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Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Ασχύλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. He is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays are not entirely lost, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.
Biography Born in Eleusis in western Attica, he wrote his first plays in 498 BC. His earliest surviving play is probably The Persians, performed in 472 BC. In 490 BC, he participated in the Battle of Marathon and in 480 BC he fought at the Battle of Salamis, which was to become the subject of The Persians. Written eight years later; it is now generally accepted that The Suppliants was written in the last decade of his life, making The Persians his earliest play and not The Suppliants as previously supposed. P.W. Buckham writes that Aeschylus was considered, philosophically speaking, a Pythagorean and that this was evidenced in some of his works. Buckham also quotes August Wilhelm von Schlegel, supporting the notion that Aeschylus was the inventor of tragedy. Aeschylus frequently travelled to Sicily, where the tyrant of Gela was one of his patrons. In 458 BC he travelled there for the last time; according to traditional legend, Aeschylus was killed in 456 BC when an eagle (or more likely a Lammergeier) dropped a live and apparently very savage tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. Some accounts differ, claiming that the bird dropped a stone on his head, mistaking it for a large egg. The inscription on his gravestone may have been written by him, but makes no mention of his theatrical renown, commemorating only his military achievements. It read: - - :This tomb the dust of Aeschylus doth hide, - :Euphorion's son and fruitful Gela's pride - :How tried his valor, Marathon may tell - :And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well - - In Greek: - - - : - - :. - - - (Anthologiae Graecae Appendix, vol. 3, Epigramma sepulcrale 17) Works Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis, concentrating on man's position in the cosmos in relation to the gods, divine law and divine punishment in the Oresteia trilogy. Besides the literary merit of his work, Aeschylus' greatest contribution to the theater was the addition of a second actor to his scenes. Previously, the action took place between a single actor and the Greek chorus. This invention was attributed to him by Aristotle. Aeschylus is known to have written about 76 plays, only 6 of which survive: Lost and fragmentary plays include Phineas, Glaukos Potnieus and Prometheus Pyrkaeus, a satyr play, belonging to the same tetralogy as The Persians; Laios, Oedipus and Sphynx, another satyr play, belonging to the same tetralogy as Seven Against Thebes; Proteus, the satyr play belonging to the Oresteia tetralogy; Eleusians and The Net-pullers. Notes Fragments Prometheus Bound | ||||||||
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