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Aeschylus’ The Persians
- Performed 472 BC
- Politically risky?
- Battle of Salamis
- Xerxes hubris
- Gerald F. Else writes: “hardly
anything happens in the play at all,”
and yet it is successful as both a
tragedy and a historical drama
- Aristotle saw the play as sympathetic
- Aristophanes saw it as a celebration of victory
- Glorification of Athens?
- Aeschylus is very exact with his numbers of
ships for both Greeks and Persians. The
Greeks had 310 ships, the Persians had 1,000
(a mention of 207 fast ships is made), which
Herodotus is thought to have copied for his
assessment of Persian ships in book 7.
- Importance
- Only surviving eye-witness account of Salamis
- His gravestone records that he fought at Marathon
- For us, it is the Persae and its alternative to the reporting of Herodotus that makes it important.
- Only surviving eye-witness account of Salamis
- Propaganda
- Features the Greek fleet’s skill and bravery
- Athens is to the very forefront of events
- Athens is to the very forefront of events
- Persians are depicted as being led by a man out of his depth
- Though easily accused of bias towards Athens,
we cannot say that his judgement is wrong, as
Athens provided more than half of the Greek fleet
- Not tolerant towards Persians
- Points directly to the
superiority of Greek culture,
outlook and fighting ability
- Performed in thearte of Dionysus near ruined Acropolis
- Persians sacked Athens in
480, something no Athenian
was likely to forgive or forget
- Persians sacked Athens in
480, something no Athenian
was likely to forgive or forget
- Builds up a picture of a force which appears far
too great for the Greeks to overcome, thus
making the Greek victory all the more impressive
- Greeks are portrayed as being very masculine
- The word used for ‘clothes’ in the original
Greek is peploi – which means women’s
clothes. The feminine element is again strong.
Xerxes wears women’s clothes and weeps
- Aeschylus makes it clear
that the gods, especially
Zeus, were with the Greeks
- Every Greek god mentioned in the play is male
- Every Greek god mentioned in the play is male
- Features the Greek fleet’s skill and bravery
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