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100-686: It is referenced in a surviving fragment of Aeschylus ' play Philoctetes , quoted in The Frogs , as a place for cattle. The river begins in the Tymfristos mountains on the border with Evrytania and flows to the east through the village Agios Georgios Tymfristou , entering a wide plain. It flows along the towns Makrakomi and Leianokladi , and south of the Phthiotidan capital Lamia . The river flows through an area of former wetlands, that have been reclaimed for agriculture. It empties into

200-551: A Greek deity is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Central Greece location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Greece is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Aeschylus Aeschylus ( UK : / ˈ iː s k ɪ l ə s / , US : / ˈ ɛ s k ɪ l ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Αἰσχύλος Aischýlos ; c.  525 /524 – c.  456 /455 BC)

300-575: A chapter in a continuous dramatic narrative. The Oresteia is the only extant example of this type of connected trilogy, but there is evidence that Aeschylus often wrote such trilogies. The satyr plays that followed his tragic trilogies also drew from myth. The satyr play Proteus , which followed the Oresteia , treated the story of Menelaus' detour in Egypt on his way home from the Trojan War . It

400-622: A character in the play and claims, at line 1022, that his Seven against Thebes "made everyone watching it to love being warlike". He claims, at lines 1026–7, that with The Persians he "taught the Athenians to desire always to defeat their enemies." Aeschylus goes on to say, at lines 1039ff., that his plays inspired the Athenians to be brave and virtuous. Aeschylus' works were influential beyond his own time. Hugh Lloyd-Jones draws attention to Richard Wagner 's reverence of Aeschylus. Michael Ewans argues in his Wagner and Aeschylus. The Ring and

500-402: A democratic Athens are praised. Prometheus Bound is attributed to Aeschylus by ancient authorities. Since the late 19th century, however, scholars have increasingly doubted this ascription, largely on stylistic grounds. Its production date is also in dispute, with theories ranging from the 480s BC to as late as the 410s. The play consists mostly of static dialogue. The Titan Prometheus

600-717: 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: Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας· ἀλκὴν δ' εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποι καὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion,

700-597: A given scene rarely involved more than two actors besides the chorus . Kratos and Bia , personifications of brute power and callous violence respectively, are engaged in fettering the silent Prometheus to a mountainside in Scythia, and are assisted in the task by the begrudging blacksmith of the gods, Hephaestus . Zeus, an off-stage character in this play, is portrayed as a tyrannical leader. Only one of Zeus's two agents, Kratos, speaks in this scene, and he announces his orders harshly and insolently. Kratos states that

800-545: A guide. The Furies track him down, and Athena steps in and declares that a trial is necessary. Apollo argues Orestes' case, and after the judges (including Athena) deliver a tie vote, Athena announces that Orestes is acquitted. She renames the Furies The Eumenides (The Good-spirited, or Kindly Ones), and extols the importance of reason in the development of laws. As in The Suppliants , the ideals of

900-686: A major part in the formation of dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present, specifically in French and Elizabethan drama. He also claims that their influence went beyond just drama and applies to literature in general, citing Milton and the Romantics. Eugene O'Neill 's Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), a trilogy of three plays set in America after the Civil War, is modeled after

1000-486: A measure of popularity in antiquity. Aeschylus was very popular in Athens decades after his death, as Aristophanes ' The Frogs (405 BC) makes clear. Allusions to the play are evident in his The Birds of 414 BC, and in the tragedian Euripides ' fragmentary Andromeda , dated to 412 BC. If Aeschylean authorship is assumed, then these allusions several decades after the play's first performance speak to

1100-422: A miserable sight chained to a rock. Prometheus suggests that Oceanus should not intervene, out of concern for his own safety. Oceanus is annoyed by this, but wants to help, and offers to leave only when Prometheus tells him that if he attempts to intervene it will only increase the punishment Prometheus is suffering. Oceanus notes that his winged beast is eager to get home to his own stable, and he exits. Prometheus

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1200-456: A nightmare in which she gives birth to a snake is recounted by the chorus. This leads her to order her daughter, Electra , to pour libations on Agamemnon's tomb (with the assistance of libation bearers) in hope of making amends. Orestes enters the palace pretending to bear news of his own death. Clytemnestra calls in Aegisthus to learn the news. Orestes kills them both. Orestes is then beset by

