CHAPTER V. SECTION II. ESCHYLUS. Et digitis tria tura tribus sub limine ponit. OVID. ESCHYLUS, the son of Euphorion, was born at Eleusis', in the fourth year of the 63d Olympiad (B. c. 525.). In his boyhood he was employed in a vineyard, and, while engaged in watching the grapes, with his mind full of this occupation, and inspired with reverence for the god of the vintage, felt himself suddenly called upon to follow the bent of his own genius, and contribute to the spectacles which had just been established at Athens in honor of Dionysus. He made his first 1. Vit. Anonym., given in Stanley's edition of this Poet, and the Arundel Marble. The invocation to the Eleusinian goddess, which he is made to utter by Aristophanes, seems to refer to the place of his birth; Δήμητερ, ἡ θρέψασα τὴν ἐμὴν φρένα, Εἶναὶ με τῶν σῶν ἄξιον μυστηρίων.—Rana, 884. These lines would seem to shew that he had been initiated into the mysteries, which is quite at variance with the defence which he set up when accused before the Areopagus. See Clem. Al. quoted below. 2. Ἔφη δὲ Αισχύλος μειράκιον ὂν καθεύδειν ἐν ἀγρῳ φυλάσσων σταφυλὰς, καὶ οἱ Διόνυσον ἐπιστάντα, κελεῦσαι τραγῳδίαν ποιεῖν· ὡς δὲ ἦν ἡμέρα (πείθεσθαι γὰρ ἐθέλειν) ῥᾷστα ἤδη πειρώμενος ποιεῖν. οὗτος μὲν ταῦτα ἔλεγεν. Pausan, I. 21, 2. To this employment of the poet were probably owing the habits of intemperance with which he has been charged, and also his introduction on the stage of characters in a state of drunkenness. Athenæus tells us (x. p. 428.) Καὶ τὸν Αἰσχύλον ἐγὼ φαίην ἂν τοῦτο διαμαρτάνειν· πρῶτος γὰρ ἐκεῖνος καὶ ούχ, ὡς ἔνιοί φασίν, Ευριπίδης παρήγαγε τὴν τῶν μεθυόντων ὄψιν εἰς τραγῳδίαν. ἐν γὰρ τοῖς Καβείροις εἰσάγει τοὺς περὶ τὸν Ἰάσονα μεθύοντας. ἃ δ ̓ αὐτὸς ὁ τραγῳ διοποιὸς ἐποίει, ταῦτα τοῖς ἥρωσι περιέθηκε μεθύων γοῦν ἔγραφε τὰς τραγωδίας διό καὶ Σοφοκλῆς αὐτῷ μεμφόμενος ἔλεγεν ὅτι, ο Αἰσχύλε, εἰ καὶ τὰ δέοντα ποιεῖς, ἀλλ ̓ οὖν οὐκ εἰδώς γε ποιεῖς ὡς ἱστορεῖ Χαμαιλέων ἐν τῷ περὶ Αἰσχύλου. The same observation of Sophocles is given in the same words, i. p. 22. and is probably taken, as Welcker suggests, (Tril. p. 524. note) from Sophocles' treatise on the chorus. C. appearance as a Tragedian in B. c. 499.', when, as we have already stated, he contended with Chorilus and Pratinas. Nine years after this he distinguished himself in the battle of Marathon, along with his brothers Cynegeirus and Ameinias, and the poet, who prided himself upon his valour more than upon his genius, looked back to this as to the most glorious action of his life. In 484 B. C. he gained his first tragic victory, and in 480 B. C. took part in the battle of Salamis, in which Ameinias gained the apioтcîa: he also fought at Platæa. He celebrated the glorious contests in which he had borne a part in a tragic Trilogy with which he gained the prize (472 B. C.)1. After all that has been written on the subject, we are of opinion that Eschylus made only two journeys to Sicily. The first was in 468 B. c. according to the express testimony of Plutarch; and took place immediately after his defeat by young Sophocles, though it is difficult to believe Plutarch's statement, that he left Athens in disgust at this indignity. As however, it is stated that he went to the court of Hiero, and brought out a play at Syracuse to This failing is also mentioned by Plutarch—καὶ τὸν Αἰσχύλον φασὶ τραγῳδίας πίνοντα ποιεῖν καὶ διαθερμαινόμενον. Symp. i. 5. : by Callisthenes: οἱ γὰρ, ὡς τὸν Αἰσχύλον ὁ Καλλισθένης ἔφη που, λέγων τὰς τραγωδίας ἐν οἴνῳ γράφειν, ἐξορ μovтa kai avadepμaivovτa Tv vxv. Lucian. Encom. Demosth.: and by Eustathius, Odyss. '. p. 1598. That he subsequently departed from his original reverence for the religion of Bacchus, we shall shew in the text, and this was probably occasioned by his military connexion with the Dorians, and the love which he then acquired for the Dorian character and institutions. 