Aeschylus
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Aeschylus: (b.525/4 BC; d. 461 or 456 BC). Tragic poet. A native of Eleusis, Aeschylus ranks among the greatest tragic poets of classical Greece and is often regarded as the “Father of Greek Tragedy.” In his younger years he served in the Athenian army during the Persian Wars. Wounded at Marathon (490 BC), it is believed that he participated in the battle of Salamis (479 BC) as well. In 484 BC, he won his first victory in a dramatic competition, repeating this feat twelve more times before being defeated in 468 BC by Sophocles. It was because of this defeat that he was willing to accept an invitation from Hieron I to come to Syracuse. Aeschylus made two visits to Sicily. During the first he composed the now-lost play Aetnae (or Aetnaeae), in commemoration of the foundation of the new town of Aetna by Hieron I. Returning to Athens, he won his last competition in 458 BC with the Orestia trilogy of plays. Later returning to Sicily he gave a new performance of his play Persae. A legend, most likely apocryphal, says that Aeschylus was killed when an eagle, believing his bald head to be a rock, dropped a turtle on him. Whatever the cause of his death, Aeschylus died and was buried at Gela. The playwright’s funerary monument at Gela (where he died in 456 BC) was said to have had an epitaph inscription written by Aescylus himself, mentioning his service to Athens at the battle of Marathon but ignoring his literary achievements. During his lifetime, Aeschylus is said to have written 60 plays, of which only 7 are extant: the Persae and the Oresteia trilogy (Agamemnon, Choephoroe and Eumenides), Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, and the Suppliants.