguments on the grounds that they seem unreasonable and forced.
Sir J. T. Sheppard, Provost of King's College in Cambridge, argues in the second half of his Aeschylus and Sophocles: Their Work and Influence that Aeschylus, along with Sophocles, had a major part in the formation of dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present, specifically in French and Elizabethan drama. He also claims that their influence went beyond just drama and applies to literature in general, citing Milton and the Romantics as his prime examples.
Easton Press Aeschylus books
The Oresteia - 100 Greatest Books Ever Written - 1979
Franklin Library Aeschylus books
Complete Plays of Aeschylus - Great Books of the Western World - 1978
The Oresteia - 100 Greatest Books of All Time - 1980
Greek Tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - Oxford Library (published in both quarter bound and full leather) - 1982
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Who was Aeschylus?
Some scholars argue that his date of birth may have been calculated by counting back 40 years from his first victory at the Great Dionysia, but this is not known to be fact.
His family was wealthy and well established. His father, Euphorion, was said to be a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica, though this may have been a story invented later to explain the grandeur of his plays.
According to the 2nd-century AD geographer Pausanias, Aeschylus worked at a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in a dream and commanded him to turn his attention to the emerging art of tragedy.
When he awoke, he immediately began writing his first tragedy and later performed his first play in 499 BC, when he was 26 years old.
Going back to 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, and Cleisthenes came to power.
Cleisthenes’ reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition.
In the last decade of the 6th century BC, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis.
The Persian Wars played a major role in Aeschylus’ life and career.
In 490 BC, he and his brother Cynaegeirus fought to defend Athens against the invading army of Darius the Great of Persia at the Battle of Marathon.
The Athenians emerged victorious, and the triumph was celebrated across the Greek city-states.
Cynaegeirus was killed while attempting to stop a Persian ship from retreating from the shore, and his countrymen honored him as a hero.
In 480 BC, Aeschylus was called into military service for a second time.
He went with his younger brother, Ameinias, to fight against the invading forces of Xerxes I at the Battle of Salamis.
He also fought at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.
Ion of Chios later praised Aeschylus for his military service and his role at Salamis.
Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia.
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, an ancient cult of Demeter based in his hometown of Eleusis.
According to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of asebeia, or impiety, for revealing some of the cult’s secrets on stage.
Other sources claim that an angry mob tried to kill him on the spot, forcing him to flee.
Heracleides of Pontus wrote that the audience attempted to stone Aeschylus.
He reportedly took refuge at the altar in the orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus.
At his trial, he pleaded ignorance and was acquitted, with the jury sympathizing with the military service of him and his brothers during the Persian Wars.
According to the 2nd-century AD author Aelian, Aeschylus’ younger brother Ameinias helped secure his acquittal by showing the jury the stump of the hand he had lost at Salamis, where he had been voted bravest warrior.
However, the award for bravery at Salamis actually went not to Aeschylus’ brother, but to another Ameinias from Pallene.
Aeschylus traveled to Sicily once or twice during the 470s BC after being invited by Hieron I, the tyrant of Syracuse, a major Greek city on the eastern side of the island.
During one of these visits, he produced one of his most famous works, The Women of Aetna, in honor of the city founded by Hieron, and he also restaged The Persians.
By 473 BC, after the death of Phrynichus, one of his chief rivals, Aeschylus had become the dominant favorite at the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition.
In 472 BC, Aeschylus staged the production that included The Persians, with Pericles serving as choregos.Personal life
Aeschylus married and had two sons, Euphorion and Euaeon, both of whom became tragic poets.
Euphorion won first prize in 431 BC in a competition against both Sophocles and Euripides.
Aeschylus’ nephew Philocles, the son of his sister, was also a tragic poet and won first prize over Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
Aeschylus also had at least two brothers, Cynaegeirus and Ameinias.
In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily one final time, visiting the city of Gela, where he died in either 456 or 455 BC.
According to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of asebeia, or impiety, for revealing some of the cult’s secrets on stage.
Other sources claim that an angry mob tried to kill him on the spot, forcing him to flee.
Heracleides of Pontus wrote that the audience attempted to stone Aeschylus.
He reportedly took refuge at the altar in the orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus.
