The funeral mask known as the “Agamemnon Mask”. Gold, found in Tomb V inMycenae by Heinrich Schliemann (1876), XVIth century BC. National Archeological Museum, Athens
Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) was anAncient Greek poet and writer. He wrote about 70–90plays.[1][2] Only six of histragedies have survived complete. Aeschylus was the earliest of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedians. The two others wereSophocles andEuripides.[1][3]
Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays. His characters spoke to each other and not just to thechorus. This made it easier to createdrama between the characters.
One of his plays,The Persians, was about thePersian invasion of Greece. Aeschylus had fought in this war. People studying Greek history use his play as an important source of information. The war was so important to the Greeks and to Aeschylus, that the writing on hisgrave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at theBattle of Marathon. There is nothing about the plays he wrote.
Aeschylus was born about the year 525 BC in a small town calledEleusis, which is about 27 kilometers northwest ofAthens.[4] The date is based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the GreatDionysia. His family was rich, and his father, Euphorion, was a member of theEupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica.[5]Pausanias wrote that Aeschylus worked in avineyard until the godDionysus visited him in his sleep. The god ordered him to write the first tragedies.[5] His first play was performed in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old.[4][5]
In 490 BC the Persian army, led byDarius, landed in Greece and tried to take it over. Aeschylus, and his brother Cynegeirus, joined the army from Athens and fought against the Persians at theBattle of Marathon.[4] The Athenians were able to defeat the much bigger Persian army. This battle, which stopped Darius, was celebrated across the city-states of Greece.[4] Cynegeirus died in the battle.[4] In 480 BC,Xerxes I of Persia tried to capture Greece. Aeschylus fought against them at theBattle of Salamis and at theBattle of Plataea in 479 BC.[4] His oldest surviving playThe Persians, performed in 472 BC, is set during the Battle of Salamis. This play won first prize at the Dionysia.[6]
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who joined theEleusinian Mysteries. This was the religiouscult ofDemeter, and based in his home town of Eleusis.[7] Members of the group learned mystical and secret knowledge. Members were sworn under the penalty of death not to say anything about the Mysteries to anyone. Aristotle wrote that some people thought that Aeschylus had shown some of the cult's secrets on stage.[8] Other writers said that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he ran away. Later, Aeschylus said he did not know that he had shown any of the secrets. He was saved from death only because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.
Aeschylus made two trips toSicily in the 470s BC. He was invited byHieron,tyrant ofSyracuse, a big Greek city on the east side of the island. On one of these trips he wroteThe Women of Aetna, in honor of the city founded by Hieron. He also restaged hisPersians.[4] By 473 BC, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition.[4] In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city ofGela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. It is said that he was killed by atortoise which fell out of the sky after it was dropped by aneagle. This story is probably only a legend.[9] Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in future competitions.[4] His sons Euphorion and Euæon, and his nephew Philocles, all wrote plays as well.[4]
Modern picture of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, where many of Aeschylus' plays were performed
Greek drama began with festivals for the gods, mainlyDionysus, the god of wine.[10] During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the city's Dionysia in the spring.[10] The festival began with an opening procession, then a competition of boys singingdithyrambs, and finally two dramatic competitions.[11] The first competition was for three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays, followed by a shorter comedy.[11] A second competition of five comedic playwrights followed, and winners of both competitions were chosen by a group of judges.[11]
Aeschylus took part in many of these competitions in his lifetime. Only six tragedies have survived intact:The Persians,Seven against Thebes,The Suppliants, and the trilogy known asThe Oresteia, consisting of the three tragediesAgamemnon,The Libation Bearers andThe Eumenides. There is also the playPrometheus Bound, but this was probably written by someone else. All of the surviving plays won first prize at the City Dionysia. One book, the AlexandrianLife of Aeschylus, said that he won the first prize at the City Dionysia 13 times. Sophocles' won 18 times out of his 120 plays, and Euripides only had five wins out of about 90 plays.
When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre was new. Some playwrights likeThespis had made the cast bigger to include an actor who was able to talk with thechorus instead of just thechorus.[2] Aeschylus added a second actor, called thedeuteragonist allowing for more drama; and the chorus became less important.[2] He is said to have been the first to useskenographia, or scene-decoration,[12] though Aristotle said the first person was Sophocles. Aeschylus also added more details to the costumes, and had his actors wear platform boots, calledcothurni, to help the audience see them better. When they walked on stage in the first performance of theEumenides, the chorus of Furies were so frightening in looks that they made young childrenfaint, old menurinate, andpregnant women go into labor.[13]
His plays were written in the strict style of Greek drama. They were in verse and no violence could be performed on stage. The plays had to be set away from normal life in Athens, either by telling stories about the gods or by being set, likeThe Persians, in a far-away place.[14] Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religiousemphasis.[14] TheOresteia plays were about man's position in the universe in relation to the gods, the laws of the gods, and punishment from the gods.[15]
Fifty years after Aeschylus' death, the comic playwrightAristophanes praised him inThe Frogs. Aeschylus is a character in the play and says that hisSeven against Thebes "made everyone watching it to love being warlike" (line 1022); with hisPersians, he says he "taught the Athenians to desire always to defeat their enemies" (line 1026–7). He says that his plays helped the Athenians to be brave andvirtuous (line 1039ff).
Bates, Alfred (1906). "The Drama: Its History, Literature, and Influence on Civilization, Vol. 1". London: Historical Publishing Company.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
