Aeschylus, Persians

Study guides, questions, paper topics

  For an on-line text try: www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=aesch.+pers.+1

• produced in 472 B.C.
• won first prize in City Dionysia

The Persians is the only surviving Greek tragedy on a contemporary theme, the battle of Salamis and retreat of Xerxes (see Herodotus book 8; Plutarch, the Life of Themistocles, Diodorus Siculus book 11).

On the destruction of Athens, see Herodotus 9.13 and Thucydides 1.89.3.

On the oath taken by the Greeks not to rebuild the temples destroyed by the Persians but to leave them as a permanent monument see: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=diod.+11.29.1

• dramatic date: 480 B.C. at the palace at Susa
• The Persians is the earliest surviving Greek tragedy.
• It is not part of a connected trilogy.

Parodos: procession of Persian elders (1-154): what are the themes of this song? How is suspense kept up even though everyone in the audience knows the outcome?

Episode 1: First Atossa scene. The queen-mother tells her frightening dream: what is this dream; what does it mean? The premonition is swiftly fulfilled by the arrival of a messenger.

Notice the Aeschylean method (to be seen in the Oresteia) of premonition/swift and horrifying fulfillment. (155-531)

Stasimon: the chorus laments (-598)

[Episode] Atossa returns with offerings (-622)

[Stasimon] the chorus conjures the ghost of Dareios (-680)

Episode: Dareios scene (-851)

Stasimon: the chorus sings of the grandeur of Dareios

Exodos: Xerxes returns alone and in tatters; kommos (lamentation between chorus and character[s]) (-end)

Questions and Topics to consider

How does Aeschylus avoid making the play excessively chauvinistic (in the original political sense)? The Greek victory over the Persians was an event to inspire patriotism. What does the playwright do to avoid making the story too topical/what does he do to make it universal? Consider the part played by the gods in the story?

Even though the Persians is a historical drama, Aeschylus treats his theme in much the same way he treats his mythological stories: collect references to the gods (especially Zeus and the unknown daimon) and the very land helping the Greeks; notice such concepts as hubris, impiety, retribution. Cooperation of man and god is a constant in Aeschylus.

Time and Space: The play is closely confined in time and space. How does Aeschylus extend both? Notice how the description of the movement of the army extends the space covered to the cities of the Persian empire and to the isles and cities of Greece. By giving a catalogue of the men who marched out and two more catalogues of those who did not come back Aeschylus shows us the beginning and end of the expedition. One day (the kairos) is compared to the whole time of the war and to the generations of good kings of Persia (the chronos).

Politics, patriotism, religion: why does Xerxes fall? Why is no Greek mentioned by name? Is there (much) sympathy for the enemy?

Contrasts: the wealth of the empire, the splendor of the army/the return of Xerxes.

A striking feature of the play is its catalogues of Persians, especially in the parodos and then the later catalogues of the undoing of the mighty army.  The vastness of the Persian Empire, the number of troops it could muster, the fact that it included the Greek cities on the Ionian coast, many of the islands, and extended into Macedonia must have been alarming to the average Greek.  For an even fuller description see Xerxes' review of his troops:  Herodotus 7.59-100 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=hdt.+7.59.