Aeschylus

Aeschylus
Occupation(s)	Playwright and Soldier

This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. For other uses, see Aeschylus (disambiguation).

Aeschylus (Greek: Αἰσχύλος, IPA: /ˈɛskələs/ or /ˈiskələs/, 525–456 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 between them; previously, characters interacted only with the chorus. Unfortunately, only seven of the estimated 70 plays written by Aeschylus have survived into modern times.

Many of Aeschylus' works were influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. His play The Persians remains an important primary source of information about this period in Greek history. The war was so important to Greeks and to Aeschylus himself that, upon his death around 456 BC, his epitaph included a reference to his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon but not to his success as a playwright.

Asteroid 2876 Aeschylus is named for him.

Life

Persian King Darius, whose army Aeschylus fought in the Battle of Marathon

Aeschylus was born in either 525 or 524 BC in Eleusis, a small town about 30 kilometers northwest of Athens, which is nestled in the fertile valleys of western Attica. His family was both wealthy and well-established; his father Euphorion was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica. As a youth, he worked at a vineyard until, he later claimed to his friend Pausanias, the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep and commanded him to turn his attention to the nascent art of tragedy. As soon as he woke from the dream, the young Aeschylus began writing a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old. After fifteen years, his skill was great enough to win a prize for his plays at Athens' annual city Dionysia playwriting competition. But in the interim, his dramatic career was interrupted by war. The armies of the Persian Empire, who had already conquered the Greek city-states of Ionia, entered mainland Greece in the hopes of conquering it as well.

In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought with the Greek army against the invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. The Greeks, though outnumbered, encircled and slaughtered the Persian army. This pivotal defeat by the soldiers of the Greek Delian League ended the first Persian invasion of Greece proper and was celebrated across the city-states of Greece. However, the victory was bittersweet for Aeschylus because his brother was killed in the battle. Aeschylus continued to write plays during the lull between the first and second Persian invasions of Greece, and won his first victory in the city Dionysia, Athens' annual competition of playwrights, in 484 BC. In 480 and 479 BC, he again fought with the Greek armies against Xerxes' invading forces at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea. The Athenian victory over the Persian fleet at Salamis was to become the subject of The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia.

Aeschylus traveled to Sicily once or twice in the 470s BC, having been invited by Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, a major Greek city on the eastern side of the island. By 473 BC, after the death of Phrynichus, one of his chief rivals, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition. In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. He would continue to be honored by the Athenians, who respected his work so highly that they allowed other playwrights to reproduce his plays as part of the Dionysia rather than presenting original works of their own. His sons Euphorion and Euæon and his nephew Philocles would follow in his footsteps and become playwrights themselves.

The inscription on Aeschylus' gravestone may have been written by him, but makes no mention of his theatrical renown, commemorating only his military achievements:

Greek	English
Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας· ἀλκὴν δ’ εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποι καὶ βαρυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος	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.

Works

Modern picture of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, where many of Aeschylus' plays were performed

The Greek art of the drama had its roots in religious festivals for the gods, chiefly Dionysus, the god of wine. In Athens, the two major theatre festivals were the Lenaia in January and the more important Dionysia in the spring. These festivals began with an opening procession, continued with a competition of boys singing dithyrambs, and culminated in a pair of dramatic competitions. The first competition, which Aeschylus would have participated in, was for the tragedians, and consisted of three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays followed by a shorter comedic satyr play. A second competition of five comedic playwrights followed, and the winners of both competitions were chosen by a panel of judges.

Aeschylus entered many of these competitions in his lifetime, and it is estimated that he wrote somewhere between 70 to 90 plays. Only seven tragedies have survived intact: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, the trilogy known as The Oresteia, consisting of the three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, and Prometheus Bound (which may not be by Aeschylus). Lost and fragmentary works of Aeschylus include: Phineas; Glaukos Potnieus; Prometheus Pyrkaeus, a satyr play belonging to the same tetralogy as The Persians; Laios; Oedipus; 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.

The Persians

The earliest of the plays that still exists is The Persians (Persai), performed in 472 BC and based on experiences in Aeschylus' own life, specifically the Battle of Salamis. It is unique both in its aforementioned importance for historians of the Persian Wars and because the majority of Greek plays of that era concerned stories about the gods rather than stories about humans. 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 catastophic 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. An alternate ending added 50 years later, after the success of Sophocles' play Antigone, tells of the fate of Antigone, sister to Eteocles and Polynices. She defies the order of the new king, Creon, banning anyone from burying Polynices. In response, Creon sentences her to be buried alive, and Antigone committs suicide just before Creon is persuaded to rescind his order. The remainder of the play is an orgy of deaths. Creon is killed by his son, Haemon, who was betrothed to Antigone and who immediately afterwards kills himself. Then Eurydice, Creon's wife, kills herself in mourning. This ending entirely mirrors the plot of Antigone.

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 Danaides, 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 decidedly democratic move on the part of the king. The people decide that the Danaides deserve protection, and they are allowed within the walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests.

Remorse of Orestes, a modern painting portraying the Furies' attack on Orestes after his matricide.

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 Liberation 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 best by the Furies, who avenge patricide and matricide in Greek mythology.

The Eumenides

The final play of the trilogy, The Eumenides, addresses the question of Orestes' guilt. Orestes flees Argos and, under the protection of the gods Apollo and Hermes, escapes to Athens. 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 ten person 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 Supplicants, lauds the ideals of a democratic Athens.

Prometheus Bound

In addition to these six works, a seventh tragedy, Prometheus Bound, is usually thought to be by Aeschylus, although there is debate among modern scholars as to whether or not it was written by another author. It consists mostly of static dialogue, as throughout the play Prometheus is bound to a rock in punishment for providing fire to humans. Zeus sends Prometheus to the abyss at the end of the play for refusing to confess who it is that will overthrow his rule.

Influence on Greek drama and culture

Mosaic of Orestes, main character in Aeschylus' only surviving trilogy, The Oresteia

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, so that the actors themselves could have conflicts and engage in dialogue, while the chorus took played less important role. 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. Scholars assume that the weighty themes of his plays were intended to inspire thought and conversation among Athenian audiences, but almost no sources exist that describe how audiences engaged intellectually with Greek theater. What is certain, though, is the high regard in which Aeschylus was held by the Athenians. For many years following his death, the epic and prize-winning plays of Aeschylus continued to be performed by actors and actresses for the festival audiences of Athens.

References

• Bates, Alfred, ed. (1906). The Drama: Its History, Literature, and Influence on Civilization, Vol. 1. London: Historical Publishing Company.
• Buckham, P.W. (1827). The Theater of the Greeks, or the History, Literature, and Criticism of Grecian Drama. Cambridge: W.P. Grant.
• Freeman, Charles (1999). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0670885150
• Griffith, Mark ed. (1983). Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521270111
• Pomeroy, Sarah B., et. al. (1999). Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195097432
• Sommerstein, Alan H. (2002). Greek Drama and Dramatists. London: Routledge Press. ISBN 0415260272
• Vellacott, Philip, (1961). Prometheus Bound and Other Plays: Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes, and The Persians. New York:Penguin Classics. ISBN 0140441123

External links

• Selected Poems of Aeschylus
• Aeschylus anthology in English and Greek, Select online resources
• Works by Aeschylus at Project Gutenberg
• Photo of a fragment of The Net-pullers
• Prometheus Bound
• Crane, Gregory. "Aeschylus (4)". Perseus Encyclopedia.

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