1300-703: A play, Prometheus Unbound , which used some of the materials of the play as a vehicle for Shelley's own vision. In 1979 George Eugeniou directed and performed in the play at Theatro Technis London setting the drama in the Greece governed by the Junta . George Eugeniou, Koraltan Ahmet and Angelique Rockas played roles. In 2005, Prometheus Bound once again reached a London stage at The Sound Theatre in James Kerr's new translation, also directed by Kerr and starring David Oyelowo as Prometheus. A translation of

1400-667: 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 three tragedies and one satyr play . A second competition involving five comedic playwrights followed, and the winners of both competitions were chosen by a panel of judges. Aeschylus entered many of these competitions, and various ancient sources attribute between seventy and ninety plays to him. Only seven tragedies attributed to him have survived intact: The Persians , Seven Against Thebes , The Suppliants ,

1500-673: A ruling dynasty in Argos. The other 49 Danaids are absolved of their murders, and married off to unspecified Argive men. The satyr play following this trilogy was titled Amymone , after one of the Danaids. Besides a few missing lines, the Oresteia of 458 BC is the only complete trilogy of Greek plays by any playwright still extant (of Proteus , the satyr play which followed, only fragments are known). Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers ( Choephoroi ) and The Eumenides together tell

1600-444: A spectacular coup de théâtre . A scale is brought on stage and Hector's body is placed in one scale and gold in the other. The dynamic dancing of the chorus of Trojans when they enter with Priam is reported by Aristophanes . The children of Niobe , the heroine, have been slain by Apollo and Artemis because Niobe had gloated that she had more children than their mother, Leto . Niobe sits in silent mourning on stage during most of

1700-542: A trilogy about the madness and subsequent suicide of the Greek hero Ajax . Aeschylus seems to have written about Odysseus ' return to Ithaca after the war (including his killing of his wife Penelope 's suitors and its consequences) in a trilogy consisting of The Soul-raisers , Penelope , and The Bone-gatherers . Other suggested trilogies touched on the myth of Jason and the Argonauts ( Argô , Lemnian Women , Hypsipylê ),

1800-499: A unique series of quatrains sung by the chorus. Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony , written circa 700 BC, are early and major sources for stories of Greek mythology, and sources for Aeschylus. Hesiod's Theogony contains the starting point for Aeschylus' play, which was written more than two centuries later. However by the time that Aeschylus read the Theogony , it had accrued significant additions that are now part of

1900-459: A view supported by M. L. West . To date, no consensus on the matter has been established, though recent computerized stylometric analysis has thrown the burden of proof on those who uphold the traditional claim. Before the play begins, Kronos , the ruler of the pre- Olympian gods (the Titans ), had been overthrown by an insurgency led by Zeus . In that revolt, Prometheus had sided with Zeus. As

2000-629: Is alone again with the chorus of Oceanus' daughters, who did not speak while their father was visiting. Prometheus speaks to the chorus of Ocean nymphs. He asks pardon for his silence, which is because he was thinking about the ingratitude of the gods. He describes the positive things he had done for humans. In the so-called Catalogue of the Arts (447-506), he reveals that he taught men all the civilizing arts, such as writing, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, architecture, and agriculture. He suggests that he will one day be unchained, but it will be due to

2100-409: Is approaching. He hears the beating of wings, and inhales the scent of the ocean. A chorus enters, made up of the daughters of Oceanus . From within their deep sea-caves, they had heard the sound of the hammering, and were drawn by curiosity and fear. They have arrived without stopping to put on their sandals. Before they come closer, they hover in the air just above Prometheus, who hints to them that he

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2200-540: Is assumed, based on the evidence provided by a catalogue of Aeschylean play titles, scholia , and play fragments recorded by later authors, that three other extant plays of his were components of connected trilogies: Seven Against Thebes was the final play in an Oedipus trilogy, and The Suppliants and Prometheus Bound were each the first play in a Danaid trilogy and Prometheus trilogy, respectively. Scholars have also suggested several completely lost trilogies, based on known play titles. A number of these treated myths about

