Nothing forces us to know / What we do not want to know / Except pain
— The Oresteia
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright often called the father of tragedy; what scholars know of the genre's beginnings rests largely on his plays. According to Aristotle, he added more characters to the stage and let them come into conflict with one another, where before they had spoken only with the chorus.
He wrote somewhere between 70 and 90 plays, of which seven survive complete, and he was probably the first to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia is the only ancient trilogy that survives, and The Persians is the only surviving Greek tragedy about events of its own time. His epitaph remembered him for fighting in the Greek victory at Marathon and said nothing of his plays.
He wrote somewhere between 70 and 90 plays, of which seven survive complete, and he was probably the first to present plays as a trilogy. His Oresteia is the only ancient trilogy that survives, and The Persians is the only surviving Greek tragedy about events of its own time. His epitaph remembered him for fighting in the Greek victory at Marathon and said nothing of his plays.
Most quoted works
- Agamemnon 9
- Prometheus Bound 4
- Eumenides 3
- The Oresteia 3
Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, So men against their will / Learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods.
— Agamemnon
In visions of the night, like dropping rain, Descend the many memories of pain
— Agamemnon
Time, as it grows old, teaches all things.
— Prometheus Bound
And there they ring the walls, the young, the lithe. The handsome hold the graves they won in Troy; the enemy earth rides over those who conquered.
— Agamemnon
Unanimous hatred is the greatest medicine for a human community.
— Eumenides
Rumours voiced by women come to nothing.
— Agamemnon
For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.
— Prometheus Bound
There is no avoidance in delay.
— Agamemnon
For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.
— Prometheus Bound