Synopsis
Aeschylus Plays 1 - The Persians & Prometheus Bound & The Suppliants & The Seven Against Thebes
Published by Methuen
The Persians - based on the destruction of the Persian invaders in 480BC, breaks with the Greek tradition of purely dramatising myths to deal with the recent past and with characters who would have been familiar to its first audience in 472BC
Prometheus Bound stages the stand off between the original rebel-hero Prometheus and almighty Zeus
Suppliants follows the plight of Danaus and his daughters, in flight from a fateful marriage contract with the King of Egypt's sons and shows the triumph of humanity over brute force
Seven Against Thebes dramatises the final battle between the two sons of Oedipus Eteocles and Polynices in the climax of the Oedipus saga
Translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael, these plays are widely studied in schools, colleges and universities