Aeschyluss

Aeschylus (c. 525/524–456/455 BCE), often called the father of tragedy, was an ancient Greek playwright whose work helped shape the form and conventions of Greek drama. He was born in Eleusis, near Athens, into a family of landowners and served as a soldier in the Persian Wars, experiences that informed his later tragedies.

Aeschylus expanded the dramatic form by introducing a second actor, which allowed more complex dialogue and dramatic conflict, decreasing reliance on the chorus. He wrote roughly 70–90 plays, though only seven or eight survive complete today. Among his best-known works are the Oresteia trilogy—Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides—as well as the tragedies Persians, Seven Against Thebes, and The Suppliants. Some attributions, such as Prometheus Bound, are disputed among scholars.

Themes and impact: His plays often address divine justice, fate, and tyranny; the conflict between human law and sacred law, and the responsibilities of rulers and citizens. The Oresteia, in particular, traces a shift from vengeance to juridical order, influencing later Greek tragedy and Western conceptions of law and governance. His style combined grave, formal rhetoric with a sense of inevitability, and he earned multiple victories at the City Dionysia festival in Athens.

Death: He reportedly died in Gela, Sicily, in 456 or 455 BCE, possibly after being struck by a tortoise dropped by an eagle—a legend of uncertain historical value. His surviving works continue to be studied as foundational texts of ancient drama.