Aeschylus (/ˈiːskᵻləs/ or /ˈɛskᵻləs/;Greek: ΑἰσχύλοςAiskhulos; Ancient Greek:[ai̯s.kʰý.los]; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is also the first whose plays still survive; the others are Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: critics and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater to allow conflict among them, whereas characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.
Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived, and there is a longstanding debate regarding his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound, which some believe his son Euphorion actually wrote. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480-479 BC). This work, The Persians, is the only surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events (very few of that kind were ever written), and a useful source of information about its period. The significance of war in Ancient Greek culture was so great that Aeschylus' epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Despite this, Aeschylus' work – particularly the Oresteia– is acclaimed by today's literary academics.
"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."
"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times"
"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief."
"Time brings all things to pass."
"The wisest of the wise may err."
"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."
"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain."
"God loves to help him who strives to help himself."
The desert rips our flesh Our mouths dry Our skin is cracked Moisture is what we crave The mirage of a city Our only antagonist As the heat bakes our skin Nothing left Vicious circle Our bodies are dead The sand gripped our knees
Renowned actor and director Danis Katranidis has passed away at the age of 75 ... He made his theatrical debut in 1971 with Aeschylus’ “Persians,” directed by Takis Mouzenidis at the National Theatre ... at the Zografou cemetery.
Sixty-two years after the work’s first presentation at Epidaurus, the Karolos KounArtTheatre and the New World Theatre presented Aeschylus’s tragedy with a stellar cast of actors.
“They made us, my friends ... “You watch multi-episode TV revenge plots and family psychodramas that have their origins in the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles and Euripides ... They rootled around in monastery libraries ... “Or take Aeschylus.
The first iteration of the Aeschylus project ^, a LegacyProject by 2023 Eleusis, was presented in the summer of 2022 at the Old Oil MillFactoryAmphitheatre aiming to establish a rare debate on the Aeschylean drama.