At his trial, he pleaded ignorance and was acquitted, with the jury sympathizing with the military service of him and his brothers during the Persian Wars.
According to the 2nd-century AD author Aelian, Aeschylus’ younger brother Ameinias helped secure his acquittal by showing the jury the stump of the hand he had lost at Salamis, where he had been voted bravest warrior.
However, the award for bravery at Salamis actually went not to Aeschylus’ brother, but to another Ameinias from Pallene.
Aeschylus traveled to Sicily once or twice during the 470s BC after being invited by Hieron I, the tyrant of Syracuse, a major Greek city on the eastern side of the island.
During one of these visits, he produced one of his most famous works, The Women of Aetna, in honor of the city founded by Hieron, and he also restaged The Persians.
By 473 BC, after the death of Phrynichus, one of his chief rivals, Aeschylus had become the dominant favorite at the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition.
In 472 BC, Aeschylus staged the production that included The Persians, with Pericles serving as choregos.
Personal life
Aeschylus married and had two sons, Euphorion and Euaeon, both of whom became tragic poets.Euphorion won first prize in 431 BC in a competition against both Sophocles and Euripides.
Aeschylus’ nephew Philocles, the son of his sister, was also a tragic poet and won first prize over Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
Aeschylus also had at least two brothers, Cynaegeirus and Ameinias.
In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily one final time, visiting the city of Gela, where he died in either 456 or 455 BC.
Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle, which mistook his bald head for a rock suitable for cracking the shell.
Pliny the Elder added in his Natural History that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object, though this story may simply be legendary or based on a misunderstanding of the imagery on his tomb.
Aeschylus’ work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his tragedies were the only ones permitted to be restaged in later dramatic competitions.
His sons, Euphorion and Euaeon, and his nephew Philocles also became playwrights.
The inscription on Aeschylus’ gravestone makes no mention of his theatrical fame, commemorating only his military achievements:
“Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian, who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela. Of his noble valor, the Grove of Marathon can speak, and the long-haired Persian knows it well.”
Aeschylus Pronunciation
How to pronounce "Aeschylus" is typically anglicized as "ES-kuh-lus."
Here's a breakdown of the pronunciation:
"ES" sounds like the first part of the word "essay."
"kuh" sounds like the first syllable of the word "cut."
"lus" sounds like the first part of the word "lustrous."
"ES" sounds like the first part of the word "essay."
"kuh" sounds like the first syllable of the word "cut."
"lus" sounds like the first part of the word "lustrous."
So, when put together, it is something like "ES-kuh-lus." Keep in mind that pronunciation may vary slightly, and in the original Greek, it might have been pronounced somewhat differently.
The Persians
The earliest of the plays that still exist is The Persians (Persai), performed in 472 BC and based on experiences in Aeschylus' own life, specifically the Battle of Salamis. It is unique among Greek tragedies in treating a recent historical event rather than a heroic or divine myth. The Persians focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris by blaming Persia's loss on the overwhelming pride of its king. It opens with the arrival of a messenger in Susa, the Persian capital, bearing news of the catastrophic Persian defeat at Salamis to Atossa, the mother of the Persian King Xerxes. Atossa then travels to the tomb of Darius, her husband, where his ghost appears to explain the cause of the defeat. It is, he says, the result of Xerxes' hubris in building a bridge across the Hellespont, an action which angered the gods. Xerxes appears at the end of the play, not realizing the cause of his defeat, and the play closes to lamentations by Xerxes and the chorus.Seven against Thebes
Seven against Thebes (Hepta epi Thebas), which was performed in 467 BC, picks up a contrasting theme, that of fate and the interference of the gods in human affairs. It also marks the first known appearance in Aeschylus' work of a theme which would continue through his plays, that of the polis (the city) being a vital development of human civilization. The play tells the story of Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of the shamed King of Thebes, Oedipus. The sons agree to alternate in the throne of the city, but after the first year Eteocles refuses to step down, and Polynices wages war to claim his crown. The brothers go on to kill each other in single combat, and the original ending of the play consisted of lamentations for the dead brothers. A new ending was added to the play some fifty years later: Antigone and Ismene mourn their dead brothers, a messenger enters announcing an edict prohibiting the burial of Polynices; and finally, Antigone declares her intention to defy this edict. The play was the third in a connected Oedipus trilogy; the first two plays were Laius and Oedipus, likely treating those elements of the Oedipus myth detailed most famously in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. The concluding satyr play was The Sphinx.The Suppliants
