Aeschylus

Mask”. Gold, found in Tomb V in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann (1876), XVIth century BC. National Archeological Museum, Athens]]

**Aeschylus** (525 BC – 456 BC) was an Ancient Greek poet and writer. He wrote about 70–90 plays.

Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays. His characters spoke to each other and not just to the chorus. This made it easier to create drama between the characters.

One of his plays, *The Persians*, was about the Persian invasion of Greece. Aeschylus had fought in this war. People studying Greek history use his play as an important source of information. The war was so important to the Greeks and to Aeschylus, that the writing on his grave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. There is nothing about the plays he wrote.

## Early life 
Aeschylus was born about the year 525 BC in a small town called Eleusis, which is about  27&nbsp;kilometers northwest of Athens. The date is based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia. His family was rich, and his father, Euphorion, was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica. Pausanias wrote that Aeschylus  worked in a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep. The god ordered him to write the first tragedies.

## The Eleusinian Mysteries 
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who joined the Eleusinian Mysteries. This was the religious cult of Demeter, and based in his home town of Eleusis. Members of the group learned mystical and secret knowledge. Members were sworn under the penalty of death not to say anything about the Mysteries to anyone. Aristotle wrote that some people thought that Aeschylus had shown some of the cult's secrets on stage. Other writers said that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he ran away. Later, Aeschylus said he did not know that he had shown any of the secrets. He was saved from death only because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.

## Later life 
Aeschylus made two trips to Sicily in the 470s BC. He was invited by Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, a big Greek city on the east side of the island. On one of these trips he wrote *The Women of Aetna*, in honor of the city founded by Hieron. He also restaged his *Persians*. Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in future competitions. During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the city's Dionysia in the spring. The first competition was for three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays, followed by a shorter comedy. Aeschylus added a second actor, called the deuteragonist allowing for more drama; and the chorus became less important. though Aristotle said the first person was Sophocles. Aeschylus also added more details to the costumes, and had his actors wear platform boots, called *cothurni*, to help the audience see them better. When they walked on stage in the first performance of the *Eumenides*, the chorus of Furies were so frightening in looks that they made young children faint, old men urinate, and pregnant women go into labor.

His plays were written in the strict style of Greek drama. They were in verse and no violence could be performed on stage. The plays had to be set away from normal life in Athens, either by telling stories about the gods or by being set, like *The Persians*, in a far-away place. Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious .

Fifty years after Aeschylus' death, the comic playwright Aristophanes praised him in *The Frogs*. Aeschylus is a character in the play and says that his *Seven against Thebes* "made everyone watching it to love being warlike" (line 1022); with his *Persians*, he says he "taught the Athenians to desire always to defeat their enemies" (line 1026–7).  He says that his plays helped the Athenians to be brave and virtuous (line 1039ff).

## Relevant pages 
*Theatre of Ancient Greece

## Notes 
## References 
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* —(2002). *Greek Drama and Dramatists*. London: Routledge Press. 
* Æschylus. *Aeschylus I: Oresteia*. Transl. Richmond Lattimore. 8th ed, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1960. 1-31.