Aeschylos (c. 525, Eleusis, - 456 BC, Sicily), ancient Greek. playwright. He came from an old aristocratic family. Participated in the Greco-Persian wars. In 484 he won his first dramatic victory. competitions; Subsequently, he won 12 more times in playwriting competitions. In antiquity it was known approx. 80 dramatic prod. E., only 7 have survived: “The Persians” (472), “Seven against Thebes” (467), the trilogy “Oresteia” (458; “Agamemnon”, “Choephori”, “Eumenides”); There is no consensus on the time of creation of the tragedies “The Petitioners, or the Prayers” and “Chained Prometheus”. Of the remaining tragedies of E., excerpts have survived, rarely exceeding 5-10 verses; relatively large fragments from the satyr dramas "Drawing the Net" and "Ambassadors, or Isthmians" publ. in Egyptian publications. papyri in 1933 and 1941. E.’s work dates back to the period of the end of the establishment of Athenian democracy (1st half of the 5th century BC) and reflects a revaluation of the worldview. principles of the tribal system. The hero of his tragedies is a person who is independent in his behavior and responsible for his actions. The essence of the tragic in E. is revealed most clearly in the “Oresteia”: the curse of the Atrides that hangs over the house of Agamemnon is carried out only because the members of this house (Agamemnon, Clytemnestra) are themselves guilty of committing grave crimes against divine and human laws. The bloody string of revenge-crimes stops thanks to the intervention of the court of the Athenian Areopagus, whose decision is sanctified by the goddess Athena and symbolizes the victory of democracy. statehood over archaic the law of ancestral revenge. The triumph of the principles of patriotism and citizenship. equality of rights over “barbaric” despotism is the basis. the content of "Persians" is also reflected in "Seven against Thebes" and "Petitioners". Humanistic the content of E.'s creativity is revealed with exceptional, vividness in the tragedy of Prometheus - “the most noble saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar” (Marx K., see Marx K. and Engels F., From early works, 1956, p. 25).
“The Father of Tragedy,” E. was a major innovator in the field of art and form. Choral and lyric. Parts with the participation of actors play the most important dramatic role in his tragedies. role, whipping up an atmosphere of excitement and anxiety and bringing the action to a climax. With the introduction of a second actor, E. significantly increased the role of the individual characters, among whom such titans stand out. images like Eteocles, Prometheus, Clytemnestra. E.'s tragedies were well known in ancient Rome; some of them served as a prototype for production. Ennia, Actium, Seneca. The image of Prometheus is widely reflected in the literature and art of modern times.
V. N. Yarkho.
Materials from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia were used. In 30 t. Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. Ed. 3rd. T. 29. Chagan - Aix-les-Bains. – M., Soviet Encyclopedia. – 1978.
Further development tragic genre associated with the names of three great Athenian poets: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The time of their life can be judged by the fact that in 480 BC. e. Aeschylus apparently took part in the Battle of Salamis, Sophocles sang in the choir of young men at the celebration of this victory, and Euripides, according to legend, was allegedly born at this time.
Aeschylus, the “father of tragedy,” as Engels calls him, came from a noble family. His political views were distinguished by conservatism. Of the 90 tragedies written by Aeschylus, according to the ancients, only 7 have survived to this day. Despite the mythological subjects used in these tragedies, Aeschylus responds to the most pressing issues of his time. Thus, the main theme of Aeschylus’s trilogy “Oresteia”, consisting of tragedies: “Agamemnon”, “Choephori” and “Eumenides”, is the struggle between the dying maternal and the victorious paternal right. The content of this trilogy is as follows. Clytemnestra, together with her beloved Aegisthus, kills her husband Agamemnon, who returned after the capture of Troy. In revenge for the death of his father, Orestes kills his mother and her lover. For this he is persecuted by the goddesses of revenge, the snake-haired Erinnyes. Guardians of the ancient principles of matriarchy, they do not consider Clytemnestra guilty, for “the husband she killed was a stranger by blood.” On the side of Orestes are the new gods - Apollo and Athena, who have trampled upon the “tablet of ancient truths.” But Athena manages to “bend the wild goddesses to their unyielding wrath.” The Areopagus established by her justifies Orestes. Having turned into the good Eumenides, the Erinnyes remain in Athens - they become their patron goddesses. The author also put a covenant into the mouth of Athena, expressing his own political views:
Guard the city as vigilantly, citizens, from anarchy as from autocracy.
