ABSTRACT
Like many classical figures, details of Aeschylus’ life are sketchy, and of his seventy to ninety plays only seven survive. Born in about 525 BC of a noble family, Aeschylus fought in the Persian wars. Aeschylus’ major innovations in drama might strike contemporary readers as almost childishly simple, but in the context of the deep ritual underpinnings of Greek drama they were truly revolutionary. Before the time of Aeschylus, plays consisted of a chorus–a group of actors standing aside from the main action of the play (although interacting with the characters) and commenting on events–and a single actor. The Persians is unique among Aeschylus’ surviving works in dealing with events within living memory. The Persians is essentially a commentary on the triumph of the Athenians over the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis in 472 BC, in which Aeschylus may have fought.
