Aeschylus

Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Bornc. 525 BC
Eleusis, Greece
Diedc. 456 BC
Gela, Silcy, Italy
OccupationPlaywright; soldier
NationalityGreek
PeriodAncient Greece
GenreTragedy
SubjectGreek life and history
Notable worksThe Persians
Notable awardsWon at the Great Dionysia 13 times.
ChildrenEuphorion and Euæon
RelativesPhilocles (nephew)
The funeral mask known as the “Agamemnon Mask”. Gold, found in Tomb V in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann (1876), XVIth century BC. National Archeological Museum, Athens

Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) was an Ancient Greek poet and writer. He wrote about 70–90 plays.[1][2] Only six of his tragedies have survived complete. Aeschylus was the earliest of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedians. The two others were Sophocles and Euripides.[1][3]

Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays. His characters spoke to each other and not just to the chorus. This made it easier to create drama between the characters.

One of his plays, The Persians, was about the Persian 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 his grave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. There is nothing about the plays he wrote.

  1. 1.0 1.1 Freeman 1999, p. 243
  2. Cite error: The named reference P222 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  3. Schlegel, August Wilhelm von. Lectures on dramatic art and literature. p. 121.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by razib.in