In the tragedy “Chained Prometheus,” Aeschylus gives the image of a courageous fighter against the gods, for the happiness of mankind. The image of Prometheus then, for many centuries, inspired progressives in the fight against reaction. The tragedy "The Persians", written not on a mythological, but on a current historical plot, reflects the triumph of the Athenians, who won a historical victory in the fight against Persia, and contains a detailed description of the Battle of Salamis.
The tragedies of Aeschylus were written in the techniques of semi-epic choral lyrics, but in this area Aeschylus proved himself to be an innovator. In the old tragedy the main character was the chorus, which entered into dialogue with a single actor; Aeschylus was the first to present two actors at the same time and thereby create an acting dialogue independent of the choir, which then began to quickly develop at the expense of the choral part. Subsequent development theatrical arts happened, however, so quickly that the Athenians of the late 5th century. BC e. Aeschylus, in comparison with Sophocles and especially Euripides, seemed to be a poet of the distant past. Thus, in Aristophanes’ comedy “Frogs” he personifies a heroic, but already irretrievably past time.
The World History. Volume II. M., 1956, p. 94-95.
"Father of Tragedy"
Aeschylus (525-456 BC). The oldest Greek playwright, who is called the “father of tragedy,” was born in the city of Eleusis in the family of a noble large landowner. Participated as a heavily armed warrior in the battles with the Persians at Marathon and Salamis. In 500 BC. staged his play for the first time and since then has won playwright competitions 13 times. Twice, for some unknown reason, he left Athens to join the tyrant Hieron in Sicily, where he died.
Aeschylus wrote about 90 plays - although only 7 of them have come down to us. In some of his works he talks about real events and characters (“Persians”), but more often they feature mythical heroes, which does not mean at all that they are far from reality. On the contrary, it becomes possible to talk about the eternal, about the highest manifestations of human feelings and thoughts.
The power of fate, fate, and the will of the gods is opposed by a free person who does not lose his dignity even in mortal danger. Aeschylus saw the humiliation and disgrace of man in the fact that the power of usury and money was established. He glorified the tenacity of people fighting for justice, for freedom, for their homeland. In the tragedy "The Persians" there is a call:
Forward, sons of Hellas, rush into battle! Free the altars of your native gods, your children and wives. After all, the battle is for everything!
A true hymn to greatness creative personality, ready to endure torment for the good of people - Aeschylus’s tragedy “Prometheus Bound”. Main character accomplishes a feat, knowing that it is not honors that await him, but troubles:
After all, before I myself Foresaw everything that was to come, and there are no Unexpected disasters for me. I must bear my fate easily: Necessity cannot be overcome. But it’s hard to remain silent and talk about my fate. After all, I, the unfortunate one, suffer for doing good to mortals. I stole the divine flame... "
“Not only did Prometheus bring natural fire to people, but also the light of knowledge, because -
Previously people
We looked and did not see and, hearing,
Haven't heard, in some sleepy dreams
They were dragging out life...
Prometheus taught people arts and crafts, the science of numbers and literacy, invented ships, and for all this he was severely punished by Zeus. The king of the gods is presented by Aeschylus as a despot, alien to sympathy and justice. Prometheus boldly denounces him:
As soon as he sat on his father’s throne, he immediately began to distribute honor and power among the new gods, and forgot about the unfortunate mortals. And even more: he decided to destroy the entire human race and plant a new one. And no one rose up for poor mortals, But I dared...
