Persians and Other Plays

Aeschylus is a towering figure in western literature, the first of the great Greek playwrights, a dramatist whose work still has the power to inspire and terrify readers and theatre-goers alike. The four plays in this volume demonstrate the full range and depth of Aeschyluss genius. Persiansis the only surviving tragedy to draw on contemporary history, the Greeks extraordinary victory over Persia in 480 BC. InSeven Against Thebes, a royal family is cursed with self-destruction, in a remorseless tragedy that anticipates the grandeur of the laterOresteia. Suppliantsportrays the wretched plight of the daughters of Danaus, fleeing from enforced marriage. And in the hugely influentialPrometheus Bound, Prometheus is relentlessly persecuted by Zeus for benefitting mankind in defiance of the god. Christopher Collards highly readable new translation is accompanied by an introduction that sets the plays in their original context; by comprehensive explanatory notes on the language, structure, and content of the plays, and by an up-to-date bibliography, five maps, and an index.