43 Famous Quotes by Aeschylus
- (Present)
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About Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict amongst them, whereas previously characters had interacted only with the chorus.
Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times, and there is a longstanding debate about his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy and his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived.
At least one of his works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. This play, The Persians, is the only extant classical Greek tragedy concerned with recent history and it is a useful source of information about that period. So important was the war to Aeschylus and the Greeks that, upon his death, around 456 BC, his epitaph commemorated his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon rather than his success as a playwright.
Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.
Nature
Quotes, by Aeschylus
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Call no man happy till he is dead.
Death
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Agamemnon (938), earliest reference
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Report uttered by the people is everywhere of great power.
Public
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Agamemnon (938)
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Ye waves
That o'er th' interminable ocean wreathe
Your crisped smiles.
Ocean
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Prometheus Chained (l. 95)
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To the man who himself strives earnestly, God also lends a
helping hand.
Help
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Persoe (742)
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Hold him alone truly fortunate who has ended his life in happy
well-being.
Happiness
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Agamemnon (928)
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So, in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hand
Are we now smitten."
Eagles
Quotes, by Aeschylus , Source: Fragment, (Plumptre's translation), 123
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It is in the character if very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Envy
Quotes, by Aeschylus
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