Aeschylus

b. 525; d. 456 BC

Greek tragic poet, born at Eleusis; son of Euphorion, a member of the old Athenian nobility (Eupatridae). He fought at Marathon (490). Aeschylus first exhibited at the Dionysiac festival in 499, and won his first victory in 484. In 476, and again in 472, he visited the court of Hieron I at Syracuse. His third Sicilian journey, from which he did not return, was made soon after the production of the Oresteia in 458. He died at Gela.

Aeschylus's reputation as the 'father of Greek tragedy' is based upon the fact that he raised it above the status of a mere choral exhibition by introducing a second actor as well as by his improvements in staging. His verse is marked by tremendous vigour and loftiness of tone; his thought upon the great problems of life and death is profound. According to Suda, Aeschylus wrote ninety plays. We possess only seven as follows: Suppliants, Persae, Seven against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, and the Oresteia, the only extant trilogy, consisting of Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. Our principal source for the events of Aeschylus's career is the 11th-century Medicean manuscript at Florence. The first full text of the plays was published by Victorius in 1557.

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