Aeschylus
(
Αἰσχύλος). The son of Euphorion, born in the Attic deme
of Eleusis in the year B.C. 525. The period of his youth and early manhood
coincides with the great national struggle which both Asiatic and European Hellas were forced
to wage against the barbarians in the first twenty years of the fifth century. In this
conflict he played the part of a brave soldier at the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and
Plataea, and his works abound in traces of the warlike and patriotic feeling of those stirring
days. His brother Cynegirus met an heroic death at Marathon, and another distinguished soldier
of Salamis, Aminias, is said to have been of the same family, but this is probably an error.
We know little of the youth and education of Aeschylus, but it is certain that he began his
career as a tragic poet before the age of thirty years, though his first victory was not
gained till 485. About the year 470 he went to Sicily at the invitation of King Hieroof
Syracuse. Here he composed his
Aetnaean Women (
Αἰτναῖαι), in honour of the newly founded city of Aetna. His departure from
Athens has been ascribed to an indictment by the Athenians for profanation of the mysteries.
But it was the policy of Hiero to attract literary men to his brilliant court, and the
presence of Aeschylus there needs no more explanation than that of Simonides and Pindar during
the same period. Later in his life he visited Sicily a second time, where he met his death in
456. Among the many mythical details with which tradition has surrounded the life of
Aeschylus, it is said that he was killed by an eagle letting fall a tortoise upon his bald
head, supposing it to be a stone. The high honour in which he was held by the Athenians after
his death is shown by the fact that in later times it was made lawful to reproduce his plays
in competition for the prize against new tragedies.
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Aeschylus. (Capitoline Museum.)
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Aeschylus is said to have produced seventy-two, or even ninety dramas, and to have gained
the first prize thirteen times. As each poet competed with four plays (three tragedies and a
satyric drama), it appears that Aeschylus was successful in more than half of all his
contests. Only seven of his tragedies have come down to us. They will be described in what
seems to have beén their chronological order.
1.
The
Suppliants (
Ἱκέτιδες) takes its name
from the chorus representing the fifty daughters of Danaüs fleeing to Argos for
protection from the sons of Aegyptus. The prominence of the chorus, the small number of
characters, and the absence of a prologue mark this play as the earliest of those of
Aeschylus which we have, and consequently the oldest Greek drama extant. Its undeniable
merits are much obscured by the very corrupt state of the text.
2.
The
Persians (
Πέρσαι) is unique among the
Greek tragedies which we possess in drawing its theme from history rather than from myth. The
central point of interest is found in a splendid narrative of the battle of Salamis, but by
an artifice of the poet the scene of the play is laid in Susa, and the laments of Atossa and
the Persian nobles supply the tragic elements. The
Persians was produced in
B.C. 472, as part of a tetralogy consisting of the
Phineus, Persians, Glaucus
ποτνιεύς, and
Prometheus the Fire-kindler
(
πυρκαεύς).
3.
The
Seven against Thebes (
Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ
Θήβας) was produced in B.C. 467, as the third play in a tetralogy of which the
remaining pieces were the
Laïus,
Oedipus, and the
satyric drama called
The Sphinx. It includes a magnificent description of the
seven Argive champions and their Theban opponents, with the final victory of Thebes, and a
hint, at the close, of the Antigoné-motive, afterwards so finely worked out by
Sophocles. In this play, as in the
Persians, the martial spirit of Aeschylus
finds ample room for manifestation. Both dramas are “full of war,” to
quote the words of Aristophanes (
Frogs, 1021).
4.
The
Prometheus Bound (
Προμηθεὺς
δεσμώτης), with its companion pieces the
Prometheus Loosed
(
λυόμενος) and the
Prometheus the
Fire-bearer (
πυρφόρος), treated the history of the
rebellious Titan who steadfastly suffered the wrath of Zeus for his benefactions to mankind.
The
Prometheus Bound, the only play of the trilogy which has come down to us,
depicts the hero, fettered to a rock in Scythia, and threatened by Hermes with a penalty
still more severe. But he proudly refuses to submit to the will of the new ruler of Olympus,
and at the close of the play he is struck by the thunderbolt, and, with the rock to which he
is fastened, sinks out of sight. The second play described the final reconciliation and the
liberation of Prometheus; while the third (see Westphal's
Proleg. to
Aeschylus, p. 207 foll.) probably celebrated the establishment of Prometheus in
Attica as a benignant deity. No Greek tragedy has been more admired than the
Prometheus Bound. In the grandeur of its action and the sublimity of
character displayed, as well as in the exquisite pathos of some of its scenes, it stands
almost unequalled. The Prometheus trilogy was probably produced either in B.C. 468 or 466
(Christ), or about ten years earlier (Wecklein).
