Aeschylus

Product Description

Aeschylus (ca. 525-456 BCE) the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world's great art forms witnessed the establishment of democracy at Athens & fought against the Persians at Marathon. He won the tragic prize at the City Dionysia thirteen times between ca. 499 & 458 & in his later years was probably victorious almost every time he put on a production though Sophocles beat him at least once. Of his total of about eighty plays seven survive complete. The first volume of this new Loeb Classical Library" edition offers fresh texts & translations by Alan H. Sommerstein of Persians the only surviving Greek historical drama; " Seven against Thebes" from a trilogy on the conflict between Oedipus' sons; Suppliants on the successful appeal by the daughters of Danaus to the king & people of Argos for protection against a forced marriage; & Prometheus Bound (of disputed authenticity) on the terrible punishment of Prometheus for giving fire to humans in defiance of Zeus. The second volume contains the complete " Oresteia" trilogy comprising " Agamemnon" " Libation-Bearers" & " Eumenides" presenting the murder of Agamemnon by his wife the revenge taken by their son Orestes the pursuit of Orestes by his mother's avenging Furies his trial & acquittal at Athens Athena's pacification of the Furies & the blessings they both invoke upon the Athenian people. The third volume of this edition collects all the major fragments of lost Aeschylean plays."