Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, a Greek town near Athens, in 525 B.C. He
was the
first of the great Greek tragedians, preceding both Sophocles and Euripides,
and is often
credited with inventing tragic drama. Prior to Aeschylus, plays were
primitive, consisting
of a single actor and a chorus offering commentary. In his works, he added a
"second
actor" (often more than one) thus creating endless new dramatic
possibilities. He lived
until 456 B.C., fighting in the wars against Persia, and attaining great
acclaim in the world
of the Athenian theater.
Aeschylus wrote nearly ninety plays; however, only seven have survived to
the
modern era, including such famous works as Prometheus Bound and The Seven
Against
Thebes. Agamemnon is the first of a trilogy, called the Oresteia, which
continues with The
Libation-Bearers and concludes with The Eumenides. The trilogy--the only such
work to
survive from Ancient Greece--is considered by many critics to be the......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1846
Approximate Pages: 8 (260 words per double-spaced page) |