The Athenian playwright Aeschylus is one of the four great tragedians in history. Seven of some 80 plays are extant, although the Prometheus Bound is disputed. His overriding theme is the retribution of justice, presented as an inevitable consequence of human action. He lived through the Persian Wars, the rise of the Athenian democracy, and his city's claim to supremacy over the Aegean Sea; these affairs provided the political context for his recreations of mythological events. His use of characters and the chorus allow us to establish a definite position for him in the broad development of the Athenian tragic theatre.

Events in his personal life can be dated only with probability. Probably born in 525 BC at Eleusis on t

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First published 20 October 2001

Citation: Lewis, John David. "Aeschylus". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 October 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=40, accessed 20 November 2009.]