Aeschylus was a well known Greek tragedian who wrote a trilogy whose first part is "Prometheus Bound". The work is about a myth and it was written in 6 acts. The main motive is the rage of Zeus caused by Prometheus stealing the fire from the gods and giving it to people. Fire was considered to be the last gift that enabled a perfect life. Zeus decided to destroy the human kind and … [Read more...]
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was born in 525 B.C. and he died in 456 B.C. In his time democracy started to rule in Athens and he even glorified it in one of his works. He took part in the battle of Salamis, Plataea and the battle of Marathon. In his tragedy “The Persians” he speaks of the battle of Salamis.
He traveled often trying to expand his knowledge and experience. He visited Syracuse where he was hosted by Hiero who only invited the most prestigious artist. Hiero founded Etna in 476 B.C. and placed his son as the reign there. Aeschylus then wrote and performed his play "The Edonians" and in his second visit he performed "The Persians".
For many Aeschylus was the father of the tragedy. His poems state his love for democratic countries even though he was a conservative. Aeschylus came to a confrontation with many people because of his work "The Edonians" so he spent the last years of his life in Sicily where he performed his plays and died in the end.
He wrote about 90 plays and 70 of them were tragedies. He won 13 times in various competitions and he took his writing inspiration out of heroic stories. His tragedies were also told to be crumbs from Homer’s table. Even though the structure of his plays is simple and the character lacks a deeper psychological analysis, his style was noble.