2300-450: Is based on the myth of Prometheus , a Titan who defies Zeus , and protects and gives fire to mankind, for which he is subjected to the wrath of Zeus and punished. British-born author, C.J. Herington, a scholar of classical Greek and Latin, wrote that Aeschylus certainly did not mean Prometheus Bound to be a "self-contained dramatic unity", and suggests that "most modern students of the subject would probably agree" that Prometheus Bound

2400-562: Is bound to a rock throughout, which is his punishment from the Olympian Zeus for providing fire to humans. The god Hephaestus and the Titan Oceanus and the chorus of Oceanids all express sympathy for Prometheus' plight. Prometheus is met by Io , a fellow victim of Zeus' cruelty. He prophesies her future travels, revealing that one of her descendants will free Prometheus. The play closes with Zeus sending Prometheus into

2500-655: Is evidence that Prometheus Bound was the first play in a trilogy conventionally called the Prometheia , but the other two plays, Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer , survive only in fragments. In Prometheus Unbound , Heracles frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that had been sent daily to eat the Titan's perpetually regenerating liver . Perhaps foreshadowing his eventual reconciliation with Prometheus, we learn that Zeus has released

2600-413: Is in turn responsible for mortal man's having to provide for himself; before, all of man's needs had been provided by the gods. Prometheus' theft of fire also prompts the arrival of the first woman, Pandora , and her jar of evils. Pandora is entirely absent from Prometheus Bound , where Prometheus becomes a human benefactor and divine kingmaker , rather than an object of blame for human suffering. There

2700-459: Is interrupted by the entrance of Oceanus — the father of the chorus of nymphs. Oceanus arrives in a carriage drawn by a winged beast — a griffin . Oceanus is an older god, a Titan son of Earth, who has made peace with Zeus. He has heard of Prometheus' troubles, and has come to offer some sympathy and advice. Prometheus is proud, and is hurt by this offer. Prometheus responds coldly, and wonders why Oceanus would leave his caves and streams to see such

2800-535: Is keeping a secret that will eventually cause him to have power over Zeus. The chorus thinks that he is speaking out of anger, and may not actually be prophetic. Responding to their questions, Prometheus tells the story of his offense against Zeus admitting that it was deliberate. He complains that the punishment is too harsh. At last, Prometheus invites the chorus to stop hovering and come down to earth, to listen to more of what he has to say. They agree, and arrange themselves downstage in order to listen. Prometheus' story

2900-558: Is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness; but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black ... Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world." The quotation from Aeschylus

3000-555: Is shocked and saddened and asks Prometheus to tell of Io's future wanderings. He hesitates because he knows it will be painful. A brief dialogue reveals that Prometheus and Io are both victims of Zeus and that in the future Prometheus will eventually be freed by the descendants of Io. Prometheus asks Io to choose: Does she want to hear the rest of her own future, or the name of her descendant that will rescue him? The chorus interrupts — they want both: One answer for Io and one for themselves. Prometheus foresees that Io's wanderings will end at

3100-752: 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

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3200-621: The Battle of Salamis . It is unique among surviving Greek tragedies in that it describes a recent historical event. The Persians focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris and blames Persia's loss on the pride of its king. It opens with the arrival of a messenger in Susa , the Persian capital, bearing news of the catastrophic Persian defeat at Salamis, to Atossa , the mother of the Persian King Xerxes . Atossa then travels to

3300-535: The Furies , who avenge the murders of kin in Greek mythology. The third play addresses the question of Orestes' guilt. The Furies drive Orestes from Argos and into the wilderness. He makes his way to the temple of Apollo and begs Apollo to drive the Furies away. Apollo had encouraged Orestes to kill Clytemnestra, so he bears some of the guilt for the murder. Apollo sends Orestes to the temple of Athena with Hermes as

3400-588: 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

3500-595: The Malian Gulf of the Aegean Sea 13 kilometers (8 mi) southeast of Lamia. In antiquity , the mouth of the river was the site of Antikyra , which was famed for its black and white hellebore . Several studies have been conducted regarding the river's hydrological regime. Its silt has slowly filled the Malian Gulf, turning Thermopylae from a narrow pass into a wide plain. Homer 's Iliad names

