Aeschylus was born in the city of Eleusis, near Athens, in 525 BC and died in 456 BC. He was a Greek dramatist, one of the earliest of the great tragic poets of Athens. He is called the father of Greek tragedy because he came before Sophocles and Euripides.
He fought successfully against the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, at Salamis in 480 BC, and perhaps at Plataea in the next year. He made two or three trips to Sicily. During his final visit he died at Gela. A monument was later erected there in his memory.
It is said that Aeschylus wrote about 90 plays. His tragedies were first performed about 500 BC. They were presented as trilogies, or groups of three, usually bound together by a common theme. Each trilogy was followed by a satyr drama (a low (slapstick) comedy involving a mythological hero, with a chorus of satyrs). The titles of 79 of his plays are known, but only seven have actually survived. The earliest of these is The Suppliants, a drama with very little action but many choral songs of great beauty. It is believed to be the first play of a trilogy about the marriage of the 50 daughters of Danae, which included the plays The Egyptians and The Danaids. The Persians, which was first performed in 472 BC, is a historical tragedy about the Battle of Salamis. The scene is set in Persia at the court of the mother of King Xerxes I.
The Seven Against Thebes, produced in 467 BC, is based on a Theban legend. It is the story of a conflict between the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, for the throne of Thebes. It is believed to be the third play of a trilogy, the first two being Laius and Oedipus.
Prometheus Bound tells about the punishment of the defiant Prometheus by the Greek god Zeus. We do not know when it was written. It is probably the first play of a Promethean trilogy, the others being Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer.
The remaining three plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, all written in 458 BC, form the Oresteia Trilogy, or story of Orestes. Agamemnon is one of the greatest works of dramatic literature. In it, King Agamemnon returns home from Troy and is treacherously murdered by his faithless wife Clytemnestra. In the second play, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns to Argos and avenges the murder of his father by slaying his mother and her paramour (a lover) Aegisthus. This act of matricide (murder of one's mother) is punished by the avenging goddesses, the Erinyes. In The Eumenides, the Erinyes pursue Orestes until he is cleansed of his blood guilt and set free by the ancient court of the Areopagus, with the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
Aeschylus created dramatic dialogue by introducing
a second actor into the play. He also elaborated the staging of
the drama by introducing costumes and scenery. The characteristics
of his plays are the profoundness of theme and the grandeur of
the poetry recited by the chorus. The Oresteia lets us
look into his concepts of justice and mercy. We also see his belief
in a divine will, with the help of which humanity can gain wisdom
through suffering.
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