The Suppliant Maidens
By Aeschylus
()
About this ebook
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (c.525-455 B.C) was an ancient Greek playwright and solider. Scholars’ knowledge of the tragedy genre begins with Aeschylus’ work, and because of this, he is dubbed the “father of tragedy”. Aeschylus claimed his inspiration to become a writer stemmed from a dream he had in which the god Dionysus encouraged him to write a play. While it is estimated that he wrote just under one hundred plays, only seven of Aeschylus’ work was able to be recovered.
Read more from Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aeschylus II: The Oresteia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Agamemnon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eumenides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Modern Library Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Libation Bearers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Suppliant Maidens: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven against Thebes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgamemnon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oresteia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Liberation-Bearers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greek Plays: 33 Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Modern Library Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Great Greek Tragedies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Persians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers, and The Eumenides) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Persians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Suppliant Maidens
Related ebooks
The Persians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Against Thebes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrometheus Bound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Suppliant Maidens: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prometheus Bound Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Plays of Aeschylus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Suppliant Maidens: "Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trojan Women of Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seven Plays of Aeschylus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Dawn : Old Tales of Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Yale Classics of Ancient Greek Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Classics (Vol. 1): Yale Required Reading Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe retreat of the ten thousand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plays of Aristophanes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlcestis: "One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlcestis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Works of Ancient Greek Literature: Yale Required Reading List Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oresteia Trilogy (Unabridged English Translation) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpecimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArcadian Days: Gods, Women, and Men from Greek Myths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHecuba: "He was a wise man who originated the idea of God" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDelphi Complete Works of Aristophanes (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea: "There is just one life for each of us: our own" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rhesus of Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How I Learned to Drive (Stand-Alone TCG Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Suppliant Maidens
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Suppliant Maidens - Aeschylus
The Suppliant Maidens
By Aeschylus
Start Publishing LLC
Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012
Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-62558-921-7
Table of Contents
Dramatis Personae
Introduction
Suppliant Maidens
Dramatis Personae
DANAUS,
THE KING OF ARGOS,
HERALD OF AEGYPTUS.
Chorus of the Daughters of Danaus.
Attendants.
Introduction
The surviving dramas of Aeschylus are seven in number, though he is believed to have written nearly a hundred during his life of sixty-nine years, from 525 B.C. to 456 B.C. That he fought at Marathon in 490, and at Salamis in 480 B.C. is a strongly accredited tradition, rendered almost certain by the vivid references to both battles in his play of The Persians, which was produced in 472. But his earliest extant play was, probably, not The Persians but The Suppliant Maidens—a mythical drama, the fame of which has been largely eclipsed by the historic interest of The Persians, and is undoubtedly the least known and least regarded of the seven. Its topic—the flight of the daughters of Danaus from Egypt to Argos, in order to escape from a forced bridal with their first-cousins, the sons of Aegyptus—is legendary, and the lyric element predominates in the play as a whole. We must keep ourselves reminded 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. There is a faint trace, among the Fragments of Aeschylus, of a play called Thalamopoioi,—i.e.