Aeschylus

Also known as Æschylus, Aeschylos

Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) 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 the chorus.

OverviewAI-generated

Aeschylus was a male warrior, playwright, and writer from Classical Athens. Born in Elefsina around 525 BCE, he died in Gela in 456 BCE. He wrote in Ancient Greek and is associated with the genre of Greek tragedy during classical antiquity. His notable works include *Agamemnon*, *The Libation Bearers*, *Eumenides*, and *The Persians*.

He was a member of the deme of Eleusis and had a child named Euphorion. His siblings were Cynaegirus and Ameinias of Athens. He is described in sources such as the *Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary* and the *Encyclopædia Britannica* 11th edition. His name in his native language is Αἰσχύλος.

Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, MusicBrainz, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: c. 525 BC
Died: c. 456 BC
Works: 1032

Top works

Prometheus Bound (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Agamemnon (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Libation Bearers (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Prometheus Bound. The Suppliants. Seven Against Thebes. The Persians. Translated with an introduction by Philip Vellacott (Penguin Classics. no. L112.)
The Oresteian Trilogy. (Agamemnon; The Choephori; The Eumenides)

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Writing · Eleusis, Greece

Aeschylus (Ancient Greek: Αἰσχύλος c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) 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…

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Country: Greece

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 115
Total plays: 1,075

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Agamemnon
· 1950 · cited 26x
Oresteia. Libation-Bearers
· 2009 · cited 11x
Oxford Classical Texts: Aeschyli: Septem Quae Supersunt Tragoedias
· 1972 · cited 11x
Aeschylus: Persae
· 2009 · cited 10x
Seven against Thebes
· 2009 · cited 10x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“Ἔστι γὰρ πλοῦτός γ᾽ ἀμεμφής, ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ὀφθαλμῷ φόβος·ὄμμα γὰρ δόμων νομίζω δεσπότου παρουσίαν.”
“Ὤμοι, κακὸν μὲν πρῶτον ἀγγέλλειν κακά.”
“Ἀνδρῶν γὰρ ὄντων ἕρκος ἐστὶν ἀσφαλές.”
“Φίλοι, κακῶν μὲν ὅστις ἔμπειρος κυρεῖ,ἐπίσταται βροτοῖσιν ὡς, ὅταν κλύδωνκακῶν ἐπέλθῃ, πάντα δειμαίνειν φίλον,ὅταν δ᾽ ὁ δαίμων εὐροῇ, πεποιθέναιτὸν αὐτὸν αἰὲν ἄνεμον οὐριεῖν τύχας.”
“Ἀλλ᾽, ὅταν σπεύδῃ τις αὐτός, χὠ θεὸς συνάπτεται.”
“θῖνες νεκρῶν δὲ καὶ τριτοσπόρῳ γονῇἄφωνα σημανοῦσιν ὄμμασιν βροτῶνὡς οὐχ ὑπέρφευ θνητὸν ὄντα χρὴ φρονεῖν.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Person.name: Aeschylus
Person.image: Herma of Aeschylus, Klas08.jpg
Person.caption: Roman marble herma of Aeschylus dating to 30 BC, based on an earlier bronze Greek herma, dating to around 340-320 BC
Person.native_name_lang: Greek
Person.birth_date: /524 BC
Person.birth_place: Eleusis
Person.death_date: (aged approximately 67)
Person.death_place: Gela, Sicily
Person.occupation: Playwright and soldier
Person.parents: Euphorion (father)

via Wikipedia infobox

~32 min read

Encyclopedic overview

29 sections

Contents

Life
Personal life
Death
Works
Trilogies
Surviving plays
''The Persians'' (472 BC)
''Seven Against Thebes'' (467 BC)
''The Suppliants'' (463 BC)
''The Oresteia'' (458 BC)
''Agamemnon''
''The Libation Bearers''
''The Eumenides''
''Prometheus Bound'' (date disputed)
Lost plays
''Myrmidons''
''[[Nereids (play)|Nereids]]''
''[[Phrygians (play)|Phrygians]]'', or ''Hector's Ransom''
''[[Niobe (Aeschylus play)|Niobe]]''
Influence
Influence on Greek drama and culture
Influence outside Greek culture
Editions
See also
Notes
Citations
References
Further reading
External links

Aeschylus wrote an estimated 70 to 90 plays, of which only seven 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's work. He was likely the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy, with his Oresteia being 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 known 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 the Greeks that his epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Aeschylus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.