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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
AESCHYLUS
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Aeschylus (525-456 bce) is considered the "Father of Tragedy," the first
of the three great tragedians in Greek drama. He fought in the Persian
wars and expresses Athenian values during its golden age. Indeed, he
wrote a play called The Persians, the only historical play to
survive from ancient Greece.
He is credited with the innovation of adding the second actor to the old
form which involved only one actor and the chorus.
We have 7 of his 80 or more plays, including the three plays of the
Oresteia. He tends to explore grand moral issues and uses the
chorus for its lyrical role and to comment on the
action. Although rather a traditionalist, he does foreground human
interaction and diminish attention to the gods. The story that he always
wrote his plays while drunk is apocryphal.