that the ancient Athenian custom of presenting dramas in _Trilogies_-
--that is, in three consecutive plays dealing with different stages
of one legend--was probably not uniform: it survives, for us, in one
instance only, viz. the Orestean Trilogy, comprising the _Agamemnon_,
the _Libation-Bearers_, and the _Eumenides_, or _Furies_. This
Trilogy is the masterpiece of the Aeschylean Drama: the four
remaining plays of the poet, which are translated in this volume, are
all fragments of lost Trilogies--that is to say, the plays are
complete as _poems_, but in regard to the poet's larger design they
are fragments; they once had predecessors, or sequels, of which only
a few words, or lines, or short paragraphs, survive. It is not
certain, but seems probable, that the earliest of these single
completed plays is _The Suppliant Maidens_, and on that supposition
it has been placed first in the present volume. The maidens,
accompanied by their father Danaes, have fled from Egypt and arrived
at Argos, to take sanctuary there and to avoid capture by their
pursuing kinsmen and suitors. In the course of the play, the
pursuers' ship arrives to reclaim the maidens for a forced wedlock
in Egypt. The action of the drama turns on the attitude of the king
and people of Argos, in view of this intended abduction. The king
puts the question to the popular vote, and the demand of the suitors
is unanimously rejected: the play closes with thanks and gratitude
on the part of the fugitives, who, in lyrical strains of quiet beauty,
seem to refer the whole question of their marriage to the subsequent
decision of the gods, and, in particular, of Aphrodite.

Of the second portion of the Trilogy we can only speak conjecturally.
There is a passage in the _Prometheus Bound_ (ll. 860-69), in which
we learn that the maidens were somehow reclaimed by the suitors, and
that all, except one, slew their bridegrooms on the wedding night.