Aeschylus would continue his emphasis on the polis with The Suppliants in 463 BC (Hiketides), which pays tribute to the democratic undercurrents running through Athens in advance of the establishment of a democratic government in 461. In the play, the Danaids, the fifty daughters of Danaus, founder of Argos, flee a forced marriage to their cousins in Egypt. They turn to King Pelasgus of Argos for protection, but Pelasgus refuses until the people of Argos weigh in on the decision, a distinctly democratic move on the part of the king. The people decide that the Danaids deserve protection, and they are allowed within the walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests. The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed a long-assumed (because of The Suppliants' cliffhanger ending) Danaid trilogy, whose constituent plays are generally agreed to be The Suppliants, The Aegyptids and The Danaids. A plausible reconstruction of the trilogy's last two-thirds runs thus: In The Aegyptids, the Argive-Egyptian war threatened in the first play has transpired. During the course of the war, King Pelasgus has been killed, and Danaus comes to rule Argos. He negotiates a peace settlement with Aegyptus, as a condition of which, his fifty daughters will marry the fifty sons of Aegyptus. Danaus secretly informs his daughters of an oracle predicting that one of his sons-in-law would kill him; he therefore orders the Danaids to murder the Aegyptids on their wedding night. His daughters agree. The Danaids would open the day after the wedding. In short order, it is revealed that forty-nine of the Danaids killed their husbands as ordered; Hypermnestra, however, loved her husband Lynceus, and thus spared his life and helped him to escape. Angered by his daughter's disobedience, Danaus orders her imprisonment and, possibly, her execution. In the trilogy's climax and dénouement, Lynceus reveals himself to Danaus, and kills him (thus fulfilling the oracle). He and Hypermnestra will establish a ruling dynasty in Argos. The other forty-nine Danaids are absolved of their murderous crime, and married off to unspecified Argive men. The satyr play following this trilogy was titled Amymone, after one of the Danaids.The Oresteia
The most complete tetralogy of Aeschylus' work that still exists is the Oresteia (458 BC), of which only the satyr play is missing. In fact, the Oresteia is the only full trilogy of Greek plays by any playwright that modern scholars have uncovered. The trilogy consists of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (Choephoroi), and The Eumenides. Together, these plays tell the bloody story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos.Agamemnon
Agamemnon describes his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, who was angry both at Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia and at his keeping the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra enters the palace even though she knows she will be murdered by Clytemnestra as well, knowing that she cannot avoid her gruesome fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will surely avenge his father.The Libation Bearers
The Libation Bearers continues the tale, opening with Clytemnestra's account of a nightmare in which she gives birth to a snake. She orders Electra, her daughter, to pour libations on Agamemnon's tomb (with the assistance of libation bearers) in hope of making amends. At the tomb, Electra meets Orestes, who has returned from protective exile in Phocis, and they plan revenge upon Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus together. They enter the palace pretending to bear news of Orestes' death, and when Clytemnestra calls in Aegisthus to share in the news, Orestes kills them both. Immediately, Orestes is beset by the Furies, who avenge patricide and matricide in Greek mythology.The Eumenides
The final play of The Eumenides, addresses the question of Orestes' guilt. The Furies pursue Orestes from Argos and into the wilderness. Orestes makes his way to the temple of Apollo and begs him to drive the Furies away. Apollo had encouraged Orestes to kill Clytemnestra, and so bears a portion of the guilt of the act. But the Furies belong to the older race of the Titans, and Apollo is unable to drive them away. He sends Orestes to the temple of Athena, with Hermes as a guide. There, the Furies track him down and, just before he is to be killed, the goddess Athena, patron of Athens, steps in and declares that a trial is necessary. Apollo argues Orestes' case and, after the jury splits their vote, Athena decides against the Furies. She also renames them the Eumenides, or kindly ones, and declares that thereafter all future hung juries should result in acquittal, since mercy should take precedence over harshness. The Eumenides specifically extols the importance of reason in the development of laws, and, like The Suppliants, lauds the ideals of a democratic Athens.Prometheus Bound
