Aeschylus
Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC)
Greek
Αισχύλος
, Ésquilo in Portuguese; Esquilo in Spanish; Eschyle en français; Eschil in romanian; Эсхил in russian.
Aeschylus, an ancient Greek playwright, is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy. He is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict among them; previously, characters interacted only with the chorus. Unfortunately, only seven of an estimated 70 plays by Aeschylus have survived into modern times; one of these plays, Prometheus Bound, is sometimes thought not to be the work of Aeschylus.
At least one of Aeschylus's works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. His play The Persians remains a good primary source of information about this period in Greek history. The war was so important to Greeks and to Aeschylus himself that, upon his death around 456 BC, his epitaph included a reference to his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon but not to his success as a playwright.
There are no reliable sources for the life of Aeschylus. He was said to have been born in c. 525 in Eleusis, a small town about 27 kilometers northwest of Athens, which is nestled in the fertile valleys of western Attica, though the date is most likely based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia. His family was both wealthy and well-established; his father Euphorion was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica.
As a youth, he 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 from the dream, the young Aeschylus began writing a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old. After fifteen years, his skill was great enough to win a prize for his plays at Athens' annual city Dionysia playwriting competition. But in the interim, his dramatic career was interrupted by war. The armies of the Persian Empire, which had already conquered the Greek city-states of Ionia, entered mainland Greece in the hopes of conquering it as well.
In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against Darius's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. Though Athens was victorious, Cynegeirus died in the battle. Aeschylus continued to write plays during the lull between the first and second Persian invasions of Greece, and won his first victory at the city Dionysia in 484 BC. In 480 he was called into military service again, this time against Xerxes' invading forces at the Battle of Salamis. This naval battle 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 had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult to Demeter based in his hometown of Eleusis. As the name implies, members of the cult were supposed to have gained some sort of mystical, secret knowledge. Firm details of the Mysteries' specific rites are sparse, as members were sworn under the penalty of death not to reveal anything about the Mysteries to non-initiates. Nevertheless, according to Aristotle, it was alleged that Aeschylus had placed clues about the secret rites in his seventh tragedy, Prometheus Bound. According to some sources, an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he fled the scene. When he stood trial for his offense, Aeschylus pleaded ignorance and was only spared because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.
Aeschylus traveled to Sicily once or twice in the 470s BC, having
“Sorrow with me, Sorrowful one!Tell me, whose voice proclaimsThings true and sad,Naming by all their old, unhappy names,What drove me mad--”
“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.”
“My will is mine...I shall not make it soft for you.”
“Your speech is pompous sounding, full of pride, as fits the lackey of the Gods. You are young and young your rule and you think the tower in which you live is free from sorrow: from it have I not seen two tyrants thrown? The third, who now is king, I shall yet live to see him fall, of all three most suddenly, most dishonored. Do you think I will crouch before your Gods, -so new-and tremble? I am far from that.”
“ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities.”
“In visions of the night, like dropping rain, Descend the many memories of pain”
“At home there tarries like a lurking snake, Biding its time, a wrath unreconciled, A wily watcher, passionate to slake, In blood, resentment for a murdered child.”
“It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.”
“Only through suffering do we learn”
“They sent forth men to battle, But no such men return; And home, to claim their welcome, Come ashes in an urn”
“There is no avoidance in delay.”
“ATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice.”
“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.”
“There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.”
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forgetfalls drop by drop upon the heartuntil, in our own despair, against our will,comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
“The gods! long since they hold us in contempt,Scornful of gifts thus offered by the lost!Why should we fawn and flinch away from doom?”
“But the lust for power never dies- men cannot have enough.No one will lift a hand to send it from his door, to give it warning, 'Power, never come again!”
“CLYTEMNESTRAWhat ails thee, raising this ado for us?SLAVEI say the dead are come to slay the living.”
“To learn is to be young, however old.”
“Bastions of wealthare no deference for the manwho treads the grand altar of Justicedown and out of sight.”
“There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain.”
“I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.”
“Nothing forces us to knowWhat we do not want to knowExcept pain”
“But there is a cure in the house,and not outside it, no,not from others but from them,their bloody strife. We sing to you,dark gods beneath the earth.”
“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.”
“Alas, poor men, their destiny. When all goes well a shadow will overthrow it. If it be unkind one stroke of a wet sponge wipes all the picture out; and that is far the most unhappy thing of all. -Cassandra”
“Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?”
“Rumours voiced by women come to nothing.”
“And there they ring the walls, the young, the lithe. The handsome hold the graves they won in Troy; the enemy earth rides over those who conquered.”
“Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?”
“[Hermes addresses Prometheus :] To you, the clever and crafty, bitter beyond all bitterness, who has sinned against the gods in bestowing honors upon creatures of a day--to you, thief of fire, I speak.”
“I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death”
“For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.”
“Unanimous hatred is the greatest medicine for a human community.”
“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.”
“The reward of suffering is experience.”
“Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”
“Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθειμνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας·ἀλκὴν δ' εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποικαὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενοThis gravestone covers Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, from Athens, who died in fertile Gela. The field of Marathon will speak of his bravery, and so will the long haired Mede who knew it well.”
“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.”
“Suffering brings experience.”
“We spoil ourselves with scruples long as things go well.”
“Memory is the mother of all wisdom. ”
“For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.”
“Words are doctors for the diseased temper.”
“The moving light, rejoicing in its strength, Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way, In golden glory, like some strange new sun...”
“I know how men in exile feed on dreams”
“Bethink thee of the adage, 'Call none blest, till peaceful death have crowned a life of weal.”
“Death is softer by far than tyranny.”
“Call no man happy till he is dead.”
“Wisdom comes through suffering.Trouble, with its memories of pain,Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,So men against their willLearn to practice moderation.Favours come to us from gods.”