1. Suidas in Alox. 2. Ἐν μάχῃ συνηγωνίσατο Αἰσχύλος ὁ ποιητὴς [ἐτ]ῶ[ν] ὧν ΔΔΔΠ. Marm. Arund. No. 49. Vit. Anonym. 3. Pausan. Attic. i. 4. Athenæus, xiv. p. 627. In the epitaph which he is said to have composed for himself, he makes no mention of his tragedies, and speaks only of his warlike achievements. Αἰσχύλου Ευφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει Μνήμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας. 4. Gruppe thinks (Ariadne, p. 154.) that the Prometheus was acted first at Syracuse, and afterwards at Athens, under the poet's own superintendance: the Perseis, which we are here alluding to, first at Athens, and afterwards in Sicily. 5. By Böckh de Græcæ Tragœdiæ Principibus, c. iv. v. Blomfield, Præf. Pers. p. xvi. seqq. Hermann de Eumen. Chors. ii. p. 155. seqq. Welcker, Trilogie, p. 516. fol. Lange de Eschyli vitâ, p. 15. seqq. 6. Plutarch. Cimon. viii. 7. Απῆρε δὲ εἰς Ἱέρωνα τὸν Σικελίας τύραννον. Vit. Anonym.So Pausanias : Καὶ ἐς Συρακούσας πρὸς Ιέρωνα Αἰσχύλος καὶ Σιμωνίδης ἐστάλησαν. i. 2. Also Plutarch: Καί γὰρ καὶ οὗτος [Αἰσχύλος] εἰς Σικελίαν ἀπῇρε καὶ Σιμωνίδης πρότερον, De Exilio. please that king, who died in 467 B. C. he must, if he was at Athens to contend with Sophocles, have started for Sicily immediately after the decision; and he was then at Athens if there is any truth in Plutarch. He probably spent some time in Sicily on his first visit, as would appear from the numbers of Sicilian words which are found in his later plays'. The other journey to Sicily he is said to have made ten years after, (458 B. c.) and for this a very sufficient reason has been assigned. In that year he brought out the Orestean trilogy; and in the Eumenides, the last play of the trilogy, shewed so openly his opposition to the politics of Pericles and his abettor Ephialtes, that his abode at Athens might easily have been made not only unpleasant, but even unsafe, especially as his fondness for the Dorian institutions, his aristocratical spirit, and adoption of the politics of Aristeides, had doubtless made him long before obnoxious to the demagogues. He died at Gela two years after the representation of the Orestea, i. e. in B. c. 456.3 It is said, that an eagle having mistaken his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise upon it in order to break the shell, and that the poet was killed by the blow but the story is evidently an invention, most unnecessarily devised to account for the natural death of a persecuted exile nearly seventy years old. : Another reason has been assigned for Eschylus' second journey to Sicily. It is founded on a statement, alluded to 1. Οὐκ ἀγνοῶ δὲ, ὅτι οἱ περὶ τὴν Σικελίαν κατοικοῦντες ἀσχέδωρον καλοῦσι τὸν σύαγρον. Αἰσχύλος γοῦν ἐν Φορκίσι, παρεικάζων τὸν Περσέα τῷ ἀγρίῳ τούτῳ συΐ, φησίν Ἔδυ δ ̓ ἐς ἄντρον ἀσχέδωρος ὡς. Οτι δὲ Αἰσχύλος, διατρίψας ἐν Σικελίᾳ, πολλαῖς κέχρηται φωναῖς Σικε kais, ovoèv davμaσтóv. Athen. ix. p. 402. b.-To the same effect Eustathius : Χρῆσις δὲ φασιν ἀσχεδώρου παρ' Αἰσχύλῳ διατρίψαντι ἐν Σικελίᾳ καὶ εἰδότι. Ad Odyss. p. 1872.