The Persians by Aeschylus -479 B. C. E. -translated by James Romm - 2009- The Most Ancient of Dramas

 The Persians by Aeschylus -479 B. C. E. -translated by James Romm - 2016- The Most Ancient of any drama

An Ancient Times Project Work

  Aeschylus- 525 B. C. E. to 456 B.C. E. Only seven of his estimated 80 dramas survived.

This play is included in The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides-Preface, general introduction, play introductions, and compilation copyright © 2016 by Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm

CAST OF CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) CHORUS of Persian elders ATOSSA, queen of the Persians; mother of Xerxes; widow of Darius MESSENGER from the retreating Persian army GHOST OF DARIUS, former king of the Persians; father of Xerxes XERXES, king of Persia 

In his informative introduction to The Persians James Romm explains that Aeschylus and much of his audience had fought in the a seemingly miraculous Greek victory over the Persian navy at the island of Salamis, off the west coast of Attica. That victory, achieved despite long odds, had saved most of Greece, and especially Athens, from a fearsome choice between annihilation and subjection to the might of imperial Persia. 

The Persians is the final drama in a Trilogy, the first two works were lost. My research indicates it is one of the very few Greek dramas based on actual events.

The Persians most powerful segment to me is a very amazing account of the army assembled by the Persian Emperor Xerxes to conquer Greece. The play takes place in Susa, one of the capitals of the Persian Empire and opens with a chorus of old men of Susa, who are soon joined by the Queen Mother, Atossa, as they await news of her son King Xerxes' expedition against the Greeks. Expressing her anxiety Antossa feared this vast assembly of warriors would be destroyed by the Greeks under the leadership of Athens. Xerxes the Emperor escapes capture. His mother Atossa is harshly critical of her son, blaming his hubris for the death of many thousands of Persisns.

Contemporary scholars seem divided as to how one might view the play. Some see it as a celebration of the Greek victory others see compassion for the "warriors of Asia" sent to die in a war that meant nothing to them. 

At the tomb of her dead husband Darius, Atossa asks the chorus to summon his ghost: "Some remedy he knows, perhaps,/Knows ruin's cure". On learning of the Persian defeat, Darius condemns the hubris behind his son's decision to invade Greece. 

God's are depicted as favoring the Greeks but they demand obedience and punish those they find disrespect them.

Mel Ulm

The Reading Life 

Prometheus Bound attributed to Aeschylus (c. 430 bc? - new translation by Joel Agee 2014)

A New Translation by Joel Agee   -- Commisioned by The J. Paul Getty Museum

I did not have any plans to read an Ancient Greek drama this month, I read a number of them in the long ago, but when I was offered a review copy of a new translation of Prometheus Bound done by Joel Agee published by The New York Review of Books and commissioned by The J. Paul Getty Museum I felt the pedigree was just to high to pass up.

Aeschylus (525 to 456 BC) was the first Greek Dramatist, proceeding Sophocles and Euripides.  There is now, as detailed by Joel Agee in his very interesting and informative introduction, scholarly controversary existing over who really wrote Prometheus Bound, some put the first performance date as 430 BC but no one has been put forth as an alternative author.  I guess this matters most to scholars.

What has come down through history as Prometheus Bound is 11 fragments of a full drama.  The basic plot has passed into the common literary consciousness.  Prometheus stole fire from the Gods so Zeus had him bound to the side of a mountain.  The drama, as were all Greek Dramas, is simultaneously making religious and political statements.  Prometheus represents the liberation to humanity that knowledge of nature, of science, can bring to humanity.  Zeus wants humanity kept in total thrall to the capricious forces and whims of the Gods and this conflict drives the drama.

Reading the fragments was a deeply moving experience, like being at the very start of one of the great streams of western literature.  There are many themes in Prometheus Bound that would make for interesting class room discussion.

I would love to see this preformed one day.

Mel u