AeskhylusAeschylus

The a renowned Athenian playwright whose career spanned thirty years (484-455 BCE).

Aeskhylus was born in Eleusis circa 512 BCE and died in Gela, on the island of Sicily, circa 455 BCE; his grave marker declared him to be an Athenian veteran of the battle of Marathon (490 BCE).

Aeskhylus is said to have written as many as seventy plays but only seven have survived; his extant plays are tragic works that include: The Suppliants, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, Agamemnon, the Libation Bearers and the Eumenides.

All the plays are excellent and should be read by even the casual student of Greek literature; my favorites are Prometheus Bound and the trilogy known as Oresteia, which includes: Agamemnon, the Libation Bearers and the Eumenides.

The reconstruction of the lost play Akhilleus (Achilles) by Aeskhylus has finally been completed; the trilogy will be performed by the Thoc (Cyprus’s national theater company directed by Andy Bargilly) on the island of Cyprus in the Summer of 2004. It was the custom of the ancient Egyptians to wrap their mummies with papyrus and, over the past few decades, fragments of the play, Akhilleus, have been found in this fashion; finally, enough fragmented portions of the play have been unearthed to reconstruct the lost trilogy. The Greek writer, Elias Malandris, has worked on the reconstruction of the play for over a decade and has humbly (and honestly) stated that the play is simply a faithful adaptation of the original work; the text of the play is currently unavailable and we can assume that it will remain so until after the theatrical premier in the Summer of 2004.

For a more complete biography of Aeskhylus I suggest The Complete Greek Tragedies, Aeschylus I and II, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, ISBN 0226307786 and 0226307948; you can find these books at your library in the 800 section or you can order them through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.