3600-474: The Oresteia . Before writing his acclaimed trilogy, O'Neill had been developing a play about Aeschylus, and he noted that Aeschylus "so changed the system of the tragic stage that he has more claim than anyone else to be regarded as the founder (Father) of Tragedy." During his presidential campaign in 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy quoted the Edith Hamilton translation of Aeschylus on the night of

3700-662: The Titanomachy . Hephaestus performs his task, shackling Prometheus to the mountain, whereupon all three exit, leaving Prometheus alone on stage. Prometheus now speaks, and appeals to the powers of Nature, which are all around him. He calls on the wind, the mountains' springs of water, the Earth and the Sun — to witness how he suffers unfairly. Somewhat elliptically he intuits what the future might portend in positive terms, and his outrage diminishes. Prometheus becomes aware that something

3800-454: The chorus . Only seven of Aeschylus's estimated 70 to 90 plays have survived in complete form. 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

3900-428: The chorus . Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for greater dramatic variety, while the chorus played a less important role. He is sometimes credited with introducing skenographia , or scene-decoration, though Aristotle gives this distinction to Sophocles. Aeschylus is also said to have made the costumes more elaborate and dramatic, and made his actors wear platform boots ( cothurni ) to make them more visible to

4000-466: 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

4100-562: The Argive-Egyptian war threatened in the first play has transpired. King Pelasgus was killed during the war, and Danaus rules Argos. Danaus negotiates a settlement with Aegyptus, a condition of which requires his 50 daughters to marry the 50 sons of Aegyptus. Danaus secretly informs his daughters of an oracle which predicts that one of his sons-in-law would kill him. He orders the Danaids to murder their husbands therefore on their wedding night. His daughters agree. The Danaids would open

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4200-522: The Athenian, who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela; of his noble prowess the grove of Marathon can speak, and the long-haired Persian knows it well. 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

4300-442: The Earth. Hera turned Io into a heifer and the herder Argus drove her from land to land. After Argus was killed by Hermes , a new torment was inflicted on Io — a plague of gad-flies . She has now arrived at the desolate place where Prometheus is chained. Prometheus is familiar with her story, and she recognizes him as the great friend to humans. The chorus doesn't know Io's past, and persuades Prometheus to let Io tell them. The chorus

4400-492: The Greeks that his epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. 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

4500-520: The Oresteia (London: Faber. 1982) that the influence was so great as to merit a direct character by character comparison between Wagner's Ring and Aeschylus's Oresteia . But a critic of that book, while not denying that Wagner read and respected Aeschylus, has described the arguments as unreasonable and forced. J.T. Sheppard argues in the second half of his Aeschylus and Sophocles: Their Work and Influence that Aeschylus and Sophocles have played

4600-659: The Trojan War. One, collectively called the Achilleis , comprised Myrmidons , Nereids and Phrygians (alternately, The Ransoming of Hector ). Another trilogy apparently recounted the entrance of the Trojan ally Memnon into the war, and his death at the hands of Achilles ( Memnon and The Weighing of Souls being two components of the trilogy). The Award of the Arms , The Phrygian Women , and The Salaminian Women suggest

4700-446: The abyss because Prometheus will not tell him of a potential marriage which could prove Zeus' downfall. Prometheus Bound seems to have been the first play in a trilogy, the Prometheia . In the second play, Prometheus Unbound , Heracles frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that had been sent daily to eat Prometheus' perpetually regenerating liver, then believed the source of feeling. We learn that Zeus has released

4800-541: The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy was notified of King's murder before a campaign stop in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was warned not to attend the event due to fears of rioting from the mostly African-American crowd. Kennedy insisted on attending and delivered an impromptu speech that delivered news of King's death. Acknowledging the audience's emotions, Kennedy referred to his own grief at

4900-456: The audience. According to a later account of Aeschylus' life, the chorus of Furies in the first performance of the Eumenides were so frightening when they entered that children fainted and patriarchs urinated and pregnant women went into labour. Aeschylus wrote his plays in verse. No violence is performed onstage. The plays have a remoteness from daily life in Athens, relating stories about

