C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Æschylus (c. 525–456 B.C.)

Æschylus (es’ki-lus). The greatest of the Greek dramatists; born at Eleusis, Attica, 525 B.C.; died at Gela, Sicily, 456 B.C. Of his very numerous works (72 or even 90 dramas), seven tragedies only remain: ‘The Suppliants,’ one of his earliest productions; ‘The Persians,’ founded on the contemporary triumph of Greece over the invading Persian hosts; ‘The Seven against Thebes,’ the only extant member of a tetralogy, the other members of which were ‘Laius,’ ‘Œdipus,’ and ‘The Sphinx.’ The grand tragedy, ‘Prometheus Bound,’ is the sole survivor of a trilogy, the other two members of which were ‘Prometheus the Fire-Bearer’ and ‘Prometheus Loosed.’ In portrayal of grandeur of action and sublimity of heroic character, the ‘Prometheus’ is almost without an equal in the history of dramatic literature. The remaining three tragedies, ‘Agamemnon,’ ‘Choēphori,’ and ‘Eumenides,’ are specially precious, constituting the only complete trilogy that is extant from any ancient Greek tragic poet. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).

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