In response to the proposal - the order of Hermes to inform Zeus about who will overthrow him, Prometheus, who has the gift of prophecy, responds proudly:
Oh, how pompous and proud it sounds
All this speech of the servant, the gods.
Do you think the new kings
Why should you bliss forever in strongholds?
But didn't I see how from Olympus
Two tyrants have fallen? And I will see
How the third, now ruling, will fall -
A most shameful and quick fall.
Indeed, gods are not warriors, and with the decline of Greece, Zeus gave way to Jupiter, and even later, all the ancient deities were “overthrown” by Christianity. No matter how people imagine the unknown heavenly and earthly rulers, the main thing that justifies their existence is self-esteem, spiritual freedom and creative daring. One of the first to say this was Aeschylus.
Balandin R.K. One Hundred Great Geniuses / R.K. Balandin. - M.: Veche, 2012.
The first tragedian
Aeschylus (525–456 BC), Greek playwright, first of the three great Athenian tragedians of the 5th century. BC. Our information about the life of Aeschylus goes back mainly to the biography that preceded his tragedies in the 11th century manuscript. According to these data, Aeschylus was born in 525 BC. in Eleusis, his father was Euphorion, who belonged to the ancient Athenian aristocracy, the Eupatrides. Aeschylus fought the Persians at Marathon (a fact proudly noted in his epitaph) and probably also participated in the Battle of Salamis, since the account of this battle in Persia most likely belongs to an eyewitness. In Aeschylus's youth, Athens was an unimportant city, but he happened to witness the promotion of his native city to leading place in the Greek world, what happened after the Greco-Persian wars. Aeschylus first performed in a tragedian competition ca. 500 BC, but he managed to win the first prize only in 484. Aeschylus later took first place at least 13 times. The Athenians thought highly of his works. This can be judged by the fact that after his death, a decree was passed in Athens that anyone wishing to stage Aeschylus’s play would “receive a choir” from the authorities (that is, they would receive permission to resume staging the drama at the Dionysius festival). Aeschylus traveled to Sicily several times and staged his dramas there, and in 476 BC. composed the tragedy of Ethnianka in honor of the founding of Etna by Hieron, then ruler of Syracuse. The legend is that in 468 BC. Aeschylus left Athens because he was outraged by the success of his younger rival Sophocles, most likely apocryphally. Be that as it may, in 467 BC. Aeschylus was already in Athens again to stage his tragedy Seven against Thebes, and in 458 BC. his masterpiece, the Oresteia, the only surviving Greek trilogy, was awarded first prize. Aeschylus died at Gela in Sicily in 456 BC. Like all tragedians before Sophocles, he performed the roles in his dramas himself, but also hired professional actors. It is believed that it was Aeschylus who took an extremely important step in the development of drama by introducing a second actor into the action.
Works. Aeschylus combined his tragedies into trilogies devoted to a common theme, such as the fate of the Laia family. It is not known whether he was the first to create such unified trilogies, but the use of this particular form opened up wide scope for the poet’s thoughts and became one of the factors that allowed him to achieve perfection. It is believed that Aeschylus was the author of ninety dramas, the titles of 79 are known to us; 13 of them are satyr dramas, which were usually staged as an addition to the trilogy. Although only 7 tragedies have come down to us, their composition was determined as a result of a careful selection made in the last centuries of antiquity, and therefore they can be considered the best or most typical fruits of Aeschylus's poetic gift. Each of these tragedies deserves special mention. The Persians, the only extant historical drama in all of Greek literature, describes the Persian defeat at Salamis in 480 BC. The tragedy was written eight years after these events, i.e. in 472 BC There is no information regarding the time of production of the tragedy Prometheus Bound. Some scientists consider it to belong to the early period of creativity, others, on the contrary, to the late period. It was probably part of the Prometheus trilogy. The myth on which this tragedy is based - the punishment of Prometheus for stealing fire and neglecting the will of Zeus - was developed in Shelley's famous poem Prometheus Unbound and in many other works. The tragedy of the Seven against Thebes, staged in 467 BC, is an account of the story of the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices. This is the final part of the trilogy, the first two tragedies were dedicated to Laius and his son Oedipus. The Tragedy of the Petitioner tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who chose to flee Egypt rather than marry their cousins, the sons of Egypt, and took refuge in Argos. Due to the abundance of archaisms, this tragedy has long been considered the earliest surviving work of Aeschylus, but a papyrus fragment published in 1952 allows it to be dated presumably to 463 BC. The Oresteia trilogy was written in 458 BC. and consists of Agamemnon, Hoephoros and Eumenides.