5000-594: The author’s. A reference (lines 363-372) to the eruption of Mount Aetna in 479 suggests that Prometheus Bound may date from later than this event. The play cannot date later than 430 BC, because Prometheus Unbound (part of the same trilogy as Prometheus Bound ) was parodied in Cratinus ' Ploutoi (429 BC). Prometheus Bound was then parodied in Cratinus' Seriphioi (c. 423) and Aristophanes ' Acharnians (425 BC). Prometheus Bound enjoyed

5100-427: The bowels of the earth, Prometheus has the last line of the play: "O holy mother mine, O you firmament that revolves the common light of all, you see the wrongs I suffer!" Prometheus vanishes along with the chorus. The play is composed of dialogues between the different characters, including, Io, Ocean, Nature, and with the chorus. The dialogue contains a sustained stichomythia between Prometheus and Oceanus, and also

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5200-429: The burial of Polynices, and Antigone declares her intention to defy this edict. The play was the third in a connected Oedipus trilogy. The first two plays were Laius and Oedipus . The concluding satyr play was The Sphinx . Aeschylus continued his emphasis on the polis with The Suppliants ( Hiketides ) in 463 BC. The play gives tribute to the democratic undercurrents which were running through Athens and preceding

5300-418: The day after the wedding. It is revealed that 49 of the 50 Danaids killed their husbands. Hypermnestra did not kill her husband, Lynceus, and helped him escape. Danaus is angered by his daughter's disobedience and orders her imprisonment and possibly execution. In the trilogy's climax and dénouement, Lynceus reveals himself to Danaus and kills him, thus fulfilling the oracle. He and Hypermnestra will establish

5400-457: The enduring popularity of Prometheus Bound . Moreover, a performance of the play itself (rather than a depiction of the generic myth) appears on fragments of a Greek vase dated c. 370–360 BC.). In the early 19th century, the Romantic writers came to identify with the defiant Prometheus. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem on the theme, as did Lord Byron . Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote

5500-423: The establishment of a democratic government in 461. The Danaids (50 daughters of Danaus , founder of Argos ) flee a forced marriage to their cousins in Egypt. They turn to King Pelasgus of Argos for protection, but Pelasgus refuses until the people of Argos weigh in on the decision (a distinctly democratic move on the part of the king). The people decide that the Danaids deserve protection and are allowed within

5600-473: The extant version. Parts of those additions — including the story of Hercules killing the eagle — are essential to Aeschylus' conception of Prometheus Bound . Aeschylus also added his own variations. For example, in Hesiod Prometheus' efforts to outwit Zeus are simply presented, without noting that Zeus' response is overly cruel, or that Prometheus' actions might be justified — that Zeus became angry

5700-575: The final two dramas of the trilogy have been lost, the author's intention for the work as a whole is not known. The ascription to Aeschylus had never been challenged since antiquity down to relatively recent times. By the 1970s, both R. P. Winnington-Ingram and Denys Page had become sceptical of its authenticity, but the majority of scholars still affirmed the traditional attribution of authorship. Independently in 1977 both Oliver Taplin and Mark Griffith made forceful cases, on linguistic, technical and stagecraft grounds, for questioning its authenticity,

5800-475: The first prize at the City Dionysia thirteen times. This compares favorably with Sophocles' reported eighteen victories (with a substantially larger catalogue, an estimated 120 plays), and dwarfs the five victories of Euripides, who is thought to have written roughly 90 plays. One hallmark of Aeschylean dramaturgy appears to have been his tendency to write connected trilogies in which each play serves as

5900-752: The gods would restore the winds and allow the Greek fleet to sail to Troy. Clytemnestra was also unhappy that Agamemnon kept the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as his concubine. Cassandra foretells the murder of Agamemnon and of herself to the assembled townsfolk, who are horrified. She then enters the palace knowing that she cannot avoid her fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes , son of Agamemnon, who will seek to avenge his father. The Libation Bearers opens with Orestes' arrival at Agamemnon's tomb, from exile in Phocis . Electra meets Orestes there. They plan revenge against Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus . Clytemnestra's account of

