Persians and Other Plays — Aeschylus

Aeschylus is a towering figure in western literature the first of the great Greek playwrights a dramatist whose work still has the power to inspire and terrify readers and theatre goers alike The four plays in this volume demonstrate the full range and depth of Aeschylus s genius Persians is the only surviving tragedy to draw on contemporary history the Greeks extraordinary victory over Persia in 480 BC In Seven Against Thebes a royal family is cursed with self destruction in a remorseless tragedy that anticipates the grandeur of the later Oresteia Suppliants portrays the wretched plight of the daughters of Danaus fleeing from enforced marriage And in the hugely influential Prometheus Bound Prometheus is relentlessly persecuted by Zeus for benefitting mankind in defiance of the god Christopher Collard s highly readable new translation is accompanied by an introduction that sets the plays in their original context by comprehensive explanatory notes on the language structure and content of the plays and by an up to date bibliography five maps and an index