Aeschylus Plays: I: The Persians; Prometheus Bound; The Suppliants; Seven Against Thebes

Description

Classic plays reissued in the new Methuen Greek Classics series in a new distinctive style The Persians; based on the destruction of the Persian invaders in 480BC, breaks with the Greek tradition of purely dramatising myths to deals with the recent past and with characters who would have been familiar to its first audience in 472BC; Prometheus Bound stages the stand off between the original rebel and hero Prometheus and almighty Zeus; Suppliants, follows the plight of Danaus and his daughters, in flight from a fateful marriage contract with the King of Egypt's sons and shows the triumph of humanity over brute force while Seven Against Thebes dramatises the final battle between the two sons of Oedipus Eteocles and Polynices in the climax of the Oedipus saga. Translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael, these plays are widely studied in schools, colleges and universities.

Born in Eleusis, he served in the army, was wounded at Marathon (490BC) and probably fought at Salamis (480). His plays include: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, SUppliants and the Oresteia, which comprises three plays about the murder of Agamemnon and its consequences and was his last great success on the Athenian stage (458).