-And Macrobius: Ita et Dii Palici in Sicilia coluntur; quos primum omnium Eschylus tragicus, vir utique Siculus, in literas dedit, &c. &c. Saturnal. v. 19. Some Sicilian forms are to be found in his extant plays: thus, wedápσios, wedaixμιοι, πεδάοροι, μάσσων, μᾶ, &c. for μετάρσιος, μεταίχμιοι, μετέωροι, μείζων, μῆτερ, &c. See Blomfield, Prom. Vinc. 277. Gloss., & Böckh de Trag. Græc. c. v. 2. See Müller's Eumeniden, § 35. foll. 3. Αφ' οὗ Αἰσχύλος ὁ ποιητὴς, βιώσας ἔτη [Δ]ΔΠΙΙΙΙ, ἐτελεύτησεν ἐν [Γέλ]ᾳ τῆς [Σι]κελίας ἔτη Η[Δ]ΔΔΔΔΙΙΙ, ἄρχοντος ̓Αθήνησι Καλλίου τοῦ προτέρου. Mar. Arund. No. 50. 4. Vit. Anonym. Suidas in XeXwóvn μvwv. Valer. Max. ix. 2. Ælian. Hist. Animal. vii. 16. by Aristotle', and given more distinctly by Clemens Alexandrinus and Ælian, that Eschylus was accused of impiety before the Areopagus, and acquitted as Elian says in consequence of the services of his brother Ameinias, or according to Aristotle and Clemens, because he pleaded ignorance. Eustratius tells us3 from Heraclides Ponticus that he would have been slain on the stage by the infuriated populace, had he not taken refuge at the altar of Bacchus; and that he was acquitted by the Areopagus in consequence of his brother Cynegeirus' intercession. This reason for his second departure from Athens is quite in accordance with the former; for if he had incurred the ill will of the people, and the demagogues, nothing was more natural than that they should bring against him the same charges, which a similar faction afterwards brought against Alcibiades*. And there is something in the intervention of the Areopagus, between the people and their intended victim, which may at once account for the attempt to overthrow it, which, we conceive, shortly followed this trial, and also for the bold stand which Eschylus made on their behalf. There are great discrepancies respecting the number of plays written by Eschylus. The writer of the life prefixed to his remains, assigns seventy plays to him, Suidas ninety, and Fabricius more than 100. Of these, only seven remain. The most remarkable improvements which Eschylus introduced into Tragedy are the following: he added a second actor, limited the functions of the chorus, and gave them a more artificial character: he made the dialogue, which he created by the addition of a second actor, the principal part of 1. Ethic. iii. 1. ὅ δὲ πράττει, ἀγνοήσειεν ἄν τις οἷον λέγοντές φασιν ἐκπεσέιν αὐτοὺς, ἢ οὐκ εἰδέναι ὅτι ἀπόῤῥητα ἦν, ὥσπερ Αἰσχύλος τὰ μυστικά. 2. Αἰσχύλος (says Clemens) τὰ μυστήρια ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἐξειπων, ἐν ̓Αρείω πάγω κριθεὶς οὕτως ἀφέισθη, ἐπιδείξας αὐτὸν μή μεμυημένον. Strom. ii.Elian tells the tale in a somewhat different way; a more romantic one of course: Alexúλos & Tрayφλὸς ἐκρίνετο ἀσεβείας ἐπί τινι δράματι. Ετοίμων οὖν ὄντων ̓Αθηναίων βάλλειν αὐτὸν λίθοις, ̓Αμεινίας ὁ νεώτερος αδελφός, διακαλυψάμενος τὸ ἱμάτιον ἔδειξε τὴν πῆχυν ἔρημον τῆς χειρός. Ετυχε δὲ ἀριστεύων ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ὁ ̓Αμεινίας ἀποβεβλ ἥκως τὴν χεῖρα, καὶ πρῶτος ̓Αθηναίων τῶν ἀριστείων ἔτυχεν. Ἐπεὶ δὲ εἶδον οἱ δικασταὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τὸ πάθος, ὑπεμνησθήσαν τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀφῆκαν τὸν Alexúλov. Var. Hist. v. 19. 