Drama technique. When Aeschylus began writing, tragedy was predominantly a lyrical choral work and, in all likelihood, consisted of choral parts, occasionally interrupted by remarks exchanged between the leader of the chorus (the luminary) and the only actor (however, during the course of the drama he could play several roles). The introduction of a second actor by Aeschylus had a huge impact on the essence of drama, since for the first time it made it possible to use dialogue and convey dramatic conflict without the participation of a chorus. In Petitioners and Persians the choir plays a major role. Petitioners contains only one short episode in which two characters talk on stage; in general, throughout the entire play, the actors communicate only with the choir (which is why this play was considered to be Aeschylus’s earliest tragedy). However, towards the end of his life, Aeschylus learned to easily control two or even three characters at the same time, and although the Oresteia still features long chorus parts, the main action and plot development occurs through dialogue.
The structure of the plot in Aeschylus remains relatively simple. The main character finds himself in a critical situation, determined by the will of the deities, and this situation, as a rule, does not change until the denouement. Having once settled on a certain course of action, the hero continues to walk along the chosen path, without knowing any doubts. Internal conflict, to which Euripides assigns such an important place, is almost unnoticeable in Aeschylus, so that even Orestes, about to kill his mother at the behest of Apollo, shows only a moment’s hesitation. Several simple episodes build tension and introduce the details leading up to the disaster itself. The choir's songs, intertwined with the episodes, form a majestic background; they convey a direct feeling of the tragic situation, create a mood of anxiety and horror, and sometimes contain an indication of the moral law, which is the hidden spring of action. The fate of the choir is always involved in the tragedy, and the outcome of the drama to a certain extent affects its participants. Thus, Aeschylus uses the chorus as an additional actor, and not simply as a commentator on events.
Aeschylus's characters are outlined in several powerful strokes. Special mention should be made here of Eteocles in Seven Against Thebes and Clytemnestra in Agamemnon. Eteocles, a noble and faithful king, who brought destruction upon himself and his family partly because of his devotion to his fatherland, was named first tragic hero European drama. Clytemnestra has often been compared to Lady Macbeth. This woman, possessed of an iron will and unyielding determination, possessed by a blind rage that prompts her to kill her husband, reigns supreme in all the scenes of Agamemnon in which she takes part.
Worldview. Aeschylus's greatest achievement was the creation of a deeply thought-out theology. Starting from Greek anthropomorphic polytheism, he came to the idea of a single supreme deity (“Zeus, whoever he may be, if he pleases to be called that”), almost completely devoid of anthropomorphic features. In The Petitioners, Aeschylus refers to Zeus as “the King of kings, the most good and perfect of the divine powers,” and in his last tragedy, the Eumenides, he portrays Zeus as an omniscient and omnipotent deity who united justice and world balance, i.e. functions of a personal deity and the inevitable fulfillment of impersonal fate. It may seem that Prometheus Chained contrasts sharply with this idea of Zeus, since here Zeus is perceived by Prometheus, Io and the chorus as an evil tyrant, powerful, but by no means omniscient, and, moreover, bound by the iron laws of Necessity. However, it should be remembered that Prometheus Bound is only the first of three tragedies on this plot; undoubtedly, in the two subsequent parts, Aeschylus found some kind of solution to the theological problem he raised.
