Project Gutenberg's Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes, by Aeschylus

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Title: Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes

Author: Aeschylus

Translator: Theodore Alois Buckley

Release Date: December 8, 2008 [EBook #27458]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AESCHYLUS'

PROMETHEUS BOUND

AND THE

SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

LITERALLY TRANSLATED,
WITH CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES,

BY

THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, B.A.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

EDWARD BROOKS, JR.

PHILADELPHIA:
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER,

610 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE.

Copyright, 1897, by DAVID MCKAY.

INTRODUCTION.

AEschylus, the first of the great Grecian writers of tragedy, was born at
Eleusis, in 525 B.C. He was the son of Euphorion, who was probably a
wealthy owner of rich vineyards. The poet's early employment was to
watch the grapes and protect them from the ravages of men and other
animals, and it is said that this occupation led to the development of
his dramatic genius. It is more easy to believe that it was responsible
for the development of certain other less admirable qualities of the
poet.

His first appearance as a tragic writer was in 499 B.C., and in 484 B.C.
he won a prize in the tragic contests. He took part in the battle of
Marathon, in 490 B.C., and also fought in the battle of Salamis, in 480
B.C. He visited Sicily twice, and probably spent some time in that
country, as the use of many Sicilian words in his later plays would
indicate.

There is a curious story related as to his death, which took place at
Gela in 456 B.C. It is said that an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a
stone, dropped a tortoise upon it in order to break its shell, and that
the blow quite killed AEschylus. Too much reliance should not be placed
upon this story.

It is not known how many plays the poet wrote, but only seven have been
preserved to us. That these tragedies contain much that is undramatic is
undoubtedly true, but it must be rem