In the Library
The Persians
Aeschylus, 472 BCE
- Form
- Form Play
- Reading time
- Reading time 40 minutes
- Translated by
- Translated by E.D.A. Morshead
- Chapters
- Chapters 1
- Length
- Length 9k words
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About the book
A chorus of Persian elders waits anxiously in Susa for news from the war their king has waged against Greece, and a messenger arrives with the catastrophe at Salamis. Aeschylus, who had himself fought at Salamis a few years before, staged this tragedy in 472 BCE, the earliest surviving play in the Western tradition. The action unfolds in the enemy capital, in the household of Xerxes' mother Atossa, before the ghost of Darius rises from his tomb to pronounce judgement on his son's hubris. There is no Greek hero on stage; the victors are absent, and the Athenian audience watched their conquered enemies grieve. Aeschylus chose to write the war from the losers' side, and the choice founded a tradition.