other hand, so excellent a judge as Mr. Gilbert Murray thinks that
it is "perhaps among Aeschylus' plays the one that bears least the
stamp of commanding genius." Perhaps the daring, practically
atheistic, character of Eteocles; the battle-fever that burns and
thrills through the play; the pathetic terror of the Chorus--may
have given it favour, in Athenian eyes, as the work of a poet who--
though recently (468 B.C.) defeated in the dramatic contest by the
young Sophocles--was yet present to tell, not by mere report, the
tale of Marathon and Salamis. Or the preceding plays, the _Laius_
and the _Oedipus_, may have been of such high merit as to make up
for defects observable in the one that still survives. In any case,
we can hardly err in accepting Dr. Verral's judgment that "the story
of Aeschylus may be, and in the outlines probably is, the genuine
epic legend of the Cadmean war."

There remains one Aeschylean play, the most famous--unless we except
the _Agamemnon_--in extant Greek literature, the _Prometheus Bound_.
That it was the first of a Trilogy, and that the second and third
parts were called the _Prometheus Freed_, and _Prometheus the
Fire-Bearer_, respectively, is accepted: but the date of its
performance is unknown.

The _Prometheus Bound_ is conspicuous for its gigantic and strictly
superhuman plot. The _Agamemnon_ is human, though legendary the
_Prometheus_ presents to us the gods of Olympus in the days when
mankind crept like emmets upon the earth or dwelt in caves, scorned
by Zeus and the other powers of heaven, and--still aided by
Prometheus the Titan--wholly without art or science, letters or
handicrafts. For his benevolence towards oppressed mankind,
Prometheus is condemned by Zeus to uncounted ages of pain and torment,