In addition to these six works, a seventh tragedy, Prometheus Bound, is uniformly attributed to Aeschylus by ancient authorities. Since the late nineteenth century, however, modern scholarship has increasingly doubted this ascription largely on stylistic grounds. Its production date is also in dispute, with theories ranging from the 480's BC to as late as the 410's. The play consists mostly of static dialogue, as throughout the play Prometheus is bound to a rock as punishment for providing fire to humans. The god Hephaestus, the Titan Oceanus, and the chorus of Oceanids all express sympathy for the Titan's plight. Prometheus meets Io, a fellow victim of Zeus' cruelty; he prophesies for her future travels, and reveals that one of her descendants will eventually free Prometheus. The play closes with Zeus sending Prometheus into the abyss because the Titan refuses to divulge the secret of a potential marriage that could be the Olympian's downfall. The Prometheus Bound appears to have been the first play in a trilogy called the Prometheia. In the second play, Prometheus Unbound, Heracles frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that had been sent daily to eat the Titan's perpetually regenerating liver. Perhaps foreshadowing his eventual reconciliation with Prometheus, we learn that Zeus has released the other Titans whom he imprisoned at the conclusion of the Titanomachy. In the trilogy's conclusion, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, the Titan finally warns Zeus not to lie with the sea nymph Thetis, for she is fated to give birth to a son greater than the father. Not wishing to be overthrown, Zeus marries Thetis off to the mortal Peleus; the product of that union will be Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War. After reconciling with Prometheus, Zeus perhaps inaugurates a festival in his honor at Athens.Influence on Greek drama and culture
When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre had only just begun to evolve, although earlier playwrights like Thespis had expanded the cast to include an actor who was able to interact with the chorus. Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for greater dramatic variety, while the chorus played a less important role. He is sometimes credited with introducing skenographia, or scene-decoration, though Aristotle gives this distinction to Sophocles. Aeschylus is moreover said to have made innovations in costuming making the costumes more elaborate and dramatic, and having his actors wear platform boots (cothurni) to make them more visible to the audience. According to a later account of Aeschylus' life, as they walked on stage in the first performance of the Eumenides, the chorus of Furies were so frightening in appearance that they caused young children to faint, patriarchs to piss themselves, and pregnant women to go into labor.Overall, though, he continued to write within the very strict bounds of Greek drama: his plays were written in verse, no violence could be performed on stage, and the plays had to have a certain remoteness from daily life in Athens, either by relating stories about the gods or by being set, like The Persians, in far-away locales. Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis. The Oresteia trilogy particularly concentrated on man's position in the cosmos in relation to the gods, divine law, and divine punishment. Aeschylus' abiding popularity is perhaps most evident in the praise the comic playwright Aristophanes gives him in The Frogs, produced some half-century after Aeschylus' death.
Influence outside of Greek Culture
Aeschylus' works were influential beyond his own time. Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Regius Professor of Greek Emeritus at Oxford University) wrote extensively on Wagner's relationship reverence of Aeschylus and the ensuing effect on his works. Michael Ewans argues in his Wagner and Aeschylus. The 'Ring' and the 'Oresteia' (London: Faber. 1982) that the influence was so great as to merit a direct comparison, character by character, of Wagner's 'Ring' and Aeschylus' 'Orestia.' Reviews of his book, while not denying Lloyd-Jones' views that Wagner read and respected Aeschylus, refute Ewans' arguments on the grounds that they seem unreasonable and forced.Sir J. T. Sheppard, Provost of King's College in Cambridge, argues in the second half of his Aeschylus and Sophocles: Their Work and Influence that Aeschylus, along with Sophocles, had a major part in the formation of dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present, specifically in French and Elizabethan drama. He also claims that their influence went beyond just drama and applies to literature in general, citing Milton and the Romantics as his prime examples.
Aeschylus quotes
"In
our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the
awful grace of God."
"Memory is the mother of all wisdom."
"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."
"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow."
"He
who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our
will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."
"Wisdom comes alone through suffering."
"It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish."
Source and additional information: Aeschylus