Aeschylus (c.525–c.456 BCE) was the earliest writer of Greek tragic drama whose works survive. He is regarded as the founder of Greek tragic drama. His seven extant plays from a known 80 titles include Prometheus Bound and the Oresteia trilogy.
Aeschylus contributed considerably to the methodological development of the dramatic form and the movement away from pure ritual to the theater as we know it. He did so by introducing the concept of two actors in dialogue and by limiting the role of the choral song.
Aeschylus is best known for his trilogy, the Oresteia (458 BCE,) consisting of the tragedies Agamemnon, The Choephori, and The Eumenides.
Using themes from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Oresteia tell the story of the fall of the House of Atreus in a series of retributive murders over three generations. Agamemnon, who has killed his daughter to ensure victory over the Trojans, returns home and is killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. This is followed by the vengeance of their son Orestes.
The Oresteia have inspired some of the greatest artists and thinkers of the modern world—from Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche to T. S. Eliot and Simone de Beauvoir.
According to legend, Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a turtle onto his bald head, taking it for a stone on which the shell could be broken. Aeschylus’s head was broken; this fulfilled an oracle’s prediction that Aeschylus would be struck dead by a force from the heavens.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Aeschylus
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased
—Aeschylus
Topics: Words
There’s nothing certain in a man’s life except this: That he must lose it.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Death, Doubt, Uncertainty, Certainty
God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Trying, Helping
The sea is there—and who shall quench it?—nurturing the juices which yield much purple worth its weight in silver, wholly renewable, the dye of vestments; there is a remedy for these here with the gods’ help, my lord, from our reserve: the house does not know how to be poor.
—Aeschylus
Time brings all things to pass.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Patience, Resilience
There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Grief, Pain
Death is softer by far than tyranny.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Tyranny
Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Obedience, Safety
Against necessity, against its strength, no one can fight and win.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Acceptance, Necessity
Delay not to seize the hour.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Procrastination, Inaction, Getting Going
In every tyrant’s heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Tyranny
Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Marriage
Excessive fear is always powerless.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Fear
Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Wine, One liners
His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.
—Aeschylus
When a man’s willing and eager the god’s join in.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Will Power, Willpower, Will
Every ruler is harsh whose laws is new.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
The future you shall know when it has come; before then, forget it.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Future
Take heart. Suffering, when it climbs the highest, lasts but a little time.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Suffering
The wisest of the wise may err.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Wisdom, Mistakes
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Happiness
In war, truth is the first casualty.
—Aeschylus
Topics: War
To the man who himself strives earnestly, God also lends a helping hand.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Prayer
To be free from evil thoughts is God’s best gift.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Evils
I count false words the foulest plague of all.
—Aeschylus
It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Wealth, Advice
Obedience to truth known, is the king’s highway to that which is still beyond us.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Obedience
Fortune is for all; judgment is theirs who have won it for themselves.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Fortune
Fear is stronger than arms.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Fear, Anxiety
It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
—Aeschylus
Topics: Advice
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