Aeschylus (525-456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the
drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art. The
Persians, the only Greek tragedy to deal with events from recent
Athenian history, depicts the final defeat of Persia in the battle of
Salamis, through the eyes of the Persian court of King Xerxes, becoming
a tragic lesson in tyranny. In Prometheus Bound, the defiant Titan
Prometheus is brutally punished by Zeus for daring to improve the state
of wretchedness and servitude in which mankind is kept. Seven Against
Thebes shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the cursed
family of Oedipus, while The Suppliants relates the pursuit of the
fifty daughters of Danaus by the fifty sons of Aegyptus, and their final
rescue by a heroic king.
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titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
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up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.