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Aeschylus Biography & Facts
Aeschylus (UK: , US: ; Greek: Αἰσχύλος Aiskhýlos; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus. Only seven of Aeschylus's estimated 70 to 90 plays have survived. There is a long-standing debate regarding the authorship of one of them, Prometheus Bound, with some scholars arguing that it may be the work of his son Euphorion. Fragments from other plays have survived in quotations, and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyri. These fragments often give further insights into Aeschylus' work. He was likely the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia is the only extant ancient example. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). This work, The Persians, is one of very few classical Greek tragedies concerned with contemporary events, and the only one extant. The significance of the war with Persia was so great to Aeschylus and the Greeks that his epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Life Aeschylus was born around 525 BC in Eleusis, a small town about 27 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of Athens, in the fertile valleys of western Attica. Some scholars argue that the date of Aeschylus's birth may be based on counting back 40 years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia. His family was wealthy and well established. His father, Euphorion, was said to be a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica, but this might be a fiction invented by the ancients to account for the grandeur of Aeschylus' plays. As a youth, Aeschylus worked at a vineyard until, according to the 2nd-century AD geographer 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, he began to write a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC, when he was 26 years old. He won his first victory at the City Dionysia in 484 BC. In 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, and Cleisthenes came to power. Cleisthenes' reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition. In the last decade of the 6th century, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis. The Persian Wars played a large role in Aeschylus' life and career. In 490 BC, he and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against the invading army of Darius I of Persia at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians emerged triumphant, and the victory was celebrated across the city-states of Greece. Cynegeirus was killed while trying to prevent a Persian ship retreating from the shore, for which his countrymen extolled him as a hero. In 480 BC, Aeschylus was called into military service again, together with his younger brother Ameinias, against Xerxes I's invading forces at the Battle of Salamis. Aeschylus also fought at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Ion of Chios was a witness for Aeschylus' war record and his contribution in Salamis. Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia. Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, an ancient cult of Demeter based in his home town of Eleusis. According to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of asebeia (impiety) for revealing some of the cult's secrets on stage. Other sources claim that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot but he fled the scene. Heracleides of Pontus asserts that the audience tried to stone Aeschylus. Aeschylus took refuge at the altar in the orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus. He pleaded ignorance at his trial. He was acquitted, with the jury sympathetic to the military service of him and his brothers during the Persian Wars. According to the 2nd-century AD author Aelian, Aeschylus' younger brother Ameinias helped to acquit Aeschylus by showing the jury the stump of the hand he had lost at Salamis, where he was voted bravest warrior. The truth is that the award for bravery at Salamis went not to Aeschylus' brother but to Ameinias of Pallene. Aeschylus travelled to Sicily once or twice in the 470s BC, having been invited by Hiero I, tyrant of Syracuse, a major Greek city on the eastern side of the island. He produced The Women of Aetna during one of these trips (in honor of the city founded by Hieron), and restaged his Persians. 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 472 BC, Aeschylus staged the production that included the Persians, with Pericles serving as choregos. Personal life Aeschylus married and had two sons, Euphorion and Euaeon, both of whom became tragic poets. Euphorion won first prize in 431 BC in competition against both Sophocles and Euripides. A nephew of Aeschylus, Philocles (his sister's son), was also a tragic poet, and won first prize in the competition against Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Aeschylus had at least two brothers, Cynegeirus and Ameinias. Death In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela, where he died in 456 or 455 BC. Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle which had mistaken his head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell, and killed him. Pliny, in his Naturalis Historiæ, adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object, but this story may be legendary and due to a misunderstanding of the iconography on Aeschylus' tomb. Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death his tragedies were the only ones allowed to be restaged in subsequent competitions. His sons Euphorion and Euæon and his nephew Philocles also became playwrights. The inscription on Aeschylus' gravestone makes no mention of his theatrical renown, commemorating only his military achievements: Works The seeds of Greek drama were sown in religious festivals for the gods, chiefly Dionysus, the god of wine. During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the City Dionysia, held in spring. The festival opened with a procession which was followed by a competition of boys singing dithyrambs, and all culminated in a pair of dramatic competitions. The first competition Aeschylus would have participated in involved three playwrights each presenting th.... Discover the Aeschylus popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Aeschylus books.
Best Seller Aeschylus Books of 2024
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The Battle of Salamis
Barry StraussOn a late September day in 480 B.C., Greek warships faced an invading Persian armada in the narrow Salamis Straits in the most important naval battle of the ancient world. Overwhel...
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Medea and Other Plays
Euripides & Philip VellacottMedea/Hecabe/Electra/HeraclesFour devastating Greek tragedies showing the powerful brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatredThe first playwright to depict suffering with...
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The Complete Poems of Sappho
Willis BarnstoneA vivid, contemporary translation of the greatest Greek love poetwith a wealth of materials for understanding her workby a prizewinning poet and translator Sappho’s thrillin...
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The Oresteia
Aeschylus, Robert Fagles & W. B. StanfordOne of the founding documents of Western culture and the only surviving ancient Greek trilogy, the Oresteia of Aeschylus is one of the great tragedies of all time.The three plays o...
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Aeschylus - The Libation-Bearers
Aeschylus & Philip Dossick“For word of hate let word of hate be said, cries Justice. Stroke for bloody stroke must be paid. The one who acts must suffer…” Produced in 458 BC, Aeschylus' The LibationBearers ...
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Oresteia
AeschylusThe Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus. The name derives from the character Orestes, who sets out to avenge his father's murder.The only extant example of ...
