The Philosopher
Aeschylus
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- Athenian Greek
- Branchs:
- Greek Tragedy
- Period:
- 5th century BC
The synopsis
Aeschylus was born around 525 BC in Eleusis, a town northwest of Athens. His family was wealthy and well-established. As a youth, he worked at a vineyard and, according to Pausanias, was visited by the god Dionysus in a dream, who commanded him to turn his attention to tragedy. His first performance took place in 499 BC, and he won his first victory at the Dionysia in 484 BC. The Persian Wars played a significant role in his life, as he and his brothers fought at the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. His oldest surviving play, The Persians, performed in 472 BC, was based on these experiences. Aeschylus was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and was once accused of impiety for revealing cult secrets on stage, but was acquitted due to his military service. He traveled to Sicily, where he died around 456 BC. His works were highly respected, and his tragedies were the only ones allowed to be restaged in subsequent competitions. Aeschylus wrote an estimated 70 to 90 plays, of which only seven have survived in complete form. He is known for developing connected trilogies, with the Oresteia being the only extant example. His influence extended beyond Greek drama, impacting literature and theatre for centuries.
The works
The Persians
Seven Against Thebes
The Suppliants
The Oresteia
Prometheus Bound
The quotes
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety.
Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents.
God always strives together with those who strive.
God's most lordly gift to man is decency of mind.
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
Whoever is new to power is always harsh.
Excessive fear is always powerless.
Death is softer by far than tyranny.
For somehow this disease inheres in tyranny, never to trust one's friends.
Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind.
Time as he grows old teaches all things.
What atonement is there for blood spilt upon the earth?
For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness.
When a match has equal partners then I fear not.
The man whose authority is recent is always stern.
Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.
The words of truth are simple.
My friends, whoever has had experience of evils knows how whenever a flood of ills comes upon mortals, a man fears everything; but whenever a divine force cheers on our voyage, then we believe that the same fate will always blow fair.
When strength is yoked with justice, where is a mightier pair than they?
Of prosperity mortals can never have enough.
Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.
What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?
His resolve is not to seem the bravest, but to be.
God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.
There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.
God loves to help him who strives to help himself.
The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.
For know that no one is free, except Zeus.
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.
The wisest of the wise may err.
But time growing old teaches all things.
Time brings all things to pass.
Search well and be wise, nor believe that self-willed pride will ever be better than good counsel.
By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.
Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?
Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly.
Be bold and boast, just like the cock beside the hen.
To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift.
Alas for the affairs of men! When they are fortunate you might compare them to a shadow; and if they are unfortunate, a wet sponge with one dash wipes the picture away.
In the lack of judgment great harm arises, but one vote cast can set right a house.
It is good even for old men to learn wisdom.
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.
It is best for the wise man not to seem wise.
Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts.
I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.
Everyone's quick to blame the alien.
There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls.
A god implants in mortal guilt whenever he wants utterly to confound a house.
You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense.
I, schooled in misery, know many purifying rites, and I know where speech is proper and where silence.
Too few rejoice at a friend's good fortune.
To mourn and bewail your ill-fortune, when you will gain a tear from those who listen, this is worth the trouble.
It is always in season for old men to learn.