6000-431: The gods, or being set, like The Persians , far away. Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis. The Oresteia trilogy concentrated on humans' position in the cosmos relative to the gods and divine law and divine punishment. Aeschylus' popularity is evident in the praise that the comic playwright Aristophanes gives him in The Frogs , produced some 50 years after Aeschylus' death. Aeschylus appears as

6100-486: The human spirit into older forms. This play, Prometheus Bound , only contains a part of the story. In the sequel, Aeschylus would have had the chance to give to Zeus' character an arc, and show him learning and developing more admirable and generous aspects. Coming later in the trilogy, a benevolent Zeus would have a deeper impact. In this play Zeus does not appear — we learn of the tyranny of Zeus, only from those who suffer from it. Characters' views need not be identical with

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6200-471: 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

6300-449: The intervention of Necessity, which is something directed by Fate, not Zeus. When asked how that will happen, he keeps it secret. The Chorus sings an Ode that is a prayer that they will never cross Zeus. Io , the daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, arrives. Io had become the object of Zeus's affections and desires, which angered Zeus's wife, Hera . Io's father was advised to banish his daughter from his house, which he does. Io then wanders

6400-528: 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

6500-399: 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

6600-553: The life of Perseus ( The Net-draggers , Polydektês , Phorkides ), the birth and exploits of Dionysus ( Semele , Bacchae , Pentheus ), and the aftermath of the war portrayed in Seven Against Thebes ( Eleusinians , Argives (or Argive Women ), Sons of the Seven ). The Persians ( Persai ) is the earliest of Aeschylus' extant plays. It was performed in 472 BC. It was based on Aeschylus' own experiences, specifically

6700-440: The marriage that threatens Zeus. Hermes reveals Zeus' own threats — the earthquake, the fall of the mountain that will bury Prometheus, the eagle that will attack Prometheus's vital organs. Prometheus states again that he knows all that is to come and will endure it. Prometheus warns the chorus to stand aside. They don't. The end comes: Earthquake, dust-storm, jagged lightning, whirlwind. As Zeus blasts Prometheus to Tartarus down in

6800-399: The mortal Peleus. The product of that union is Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War. After reconciling with Prometheus, Zeus probably inaugurates a festival in his honor at Athens. Of Aeschylus' other plays, only titles and assorted fragments are known. There are enough fragments (along with comments made by later authors and scholiasts) to produce rough synopses for some plays. This play

6900-761: The mouth of the Nile . There Zeus will restore her. She will give birth to a son, Epaphus , who will father fifty daughters, all of whom will murder their husbands, except for one, who will bear a line of kings, and another one who will rescue Prometheus from his torment. Prometheus' future rescuer is not named, but is known to be Heracles . Io bounds away. Prometheus proclaims that no matter how great Zeus may be, his reign will eventually come to an end. Zeus may do his worst, but it will not be forever. The chorus express caution, which he responds to with even more defiance. Prometheus's words have reached Zeus, whose messenger, Hermes , appears to urge Prometheus to reveal his secret about

7000-472: The murder of Martin Luther King and, quoting a passage from the play Agamemnon (in translation), said: "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote: 'Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.' What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States

7100-430: 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 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

7200-435: The new king, Zeus intended to destroy and replace humankind. Prometheus frustrated this plan, showing humans the use of fire, which Prometheus had stolen. Prometheus also taught humanity the arts. For these acts of defiance, Zeus intends to punish Prometheus by chaining him to a rock in the mountains of Scythia . The play opens with four characters on stage, a feature unique among the surviving corpus of Greek tragedy, in which

7300-422: The notion that a Prometheus trilogy itself existed. Two years later his student F. Niedzballa likewise concluded the text was written by someone else, on the basis of lexical analysis of words in the play not recurrent elsewhere in Aeschylus. Some have raised doubts focused on matters of linguistics, meter, vocabulary, and style, notably by Mark Griffith, though he remained open to idea that uncertainty persists and

7400-407: The other Titans which he imprisoned at the conclusion of the Titanomachy , perhaps foreshadowing his eventual reconciliation with Prometheus. In the trilogy's conclusion, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer , it seems that the Titan finally warns Zeus not to sleep with the sea nymph Thetis , for she is fated to beget a son greater than the father. Not wishing to be overthrown, Zeus marries Thetis off to