In the theology of Aeschylus, the divine control of the universe also extends to the realm of human morality, that is, if we use the language of myth, Justice is the daughter of Zeus. Therefore, divine powers invariably punish the sins and crimes of people. The action of this force does not boil down to reward for excessive prosperity, as some of Aeschylus’s contemporaries believed: properly used wealth does not at all entail death. However, mortals who are too prosperous are prone to blind delusion, madness, which in turn gives rise to sin or arrogance and ultimately leads to divine punishment and death. The consequences of such a sin are often perceived as hereditary, transmitted within the family in the form of a generational curse, but Aeschylus makes it clear that each generation commits its own sin, thereby bringing into existence the generational curse. At the same time, the punishment sent down by Zeus is by no means a blind and bloodthirsty retribution for sin: a person learns through suffering, so that suffering serves a positive moral task.
The Oresteia, a trilogy staged in 458 BC, consists of three tragedies - Agamemnon, Choephoros, Eumenides. This trilogy traces the effect of the curse that befell the family of Atreus, when the son of Pelops Atreus, having quarreled with his brother Thyestes, killed the children of Thyestes and treated their father to a terrible dish made from children. The curse sent by Thyestes on Atreus passed on to Atreus’s son, Agamemnon. Therefore, when Agamemnon, at the head of the Greek army, went to Troy, he decided to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease Artemis. His wife Clytemnestra never forgave him for this crime. In his absence, she acquired a lover, Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, with whom she hatched a plan for revenge. Ten years later, Troy fell and the Greeks returned home.
In the tragedy Agamemnon, the action begins precisely from this moment, and it unfolds around the killing of the leader of the Greek army by his own wife. When Agamemnon returns home, accompanied by the Trojan prophetess Cassandra, who has become his captive and concubine, Clytemnestra invites him to enter the palace and kills him; Cassandra also shares the fate of Agamemenon. After the murders, Aegisthus appears on the scene and declares that from now on royal power belongs to him and Clytemnestra. The chorus of Argive elders, who remained faithful to Agamemnon, protests in vain and hints at future retribution when Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, grows up.
The Tragedy of Hoephora (or the Victim at the Tomb) tells the story of the return of Orestes, who, after the murder of his father, was sent outside Argos. Obeying Apollo's oracle, Orestes secretly returns to avenge his father. With the help of his sister, Electra, he enters the palace and kills Aegisthus and his own mother. After this act, Orestes becomes a victim of the Erinyes, formidable spirits avenging the murder of a relative, and in madness leaves the scene to again seek protection from Apollo.
The tragedy of Eumenides is dedicated to the suffering of Orestes, which ultimately ended in his acquittal. Pursued by the Erinyes, the young man comes to Athens and appears here before a specially appointed court (the Areopagus) led by the goddess Athena. Apollo acts as the defender, and the vote cast by Athena decides the case in favor of Orestes, since the people could not come to a final decision. Thus the effect of Atreus’s ancestral curse ends. Erinyes is beside herself with anger at this decision of the Areopagus, but Athena manages to soften them, persuading them to transfer their functions as guardians of justice to Zeus, and themselves to settle in Attica as beneficent spirits of the earth.
Materials from the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" were used.
Essays:
Works: Aeschyli septem quae supersunt tragoediae, ed. D. Page, Oxf., 1972;
In Russian lane - Tragedies, trans. S. Apta, M., 1971.
Aeschylus. Tragedies. M., 1978
Aeschylus. Tragedies. M., 1989
Literature:
Zelinsky F.F. Aeschylus. Feature article. Pg., 1918
Language and literature of the ancient world (to the 2500th anniversary of Aeschylus). L., 1977
I r x about V.N.. Aeschylus, M., 1958;
Yarkho V.N. The dramaturgy of Aeschylus and some problems of ancient Greek tragedy. M., 1978
Radzig S.S., History of Ancient Greek Literature, 4th ed., M., 1977;
L e s k u A., Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen, 3 Aufl., Gott., 1972;
Wege zu Aischylos, hrsg. von H. Hommel, Bd 1 - 2, Darmstadt, 1974.
