Aeschylus Essay

Aeschylus' play, The Persians, took place at the Persian Royal Palace in Susa. It depicted the emotional response of the Persian Elders, the Queen Mother Atossa, a herald, King Xerxes, and the ghost of Darius upon hearing the news of the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis against the Greeks. The play began with a conversation amongst the Persians elders about their war with the Greeks. They possessed grave trepidations because of a lack of news from the front. This fear stemmed from the great

The Aeschylus Trilogy and Sweat by Lynn Nottage, though written thousands of years apart, actually share the same underlying problems especially when it comes the the characters that drive the plot. In both plays, there is this very prominent character trait found in most, if not all, the characters, selfishness. These self centered characters actually create conflict simply by only thinking of themselves. The self-centered and selfish air in both time periods, whether brought up by individual characters

Oresteia - The Issue of Justice in Aeschylus' Eumenides The concept of justice is manifested through the three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia. The old tradition of justice, the private blood feud, caused an ungoverned succession of violent acts that spiralled uncontrollably. Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, is introduced in Agamemnon; he desires vengeance for the plot contrived by Agamemnon's father (Ag: 1605-1611).1 Neither Agamemnon nor Aegisthus took part in this "plot" and yet as the chorus

In The Eumenides and Agamemnon of The Oresteia trilogy, Aeschylus constructs an over-arching metaphor for elements of the new Athenian democracy. The chorus in each play represents the people who feel under-represented and disrespected, by the society's changing values. In The Eumenides, the chorus of Furies is frustrated with the younger gods and infringements on their power; in Agamemnon the chorus fears more the control of an effective woman in Clytemnestra rather than the leadership of fruitless

In this paper I will discuss Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers. Close reading reveals that Electra is Orestes’ mirror image of a Fury. This thesis will be demonstrated through the analysis of passages through the lens of the following principles of close reading: anomaly and parallel stories. To prove this theory, the interpreter needs to offer evidence to show that Electra is a mirror image of Orestes, a physical copy of himself meant to display his emotional and ‘Fury-like’ motivations towards killing

Misogyny pervades the picture Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles paint of Athenian society. In their literature, however, female characters catalyze plot by challenging this picture. Such characters--from Sophocles’ Antigone to Aristophanes’ Lysistrata--face grim consequences for acting independently. Clytemnestra and Cassandra from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon exemplify this archetype of autonomy and destruction. When they confront injustice, male characters perceive them as vindictive and hysterical

Aeschylus, one of the first Greek dramatists, was born between 525-524 BCE, during the period that the Athenian government was evolving from a tyranny to a democracy. Throughout his whole life, he would alternate between serving in the military and performing and writing dramas. Every year, Aeschylus would attend the Great Dionysia, a competition where three dramatists would perform their dramas or plays and would get ranked from first to third place. Out of his ninety plays, he won thirteen first

It is important to be afraid. This is a message the two greek plays Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles send to the citizens of Ancient Greece. The emotions of the gods in both plays are unchangeable, regardless of how involved they are in the plot. This steeliness causes fear of the gods and allows them to successfully lead. When displaying their power, the gods are able to keep greek citizens in the hold of their leadership. They have trapped the people so they are unable

Revenge in Aeschylus' The Oresteia Trilogy and Sophocles' Electra   The act of revenge in classical Greek plays and society is a complex issue with unavoidable consequences. In certain instances, it is a more paramount concern than familial ties. When a family member is murdered another family member is expected to seek out and administer revenge. If all parties involved are of the same blood, the revenge is eventually going to wipe out the family. Both Aeschylus, through "The Oresteia Trilogy

The Philosophy and Psychology of Sophocles’s Antigone and The Eumenides in Aeschylus’ Oresteia There is a consensus among readers of the poetry or plays written in the fifth century that the plays succeed with inspiring profound movement on the audience. The methods or reasons for the reader to be moved by a text are often disputed. Specific to tragic works the concepts of philosophy and psychology are critical elements to understand the cause of the stirred emotions of individuals who