7500-480: The other Titans whom he imprisoned at the conclusion of the Titanomachy. In Prometheus the Fire-Bringer , the Titan finally warns Zeus not to lie with the sea nymph Thetis , for she is fated to give birth to a son greater than the father. Not wishing to be overthrown, Zeus would later marry Thetis off to the mortal Peleus ; the product of that union will be Achilles , Greek hero of the Trojan War . Grateful for

7600-604: The play as the product of the 440s-430s era. Some scholars note that certain themes in the play appear to be foreign to Aeschylus, when compared to the themes in his other plays. The scholar Wilhelm Schmid argues that the playwright who demonstrated such piety toward Zeus in The Suppliants and Agamemnon could not have been the same playwright who in Prometheus Bound inveighs against Zeus for violent tyranny. M. L. West argued that Prometheus Bound may be

7700-529: The play by Joel Agee, commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum , the CalArts Center for New Performance , and Trans Arts, was first performed from 29 August to 28 September 2013 at the Getty Villa 's Outdoor Classical Theater. It was directed by Travis Preston, composed by Ellen Reid and Vinny Golia , and choreographed by Mira Kingsley. The production employed a huge, steel wheel in place of

7800-458: The play. In the Republic , Plato quotes the line "God plants a fault in mortals when he wills to destroy a house utterly." These are the remaining 71 plays ascribed to Aeschylus which are known: The theatre was just beginning to evolve when Aeschylus started writing for it. Earlier playwrights such as Thespis had already expanded the cast to include an actor who was able to interact with

7900-599: The production that included the Persians , with Pericles serving as choregos . 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 . In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily for

8000-457: The punishment meted out to Prometheus is due to the fact he stole fire and revealed the secret of how it is produced to humanity, adding that the punitive measure taken will compel Prometheus to take cognizance of the sovereignty of Zeus. For Prometheus, his punishment occurs because he dared to rescue mankind from being annihilated by Zeus. The penalty exacted is particularly galling since he himself had been instrumental in securing Zeus's victory in

8100-607: The river as the father (by Achilles 's half-sister Polydora ) of Menesthius , one of Achilles's lieutenants. Antoninus Liberalis notes the tradition that Cerambus was punished for claiming that the nymphs of Mount Othrys , the Spercheides , were the daughters of Spercheios by the naiad Deino . Antoninus Liberalis also relates the account that Spercheios and Polydora's son was Dryops , king of Oeta , who fathered Dryope . [REDACTED] Media related to Spercheios at Wikimedia Commons This article relating to

8200-402: The throne of the city. After the first year, Eteocles refuses to step down. Polynices therefore undertakes war. The pair kill each other in single combat, and the original ending of the play consisted of lamentations for the dead brothers. But a new ending was added to the play some fifty years later: Antigone and Ismene mourn their dead brothers, a messenger enters announcing an edict prohibiting

8300-463: The tomb of Darius, her husband, where his ghost appears, to explain the cause of the defeat. It is, he says, the result of Xerxes' hubris in building a bridge across the Hellespont , an action which angered the gods. Xerxes appears at the end of the play, not realizing the cause of his defeat, and the play closes to lamentations by Xerxes and the chorus. Seven against Thebes ( Hepta epi Thebas )

8400-429: The traditional attribution might turn out to be correct. Griffith's views were challenged in brief by Günther Zuntz and in great detail by Maria Pia Pattoni in 1987. M. L. West found the evidence against the ascription 'overwhelming' and, after editing all seven plays, wrote an extended analysis and review of Griffith, Zuntz and Pattoni's work concluding that ascription to Aeschylus was untenable and contextualizing

8500-415: The trilogy known as The Oresteia (the three tragedies Agamemnon , The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides ), and Prometheus Bound (whose authorship is disputed). With the exception of this last play – the success of which is uncertain – all of Aeschylus's extant tragedies are known to have won first prize at the City Dionysia. The Alexandrian Life of Aeschylus claims that he won