5.
The trilogy composed of the
Agamemnon (
Ἀγαμέμνων),
Choephori (
Χοηφόροι), and
Eumenides (
Εὐμενίδες), comes last in the list, and is of special interest from the fact
that it is the only complete trilogy which is extant from any of the Greek tragedians. In the
Agamemnon the poet describes the return of the victorious king from Troy, and
his murder by Clytaemnestra and her paramour Aegisthus. In the
Choephori,
Orestes, son of Agamemnon, now grown to manhood, returns, and with the help of his friend
Pylades avenges the murder of his father by putting to death the guilty pair, and is himself,
in turn, driven frantic by the Erinyes. In the
Eumenides he flees to Athens,
where he is tried, and by the advocacy of Apollo and the casting vote of Athené he
is acquitted, and the family curse comes to an end. This great trilogy shows the genius of
Aeschylus in its loftiest form. Each play is complete in itself, and yet each is but a single
act in the mighty drama of crime, vengeance, and expiation. The
Agamemnon is the most powerful of the three plays, and probably the greatest
work of Aeschylus, if indeed it is not the most impressive tragedy in existence. The trilogy
is usually known as the
Oresteia (
Ὀρέστεια), and, with the satyric play
Proteus (
Πρωτεύς), was produced in B.C. 458.
The extant works of Aeschylus show a constant progress in dramatic art. He is said to have
added a second actor to the one employed by his predecessors, and in his later plays he
adopts, and uses with full mastery, the third actor first introduced by his younger rival,
Sophocles. The choral parts, at first the most prominent feature both in extent and
importance, gradually give way before the growth of the dialogue. In the scenic effects, too,
Aeschylus made many improvements, using extraordinary means to excite wonder or awe. Like
Wagner, he was both poet and musician, and, besides training his own choruses, he is said to
have taken part as actor in the performances themselves.
The most characteristic feature of his poetry is its grandeur, both of thought and style,
though he is none the less master of lyric beauty and tender pathos. His theology is stern
and lofty, and pervaded by the idea of a destiny which controls all things, human and divine.
But the hereditary curse that brooded over the families of Labdacus and Pelops was always
aided in its destrnctive work by the folly and wickedness of the victims themselves. No poet,
in fact, has stated more impressively than Aeschylus the inevitable connection between guilt
and punishment. His style, it must be confessed, is sometimes so elevated as to seem almost
bombastic, but this apparent fault is the natural result of the poet's mighty current of
thought, which could not find vent in the ordinary channels of expression.
All the existing MSS. of Aeschylus are said by W. Dindorf to be derived from the Codex
Mediceus (Laurentianus), which dates back to the eleventh century, and contains many valuable
scholia taken from the ancient grammarians. It is the chief authority for the
Choephori, of which, however, the text is in a bad condition. The
Prometheus, Seven against Thebes, and
Persians are more fully
represented by MSS. than the other plays. Two codices of the fourteenth century (Florentinus
and Farnesianus) supply that portion of the
Agamemnon (lines 295-
1026) which is missing from the Codex Mediceus.
The Aldine
editio princeps
(1518) and the edition of Stanley
(London, 1663) are worthy of note
among the older editions. To these may be added among later works the editions of Hermann
(Leipzig, 1852), Kirchhoff
(Berlin, 1880), Weil
(Leipzig,
1885), and the valuable critical edition of Wecklein-Vitelli
(Berlin,
1885). Paley's
(London, 1879) is the most convenient English edition of
all the plays with notes. Annotated editions of single plays are numerous. Among the more
recent are Wecklein's
Oresteia (Leipzig, 1888),
Schneidewin-Heuse's
Agamemnon (Berlin, 1883), Allen's Wecklein's
Prometheus (Boston, 1891), Teuffel-Wecklein's
Persians (Leipzig, 1886), Tucker's
Suppliants (London, 1889), and Flagg's
Seven
against Thebes (Boston, 1886). Dindorf's
Lexicon
Aeschyleum (Leipzig, 1873) is an indispensable work to the student. The best
complete English translation is that of Plumptre; but for the
Agamemnon and
the
Prometheus we are fortunate in having versions of great excellence by
Robert Browning and Mrs. Browning respectively.