Aeschylus (ca. 525/4?–456/5bce)

AbstractAeschylus (ca. 525/4?–456/5bce) was one of the most important tragedians of fifth‐century Athens (along with Sophocles and Euripides) and wrote perhaps 90 plays, seven of which survive. Among these areThe Persians(notable for its sympathetic portrayal of Athens’ great enemy),Prometheus Bound, and the only extant trilogy from ancient tragedy, theOresteia(comprisingAgamemnon,The Libation Bearers, andThe Eumenides). He won first prize in the Greater Dionysia (the Athenian festival at which three prominent poets competed) on 13 occasions, and made substantial innovations to the tragic form, introducing a second actor into what had previously been a dialogue between the chorus and a single actor. Though considered an innovator of tragedy's dramatic form, Aeschylus was also associated with the more conservative, aristocratic political and religious traditions in Athens, and is celebrated on his tombstone not for his tragic victories but for his participation as a soldier in the Athenian defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Marathon (490bce). His reputation as a defender of the older, aristocratic ways was exemplified by Aristophanes’ portrayal of the underworld contest between Aeschylus and Euripides in theFrogs, where Aeschylus’ poetry is deemed more useful to Athens in her time of need, though his characters and prose are satirized as unrealistic because of their heroic grandeur (Aristophanes 2008).