Related Subjects: Author Index
Book reviews for "Aeschylus_B.C._B.C." sorted by average review score:

The Persians
Published in Paperback by Players Press (February, 1998)
Authors: Aeschylus, Robert Potter, and William-Alan Landes
Amazon base price: $7.50
Average review score:

The first play based on recent history.
This is generally not considered one of the better plays of Aeschylus; yet, I did enjoy it, even though there is very little action. Perhaps it is because it dealt with a subject of contemporary interest to its original audience. In fact, it is the oldest surviving play based on an event of recent history. The play was first produced in 472 B. C., only eight years after the Battle of Salamis. The speech by the Messenger in the play is the earliest known historical account of that battle. The play takes place in the Persian court and simply presents the arrival of a messenger carrying the news of Persia's defeat and is followed by the entry of a disgraced Xerxes. This play also contains the earliest known appearance by a ghost in a drama.

A unique Greek tragedy by Aeschylus about a historical event
"The Persians" is a minor work in the extant plays of Aeschylus, but has considerable historical if not dramatic significance. The play is the second and only remaining tragedy from a lost tetralogy that is based on the historical events of the Persians Wars. The play was performed in 472 B.C., eight years after the defeat of the invaders at the Battle of Salamis. The speech by the Messenger is assumed to be a fairly accurate description of the battle, but the focus of the play is on the downfall of the Persian Empire because of the folly of Xerxes. After the ghost of Darius, father of Xerxes and the leader of the first Persian invasion that was defeated at the Battle of Marathon laments the ruin of the great empire he had ruled, Xerxes offers similar histrionics concerning the destruction of his fleet.

The play is interesting because Aeschylus presents Xerxes, a foreign invader, as exhibiting the same sort of hubris that afflicts the greatest of mythological heroes in these Greek tragedies. Laud and honor is given the Athenians for defeating the Persians in battle, but Aeschylus surprisingly provides a look at the Persian king's culpability in the downfall of his empire. There is a reference in the play to the tradition that Xerxes was descended from Perseus (for whom the Persian race was therefore named), but even so it seems quite odd to turn him into a traditional Greek tragic hero. Aeschylus had fought the Persians at the Battles of Marathon and Salamis, which certainly lends authenticity to his description of events.

Aeschylus won the festival of Dionysus in 472 B.C. with the tetralogy of "Phineus," "The Persians," "Glaucus of Potniae," and the satyr play "Prometheus the Fire-Kindler." Phineas was the king who became the victim of the Harpies, while this particular Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus and the father of Bellerophon who was torn to pieces by his own mares. Consequently, this particular tetralogy clearly has the theme of kings brought down by their own folly. But even within that context, the fact that Aeschylus would write of a historical rather than legendary figure, not to mention a Persian rather than a Greek, remains more than a minor historical curiosity.

The tragedy of a proud people.
"Persians" deals with a people trying to exceed mortal limits. The king of persia blinds his people into believing they can accomplish deeds that exceed the laws of the divine and it's natural order. The king invades Greece despite bad omens. The people in Persia are told they are defeated by a messenger and mourn in mad disbelief. Searching for answers they summon the spirit of a once great king who cannot undo what has now been done. Persia's once proud army, security, and young sons are perished. This translation is excellent. The ending of the play through subject matter is sad enough, but the helpless lines delivered by King Xerxes and the chorus through dialogue toward each other at the end of the play is devastating.


Aeschyli Persae
Published in Unknown Binding by Teubneri ()
Author: Aeschylus
Amazon base price: $13.95
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Die Iranier-Namen bei Aischylos : Iranica Graeca Vetustiora. I
Published in Unknown Binding by Verlag der èOsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ()
Author: Rüdiger Schmitt
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Die Persertetralogie des Aischylos : mit e. Anh., Aischylos' Glaukos Pontios u. Leon
Published in Unknown Binding by Akademie der Wiss. u.d. Literatur ; Steiner [in Komm.] ()
Author: Karl Deichgräber
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Eschilo e la cultura del suo tempo
Published in Unknown Binding by Edizioni dell'orso ()
Author: Luigia Achillea Stella
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:
No reviews found.

The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander (Classics and Contemporary Thought)
Published in Hardcover by University of California Press (September, 2001)
Author: Phiroze Vasunia
Amazon base price: $45.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Tradition and Dramatic Form in the Persians of Aeschylus (Cincinnati Classical Studies)
Published in Hardcover by Brill Academic Publishers (August, 1997)
Author: Ann N. Michelini
Amazon base price: $42.00
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Aeschylus Two: Four Tragedies: Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes, the Persians, the Suppliant Maidens
Published in Paperback by University of Chicago Press (February, 1992)
Authors: Aeschylus, Seth G. Benardete, and Richard Lattimore
Amazon base price: $6.98
Used price: $0.69
Collectible price: $7.45
Buy one from zShops for: $1.50

Related Subjects: Author Index

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.