Aeschylus Plays: I

Classic plays reissued in the new Methuen Greek Classics series in a new distinctive style

The Persians; based on the destruction of the Persian invaders in 480BC, breaks with the Greek tradition of purely dramatising myths to deals with the recent past and with characters who would have been familiar to its first audience in 472BC; Prometheus Bound stages the stand off between the original rebel and hero Prometheus and almighty Zeus; Suppliants, follows the plight of Danaus and his daughters, in flight from a fateful marriage contract with the King of Egypt’s sons and shows the triumph of humanity over brute force while Seven Against Thebes dramatises the final battle between the two sons of Oedipus Eteocles and Polynices in the climax of the Oedipus saga. Translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael, these plays are widely studied in schools, colleges and universities.

Author Biography

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) The father of Greek tragic drama, usually considered the first great writer in the Western theatrical tradition. Only seven plays, of over 70 known titles, are extant. These are The Persians (472 BC), Seven Against Thebes (469 BC), Prometheus Bound (c. 460 BC), The Suppliant Women (c. 460 BC), and the Oresteia trilogy (458 BC), comprising Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and Eumenides. He also wrote numerous satyr plays, which have only survived in fragmentary form. Aeschylus’s work is powerful and operatic, using majestic but often innovative language. His attitude to Greek society and religion was generally conservative, although he boldly depicted the sufferings of men and woman when moral systems, and the gods themselves, are in conflict. Legend says he was killed by a tortoise dropped by an eagle (to break the shell) on his bald head (mistaken for a stone). His tombstone makes no mention of his literary works, referring only to his service at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).