So important was the war to Aeschylus and the Greeks that, upon his death, around 456 BC, his epitaph commemorated his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon rather than his success as a playwright. This play, The Persians, is the only extant classical Greek tragedy concerned with recent history (very few of that kind were ever written) and it is a useful source of information about that period. Īt least one of his works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. 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. 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. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times, and there is a longstanding debate about his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict amongst them, whereas previously characters had interacted only with the chorus. He is often described as the father of tragedy: Our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. Most of the action took place in the circular dancing area or 'orchestra' which still remained from the old days when drama had been nothing more than a circular dance around a sacred object.Aeschylus ( / ˈ iː s k ɨ l ə s / or / ˈ ɛ s k ɨ l ə s / Greek: Αἰσχύλος, Aiskhulos c. A chorus danced and exchanged dialogue with a single actor who portrayed one or more characters primarily by the use of masks. Plays were little more than animated oratorios or choral poetry supplemented with expressive dance. When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre had only just begun to evolve. The obedient young Aeschylus began a tragedy the next morning and 'succeeded very easily.' According to Aeschylus, when he dozed off, Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to write tragedies. Immersed early in the mystic rites of the city and in the worship of the Mother and Earth goddess Demeter, he was once sent as a child to watch grapes ripening in the countryside. The 'Father of Tragedy', Aeschylus was born in the city of Eleusis.

Aeschylus tragedies