3. In his commentary on Aristotle, loc. cit. fol. 40. He mentions the names of five plays on which these charges were founded, the ToƐorides, the Tepeias, the Σίσυφος πετροκυλιστής, the Ιφιγενεία, and the Οἰδίπους. But we know nothing of the dates of these plays. Comp. Welcker, Tril. 106, 276. Andocid. de Myster. Comp. Droysen in the Rhein. Museum E the drama': he provided his Tragedy with all sorts of imposing spectacles', and introduced the custom of contending with trilogies, or with three plays at a time. He seems also to have improved the theatrical costumes, and to have made the mask more expressive and convenient, while the stature of the performers was increased by making them wear thick soled boots3. In short, he did so much for the drama, that he was considered as the father of Tragedy', and his plays were allowed to be acted after his death5. 1. These first three improvements are stated by Aristotle, Poet. c. iv. 16. καὶ τό τε τῶν ὑποκριτῶν πλῆθος ἐξ ἑνὸς εἰς δύο πρῶτος Αἰσχύλος ἤγαγε, καὶ τὰ τοῦ χοροῦ ηλάττωσε καὶ τὸν λόγον πρωταγωνιστὴν παρεσκεύασε, The first is given also by Diogen. Laert. vit. Plat. Θέσπις ἕνα ὑποκριτὴν ἐξευρεν. καὶ δεύτερον Αἰσχύλος. The names of his two actors are given in an old life prefixed to one of the editions. Εχρήσατο δὲ ὑποκριτῇ πρῶτον μὲν Κελάνδρῳ. δεύτερον αὐτῷ πρόσηψε Μιόνισκον τὸν Χαλκιδέα. Hermann has made an extraordinary blunder with regard to the latter part of the quotation from Aristotle : he has actually supposed that πρωταγωνιστὴν is an epithet, though it is obvious from the position of the article, that it is a predicate, and is used tropically, just as Aristotle elsewhere uses χορηγεῖν, &c. metaphorically. 2. Primum Agatharcus Athenis, Æschylo docente tragediam, scenam fecit, et de eâ commentarium reliquit. Vitruv. Præf. libri vii. 3. Post hunc [Thespin] personæ pallæque repertor honestæ Eschylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis, Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno. Horat. Epist. ad Pis. 279. So Suidas: Αίσχύλος εὗρε προσωπεῖα δεινὰ καὶ χρώμασι κεχρισμένα ἔχειν τοὺς τραγικούς, καὶ ταῖς ἀρβύλαις, ταῖς καλουμέναις ἐμβάταις, κεχρῆσθαι. The Aristophanic Æschylus alludes to these improvements in the costumes. Ran. 1060. Compare Athen. i. p. 21, and Philost. Vit. Apoll. vi. 11. ἐσθήμασί τε πρῶτος ἐκόσμησεν ἃ πρόσφορον ἥρωσί τε καὶ ἡρωΐσιν ἤσθησθαι. Vit. Gorg. i. 9. ἐσθῆτί τε τὴν τραγῳδίαν κατασκευάσας καὶ ἀκρίβαντι ὑψηλῷ, καὶ ἡρώων εἴδεσιν. There are many allusions to the apßúλai of the actors in the Greek Tragedians themselves. 4. —Ὅθεν ̓Αθηναῖοι πατέρα μὲν αὐτὸν τῆς τραγωδίας ἡγοῦντο. Philost. Vit. Apoll. vi. 11. And thus the Chorus in the Ranæ address him: ̓Αλλ ̓ ὦ πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων πυργώσας ῥήματα σεμνά So Quinctilian: Tragoedias primus in lucem Eschylus protulit. x. 1. 5. σ' Εκάλουν δὲ καὶ τεθνεῶτα εἰς Διονύσια. Τὰ γὰρ τοῦ Αἰσχύλου ψηφισαμένων ἀνεδιδάσκετο, καὶ ἐνίκα ἐκ καινῆς. Philost. Vit. Apoll. vi. ll. Also, Vit. Anonym. Aristophanes alludes to this custom of re-exhibiting the dramas of Eschylus in the opening of the Acharnians, where Dicæopolis complains ἀλλ ̓ ὠδυνήθην ἕτερον αὖ τραγωδικόν, ὅτε δὴ κεχήνη προσδοκῶν τὸν Αἰσχύλον, ὁ δ ̓ ἀνεῖπεν εἴσαγ ̓, ὦ Θέογνι, τὸν χορόν.” V. 9, &c. Upon which the Scholiast remarks: Τιμῆς δὲ μεγίστης ἔτυχε παρὰ ̓Αθηναίοις ὁ Αἰσχύλος, καὶ μόνου αὐτοῦ τὰ δράματα ψηφίσματι κοινῷ καὶ μετὰ θάνατον ἐδιδάσκετο. The allegation of the Poet, (Ranæ, 868.) "Οτι ἡ ποίησις οὐχὶ συντέθνηκέ μοι, is also supposed by the Scholiast to refer to this decree. Quinctilian assigns a very different reason for this practice, when, speaking, of Eschylus as "rudis in plerisque et incompositus," he goes on, "propter quod correctas ejus fabulas in certamen deferre posterioribus poetis Athenienses permisere, suntque eo modo multi coronati." x. 1. What authority he had for such an assertion does not now appear." Former Editor. |
