I’m going to cover some of the introductory chapters from Aeschylus in case they may help you read some of his plays. Herington’s prose is clear and to the point in these chapters and reveal much about the backdrop against which Aeschylus was writing.

Herington explores what we could term Aeschylus’ world view which can be gleamed from his plays. In these plays, Aeschylus presents a complex intertwining of elements of the universe. The elements for the playwright are broken down by Herington in the following cursory summary:

• The Olympians: fairly consistent with presentations by Homer and Hesiod, with a couple of notable exceptions. First is the emphasis Aeschylus places on the gods’ sanctuaries and cults, accentuating the religious, solemn nature of their roles in the universe. The second exception is an expansive role for Zeus, taking him well beyond his Homeric role. While Aeschylus doesn’t hesitate to show Zeus’ bestial side, the god also takes on additional meaning in the world, as captured in the couplet from Aeschylus’ lost play Heliades:

                        Zeus is air, and Zeus is earth, and Zeus is sky—

                        Zeus is all things, and all beyond the all!

• Elemental powers: Divinity surrounds humans, even if not in the clear-cut “human” form as the Olympians. While this includes the obvious elements such as Earth, Sun, Sky, and Ocean, Aeschylus also describes more “normal” events as having additional life and meaning. (Keep this in mind when reading the Persian Queen’s description of her offerings at her husband’s tomb in The Persians.)

• Earth powers: Earth “fosters the living, and she is keeper of the dead.” The dead play a special role in Aeschylus’ plays, still with us or a part of us. This isn’t just limited to him, as many ancient Greek plays show tomb ceremonies, implying their spirits continue to reside at their tombs. Aeschylus used this theme often, though, where the dead exert a powerful influence over the living.

• Living humanity: It may seem that humans are “destined to be a mere victim: the inert solution to a monstrously complicated equation of those vast and varied divine forces, supernal and infernal. But here we return to an aspect of Aeschylus’ universe that seems to be of central importance. This is a universe in which everything matters and everything interacts. Humans have great power in Aeschylus’ plays, whether for good or for evil, and oftentimes can “be seen as ultimately shaking the entire fabric of that universe.”

Herrington notes that even though Aeschylus always showed these components of the universe intimately related to each other, his “perception…of the workings and nature of that universe seems to have changed profoundly during the period of the extant plays. In The Persians and Seven Against Thebes the universe remains static, unchanging. If any component transgresses in its role, the remaining components swiftly move to punish the transgressor. The later plays show a marked change. Transgressions against the cosmic balance cause a rift in the universe, one that may not be repaired, and one that causes the remaining forces to divide over what is to be done. In the Oresteia, thanks to it being a complete trilogy, we go from discord to harmony, but the new world is quite different from the previous manifestation. Still intricately intertwined, the roles and the balance of power between cosmic elements have changed.

While it’s impossible to say with certainty what influenced Aeschylus to change, the defining event in Athens’ history around this time would be the rise of Pericles and the struggle to change from the old constitution to radical democracy. While there is a change in Aeschylus’ presentation of the relationship between universal forces, he never changes the basic understanding of these forces and their importance in the cosmos even as Athens transitions into a new world. 510 BCE saw the expulsion of the Pisistratid tyrants. Over the 50 years (off and on) of tyranny, Athens had been developing in all other areas, especially trade and the arts. In the incremental steps allowing all citizens of Athens to be equal before the law, this would also have a religious and philosophical impact. Add in the 20-year struggle between Athens (and later all of Greece) with Persia, stretching from the Ionian revolt and through the two direct wars on Greek soil, and you see a great transition in the way Athenians viewed themselves and their place in the world. Aeschylus lived another 24 years after Xerxes left Athens in ruins, and he witnessed its re-emergence physically, politically, economically, and intellectually during this period. He also saw schools of philosophy setting up shop in Athens, particularly that of Anaxagoras. And as mentioned earlier, the political changes were seismic in nature.

Aeschylus’ extant plays stretch from around 472 – 456 BCE, the last sixteen years of his life. He spent several of these years in Syracuse, another cultural hot spot thanks to the rule of Hieron (ruled 478 — 466 BCE) and his liberal support of the arts. Aeschylus is known to compose the music and the choreography for his plays, both key components of Athenian theater, as well as acting in and directing his own plays. Songs were an important part of Athenian theater even before Aeschylus. Aristophanes in The Wasps “describes how, as late as the 420s B.C., aged Athenians might still be heard humming Phynichuys’ [writing circa 511 — 476 BCE] ‘honey-sweet-sexy-Sidonian songs’ in the street.”

Herington includes several fragments or snippets from Aeschylus’ plays that did not survive intact, including some quotes from some of the satyr plays. The evocative writing we see in other plays are on display here, too, and underscores what has been lost. Herington saves for last what he views as “the most awesome of all Aeschylus’ responsibilities, the poetry itself. … [A]n Aeschylean tragedy is a complex and exquisitely composed verbal poem, moving easily at will through an enormous range of rhythms and tones.”

I’ll close with the inscription on Aeschylus’ tomb in Gela, a town on the southern coast of Sicily, to see what he wanted to be remembered for:

            “This monument in wheatbearing Gela hides an Athenian dead: Aeschylus, son of Euphorion. Of his noble courage the sacred field of Marathon could tell, and the long-haired Mede, who had good cause to know.”

For more on John Herington, here is his memorial page.

“Above all, however, he was a lover of literature, especially poetry, which he strongly believed must be read aloud and in the original language in order to be fully understood and appreciated.”