8600-477: The two punishments are presented as one story. It was Aeschylus, who instead decided to separate the tortures, and have the eagle begin tearing at Prometheus' liver only after the chained Prometheus had refused to reveal the secrets that Zeus wanted to know. Aeschylus' alterations have been maintained by literature that followed Prometheus Bound . Hesiod portrays Prometheus as a lowly trickster and semi-comic foil to Zeus's authority. Zeus's anger toward Prometheus

8700-404: 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

8800-452: The violent story of the family of Agamemnon , king of Argos . Aeschylus begins in Greece, describing the return of King Agamemnon from his victory in the Trojan War , from the perspective of the townspeople (the Chorus) and his wife, Clytemnestra . Dark foreshadowings build to the death of the king at the hands of his wife, who was angry that their daughter Iphigenia was killed so that

8900-411: The walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests. A Danaid trilogy had long been assumed because of The Suppliants' cliffhanger ending. This was confirmed by the 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3. The constituent plays are generally agreed to be The Suppliants and The Egyptians and The Danaids . A plausible reconstruction of the trilogy's last two-thirds runs thus: In The Egyptians ,

9000-558: The warning, Zeus finally reconciles with Prometheus. Scholars of the Great Library of Alexandria considered Aeschylus to be the author of Prometheus Bound . Since the 19th century, however, doubts began to emerge, after Rudolf Westphal , in 1857 and again in 1869, challenged the idea that the text was the work of a single author. In 1911, A. Gercke became the first scholar to reject the Aeschylean ascription, while dismissing

9100-434: The work of Aeschylus' son, Euphorion , who was also a playwright. Responses to some of these questions have included the suggestion that the strongest characteristic of the play is in the humanity of their portrayal. The mythological and religious aspects are treated as secondary compared to the clash of wills that occurs between Zeus and Prometheus. The rebellion of Prometheus was not invented by Aeschylus, who only breathed

9200-456: 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

9300-402: 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

9400-632: Was based on books 18 and 19 and 22 of the Iliad . It follows the Daughters of Nereus, the sea god, who lament Patroclus' death. A messenger tells how Achilles (perhaps reconciled to Agamemnon and the Greeks) slew Hector . After a brief discussion with Hermes , Achilles sits in silent mourning over Patroclus. Hermes then brings in King Priam of Troy , who wins over Achilles and ransoms his son's body in

9500-582: Was based on books 9 and 16 of the Iliad . Achilles sits in silent indignation over his humiliation at Agamemnon's hands for most of the play. Envoys from the Greek army attempt to reconcile Achilles to Agamemnon , but he yields only to Patroclus , who then battles the Trojans in Achilles' armour. The bravery and death of Patroclus are reported in a messenger's speech, which is followed by mourning. This play

9600-482: Was enough for Hesiod to report without question. Aeschylus looks at those events in Hesiod, and sees intolerable injustice. Another departure by Aeschylus from Hesiod's Theogony involves the two forms of punishment of Prometheus — the chaining to a rock, and the eagle's daily tearing of his liver. In the version of the Theogony that Aeschylus was familiar with, which is also the extant version known to modern readers,

9700-529: Was followed by a work with the title Prometheus Lyomenos ( Prometheus Unbound ) . Herington adds that "some very slight evidence" indicates that Prometheus Unbound "may have been followed by a third play", Prometheus Pyrphoros ( Prometheus the Fire-Bearer ) ; the latter two survive only in fragments. Some scholars have proposed that these fragments all originated from Prometheus Unbound , and that there were only two Promethean plays rather than three. Since

9800-431: Was later inscribed on a memorial at the gravesite of Robert Kennedy following his own assassination. Prometheus Bound Prometheus Bound ( Ancient Greek : Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης , romanized :  Promētheús Desmṓtēs ) is an ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante quem of 424 BC. The tragedy

9900-423: 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

10000-456: Was performed in 467 BC. It has the contrasting theme of the interference of the gods in human affairs. Another theme, with which Aeschylus' would continually involve himself, makes its first known appearance in this play, namely that the polis was a key development of human civilization. The play tells the story of Eteocles and Polynices , the sons of the shamed king of Thebes , Oedipus . Eteocles and Polynices agree to share and alternate

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