Aeschylus is the father of tragedy. He introduces a second actor, thereby making it possible to dramatize the action. Years of life: 525-456 BC. Aeschylus is tendentious. He glorifies the birth of Hellenic democracy, Hellenic statehood. All his talent is put and subordinated to one problem - the establishment of a democratic polis. The Greeks lived according to tribal laws, but the polis lives according to others. In Aeschylus, elements of the traditional worldview are closely intertwined with attitudes generated by democratic statehood. He believes in the real existence of divine forces that influence man and often insidiously lay snares for him. The era of victory in the Greco-Persian War - victory was brought by unity, not state, but spiritual - the Hellenic spirit. Aeschylus glorifies the Hellenic spirit in his works. The idea of freedom, the superiority of the polis way of life over the life of barbarians. Aeschylus - the morning of Hellenic democracy. He wrote 90 plays, 7 have come down to us. Aeschylus is related to the Eleusinian priests and mysteries. Aeschylus wrote the epitaph for himself in advance. The ideal Greek, citizen, playwright and poet. The theme of patriotic duty. He lived during the hottest period of Greek history. The moral conclusion of his tragedies is nothing beyond measure. I always gave priority to the state. Aeschylus is the only tragedian whose plays were staged after his death. Aeschylus does not know how to conduct dialogues, his language is complicated. He came from an ancient aristocratic family. He fought for his homeland as a simple infantryman. He was incredibly proud of his past. The first play that has come down to us is part 1 of the “Suppliants” trilogy. This is the earliest tragedy, here the role of the actor is minimal. The tragedy has a very narrow theme - it is based on myths about the Danaids - using this example, he masters the problem of marriage and family. The clash of barbarian and civilized morality, the progressiveness of the policy in relation to the problem of family and marriage. Marriage by inclination and consent. In every detail, Aeschylus's tragedy glorifies the laws of the Greek polis. A reliably flawed play. The parks and choirs, replacing each other, are in sharp contrast, which makes the viewer tense. Only 1 tragedy has reached us, in 3 - a trial, Aphrodite appears and justifies the youngest daughter, where marriage is by inclination.
Trilogy 2 – Persians. Before us is a historical trilogy. The Greeks did not distinguish between myths and history. Imbued with a sense of patriotism. The Battle of Solomin (472) is described here. The trilogy shows how the form of dialogues gradually intensifies. The tragedy is innovative in many ways. Showing the army through the sight of the Persians themselves and the victory of the Greeks through the consciousness of the Persians. The middle part is a giant lament of the Persian princesses for the fallen Persians. The Persians are a worthy opponent. But they lost because they violated the measure, wanted too much tribute from the Greeks, and tried to undermine their freedom. The tragedy ends with a powerful cry - trenos. The main idea is that the victory over the Persians was achieved by fortitude, and fortitude is a consequence of a more progressive ideology. Aeschylus does not show the Persians as stupid or weak, they are a worthy opponent. The Greeks are not slaves and are not subject to anyone, and the Persians are all slaves except the king. The Persian army died, but in reality the king was defeated. The Greeks fight so fiercely for their homeland because they are free. The choir calls Darius and he pronounces some of the main thoughts of this tragedy. After this tragedy, parts of the works that Aeschylus wrote do not reach us.
From the tragedy of the 5th century. The works of the three most significant representatives of the genre have been preserved - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Each of these names marks a historical stage in the development of the Attic tragedy, which consistently reflected three stages in the history of Athenian democracy.
