Aeschylus's The Persians

About the Author

Aeschylus the poet was born at Eleusis around the year 525 BC. His father, Euphorion, belonged to the Eupatridae, or old nobility, of Athens. Whether Aeschylus was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries is not known. The accusation that he divulged the secrets of Demeter has been used as evidence of his membership. Aeschylus fought against the Persian invaders at Marathon in 490 BC, and he may have fought with the Athenians other times as well. The first of Aeschylus's plays was exhibited in 499, only thirty years after the establishment by Peisistratus of the annual contest in tragedy at the festival of the City Dionysia. Thespis, who won the prize at that competition, was called by the ancients the earliest tragic poet, but Aeschylus would seem to be the founder of tragedy, since, according to Aristotle, he first introduced a second actor, diminished the importance of the chorus, and assigned the leading part to the dialogue.
Aeschylus won the competition at least 12 times. He wrote more than ninety plays, of which 7 survive. The Persians, which is the only extant Greek tragedy on the historical subject, was exhibited in 472, the Seven against Thebes in 467, the Prometheus around 458, and the the Agamemnon, the Choephoroe, and the Eumenides were also exhibited around that time. The plays were exhibited in groups of four - three tragedies and a satyr play. According to Aristotle, Aeschylus was charged with impiety for revealing parts of the Eleusinian ritual, but he was acquitted due to his brave fighting at Marathon. Having been invited by King Hiero, Aeschylus visited Syracuse in Sicily three times. Aeschylus died and was buried at Gela in 456. The epitaph is attributed to himself:

This memorial stone covers Aeschylus the Athenian, Euphorion's son, who died in wheat bearing Gela. His famed valor the precinct of Marathon could tell and the long-haired Mede, who knows it well.

Shortly after his death, the Athenians passes a decree that his plays should be exhibited at public expense, and that whoever desired to produce one of his plays should receive a chorus. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage in the 4th century, and at the proposal of the orator Lycurgus, his statue was set up in the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens.

Plot Overview

The play opens with a chorus of Persian elders, who were tasked with taking care of Persian property while the Persian men are at war with Greece, lamenting over the fact that they have no news of the state of the Persian army. The elders list some of the captains who went with the Persian army, and they also give us some information on the war:

Near neighbors both, have ta'en an oath
(The which may heaven fulfil),
To cast the yoke on Hellas
That holdeth freedom dear;
They are the stuff of iron tough,
Hard anvils to the spear

The elders also mention that the Persian army outnumber the uncounted sand and that King Darius is equal with the God most high. The mother of King Xerxes, wife of former King Darius, Atossa, then enters the scene and asks the elders to help her interpret a dream that wakes within [her] a train of haunting fears. The Queen recounts a dream in which two women taller in stature than are women now appear to her, one with Persian robes adorned and the other in the Dorian garb. She says that one of these women lived in Hellas and the other in Barbary, and that when King Xerxes, believing that the women were quarrelling, appraised the situation, tried to make them live as friends by harnessing them to a chariot, he was knocked off the chariot due to the Hellenic women breaking free from her harness. Atossa also mentions that after she awoke, she saw an eagle flying against the son, the eagle being constantly picked at by a falcon but nevertheless not retaliating.

The elders consult Atossa to pray to the Gods to deliver her from her troubled state, and they mention pouring drink-offerings on the Earth to entreat her dead husband Darius to come up from the underworld so that he might send good luck. After discussing Athens for a short period of time, a messenger appears to tell them what happened to the Persian army.

The messenger tells Atossa and the elders of the Persian army defeat. The messenger recounts how the Persian ships were destroyed by the Athens naval force and how the bodies of [Persian] men miserably slain lie heaped upon the shores of Salamis. The messenger mentions that Xerxes is still alive and that it was a God who played a role in the war that broke the Persian power. The messenger tells of a man, A Hellene, from the Athenian host, and he on this wise spake unto Xerxes ... 'If there shall come a dusk and darksome night the Hellenes will not tarry; leaping down upon their rowers' benches they will pull for safety, hither, thither scattering in secret flight'. In response to this information, hoping to prevent an Athenian escape, Xerxes ordered the Persians to patrol the narrow channels all night, but the Athenians never attempted an escape. Then, in the morning, the Athenians attacked, with a battle cry that reminded the soldiers of what they were fighting for:

Forth, sons of Hellas! free your land, and free
Your children and your wives, the native seats
Of Gods your fathers worshipped and their graves.
This is a bout that hazards all ye have.

Caught in the narrows, crowded without searoom, the Persians could not help each other; Athenian ships smote the Persian ships, destroying them, causing men to drown and causing the remaining, intact, Persian ships to flee. The messenger remarks:

There never yet 'twixt sunrise to sunset
Perished so vast a multitude of men.

The messenger recounts how Xerxes, seeing how the Persians were being slaughtered at sea, ordered his men, some of the greatest , most illustrious born of Persia, to land on an island opposite the shores of Salamis in order to fight the Athenians on land. There, the Persian men were surrounded and slaughtered, being hacked limb from limb and dying a most inglorious death. The messenger then tells of how the remaining Persian men, who fled upon the remaining ships, mostly died from exposure to the elements (lack of food or water). There is an interesting story about Persian men being drowned in a river in there.

Atossa then prays to the gods, and the ghost of Darius appears. The elders and Atossa tell Darius of Persian destruction, and the ghost of Darius, in response, decries his son's arrogance, pleads with the elders to tech Xerxes humility, recounts the history of Persia (which now may be lost), and finally fades back into his tomb.

Xerxes finally appears, tells the elders that nearly all men have been lost, and him and the elders cry together.

Review

It's easy to see why the Ancient Athenians enjoyed this play. There are multiple instances in the play where the Athenians are lauded, the play claims that they are favored by the Gods to an extent, the play warns against the hubris of Xerxes, and the play also mentions multiple times how this was a kind of upset victory: the Athenians were greatly outnumbered. As for whether I liked this play, I thought that it was alright. It was my first time reading about the Persian war from a somewhat primary source, and it was the first time I read about the Persian war at all since I think the eighth grade.