FOUR PLAYS OF AESCHYLUS



THE SUPPLIANT MAIDENS
THE PERSIANS
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
THE PROMETHEUS BOUND

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY E.D.A. MORSHEAD, MA.




INTRODUCTION

The surviving dramas of Aeschylus are seven in number, though he is
believed to have written nearly a hundred during his life of
sixty-nine years, from 525 B.C. to 456 B.C. That he fought at
Marathon in 490, and at Salamis in 480 B.C. is a strongly accredited
tradition, rendered almost certain by the vivid references to both
battles in his play of _The Persians_, which was produced in 472.
But his earliest extant play was, probably, not _The Persians_ but
_The Suppliant Maidens_--a mythical drama, the fame of which has
been largely eclipsed by the historic interest of _The Persians_,
and is undoubtedly the least known and least regarded of the seven.
Its topic--the flight of the daughters of Danaus from Egypt to Argos,
in order to escape from a forced bridal with their first-cousins,
the sons of Aegyptus--is legendary, and the lyric element
predominates in the play as a whole. We must keep ourselves reminded