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Classic Greek Drama, the seven plays of Aeschylus in a single file
AeschylusThis file includes: AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATIONBEARERS, THE FURIES, THE SUPPLIANT MAIDENS, THE PERSIANS, THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, and THE PROMETHEUS BOUND; all translated by E.D.A. MO...
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The Complete Aeschylus
AeschylusAeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the fat...
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Aeschylus I
AeschylusThe third edition of this volume includes newly revised, authoritative and compelling translations of four timeless works by the Ancient Greek tragedian.Aeschylus I contains “The P...
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The Complete Aeschylus
AeschylusAeschylus' Oresteia, the only ancient tragic trilogy to survive, is one of the great foundational texts of Western culture. It begins with Agamemnon, which describes Agamemnon's re...
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Greek Tragedies III
Aeschylus, Sophocles & EuripidesThis anthology collects some of the most important plays by Ancient Greek tragedians, in updated translations with new introductions.Greek Tragedies, Volume III presents some of th...
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Aeschylus The Oresteia
Aeschylus & Philip DossickThe only trilogy in Greek drama that survives from antiquity, Aeschylus' The Oresteia described the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos. “At h...
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Electra and Other Plays
Sophocles & David RaeburnSophocles’ innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. Electra portrays the grief of a...
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10 Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus & AnacreonThe earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. These two epics, along with the...
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1,000 Books to Read Before You Die
James Mustich“The ultimate literary bucket list.” The Washington Post “If there’s a heaven just for readers, this is it.” O, The Oprah Magazine Celebrate the p...
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Arcadian Days
John SpurlingA bold and dynamic retelling of five great malefemale pairings from the Greek myths: Prometheus and Pandora, Jason and Medea, Oedipus and Antigone, Achilles and Thetis, and Odysseu...
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Aeschylus - The Persians
Aeschylus & Philip Dossick““A world of wealth is trash if men are wanting…" As Charles Isherwood noted in The New York Times, “the ruler of a rich and powerful empire leads his countrymen into a disastrous...
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The Complete Aeschylus
Aeschylus, Peter Burian & Alan ShapiroBased on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Gr...
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The Agamemnon of Aeschylus
525 BC-456 BC AeschylusThe Trilogy of the Oresteia, which deals with the eternal problem of the evil act causing vengeance which wreaks more evil which must be avenged. Aeschylus declares that the new ru...
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The Oresteian Trilogy
Aeschylus & Philip VellacottAeschylus (525c.456 bc) set his great trilogy in the immediate aftermath of the Fall of Troy, when King Agamemnon returns to Argos, a victor in war. Agamemnon depicts the hero's di...
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A Cultural History of Tragedy in Antiquity
Emily WilsonIn this volume, tragedy in antiquity is examined synoptically, from its misty origins in archaic Greece, through its central position in the civic life of ancient Athens and its pe...
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House of Names
Colm TóibínA Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, St. Louis Dispatch From the thrilling imagination of best...
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The Frogs
AristophanesVisiting the underworld, the god Dionysus seeks the counsel of the dead tragedians Aeschylus and Euripides on how to bring good writing back to Athens. A fierce debate full of sca...
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Final Chapters
Jim Bernhard“Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.” –William Saroyan, Pulitzer Prize–winning authorFamous authors, like everybody else, kn...
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The Greek Plays
Mary Lefkowitz, James Romm, Sophocles, Aeschylus & EuripidesA landmark anthology of the masterpieces of Greek drama, featuring allnew, highly accessible translations of some of the world’s most beloved plays, including Agamemnon, Prometheus...
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The Complete Aeschylus
AeschylusAeschylus was a Greek playwright who is considered to be the father of tragedy. Aeschylus was believed to have written at least 70 plays but only 7 have survived. This collection i...
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Studies of the Greek Poets
John Addington Symonds"Studies of the Greek Poets" in 2 volumes is one of the bestknown works by the English poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds that features a comprehensive survey ...
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Study Guide to the Plays of Aeschylus
Intelligent EducationA comprehensive study guide offering indepth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Aeschylus,the ancient greek playwright. Titles in this study guide include The ...
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Four Plays of Aeschylus
Aeschylus & E. D. A. MorsheadFirst published in 1934 in Fantasy Fan, “Gods of the North,” also published as “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” and “The Frost King’s Daughter,” is Story #8 of The Conan Saga, a series...
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Works of Aeschylus
AeschylusThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access...
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Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age
W E. GladstoneStudies on Homer and the Homeric Age are a comprehensive 3volume work that features the history of the ancient Greek literature, focusing on the Homeric Question – concerning by wh...
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A Commentary on The Complete Greek Tragedies. Aeschylus
James C. HoganThis commentary offers a rich introduction and useful guide to the seven surviving plays attributed to Aeschylus. Though it may profitably be used with any translation of Aeschylus...
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Complete Plays of Robert Browning
Robert BrowningThis carefully crafted ebook: "Complete Plays of Robert Browning" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Robert Browning (1812 188...
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Essays on World Literature
Ismail KadareThe Man Booker International–winning author of "Broken April" and "The Siege," Albania’s most renowned novelist, and perennial Nobel Prize contender Ismail Kadare explores three gi...
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Greek Tragedies I
David Grene, Richmond Lattimore, Mark Griffith & Glenn W. MostOutstanding translations of five plays, now updated with informative new content for students, teachers, and lovers of the classics.Greek Tragedies, Volume I contains:Aeschylus’s “...
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Aeschylus II
AeschylusThis updated translation of the Oresteia trilogy and fragments of the satyr play Proteus includes an extensive historical and critical introduction. In the third edition of The Com...