Aeschylus, a poet of the era of the formation of the Athenian state and the Greco-Persian wars, is the founder of ancient tragedy in its established forms, the true “father of tragedy” Aeschylus is a creative genius of enormous realistic power, revealing with the help of mythological images the historical content of the great revolution of which he was a contemporary - the emergence of a democratic state from tribal society.
Biographical information about Aeschylus, as well as about the vast majority of ancient writers in general, is very scarce. He was born in 525/4 in Eleusis and came from a noble landowning family. In his youth, he witnessed the overthrow of tyranny in Athens, the establishment of a democratic system and the successful struggle of the Athenian people against the intervention of aristocratic communities. was a supporter of a democratic state. This group played a significant role in Athens during the first decades of the 5th century. Aeschylus took a personal part in the fight against the Persians; the outcome of the war strengthened his conviction in the superiority of the democratic freedom of Athens over the monarchical principle underlying Persian despotism (the tragedy of “The Persians”). was a "pronounced tendentious poet." Further democratization of the Athenian political system in the 60s. V century Aeschylus already causes concern for the fate of Athens (the Oresteia trilogy). Aeschylus died in the Sicilian city of Gela in 456/5.
even adheres to the ancient idea of hereditary clan responsibility: the guilt of the ancestor falls on the descendants, entangles them with its fatal consequences and leads to inevitable death. On the other hand, the gods of Aeschylus become guardians of the legal foundations of the new government structure, Aeschylus depicts how divine retribution is introduced into the natural course of things. The relationship between divine influence and the conscious behavior of people, the meaning of the paths and goals of this influence, the question of its justice and goodness constitute the main problematic of Aeschylus, which he develops in the depiction of human fate and human suffering.
The material for Aeschylus is heroic tales. He himself called his tragedies “crumbs from the great feasts of Homer,” meaning, of course, not only the Iliad and the Odyssey, but the entire set of epic poems attributed to Homer. “Aeschylus was the first to increase the number of actors from one to two, reduce the chorus parts and give primacy to the dialogue.” In other words, tragedy ceased to be a cantata, one of the branches of mimetic choral lyricism, and began to turn into drama. In pre-Aeschylean tragedy, the story of a single actor about what was happening behind the stage and his dialogue with the luminary served only as a pretext for the lyrical outpourings of the chorus. Thanks to the introduction of a second actor, it became possible to enhance the dramatic action by contrasting the contending forces with each other, and to characterize one character by his reaction to the messages or actions of another. Ancient scholars counted 90 dramatic works (tragedies and satyr dramas) in the literary heritage of Aeschylus; Only seven tragedies have been preserved in their entirety, including one complete trilogy. Of the surviving plays, the earliest is “Petitioners” (“Pleading”). Very typical of the early type of tragedy are “The Persians,” staged in 472 and part of a trilogy that was not connected by a thematic unity. This tragedy is significant for two reasons: firstly, being an independent play, it contains its problems in a complete form; secondly, the plot of "The Persians", drawn not from mythology, but from recent history, allows us to judge how Aeschylus processed the material in order to make a tragedy out of it
“Seven Against Thebes” is the first Greek tragedy known to us in which the actor’s parts decisively prevail over the choral part, and, at the same time, the first tragedy in which a vivid image of the hero is given. There are no other images in the play; the second actor was used" for the role of the messenger. The beginning of the tragedy is no longer the performance of the choir.” and the acting scene, prologue.
problem tragic fate The latest work of Aeschylus, “Oresteia” (458), the only trilogy that has come down to us in its entirety, is also dedicated to the genus. Already in its dramatic structure, "Oresteia" is much more complex than previous tragedies: it uses a third actor, introduced by Aeschylus' young rival Sophocles, and a new stage arrangement - with a backdrop depicting a palace, and with a proscenium...
tragedy “Chained Prometheus” The old myths, already known to us from Hesiod, about the change of generations of gods and people, about Prometheus, who stole fire from the sky for people, receive a new development from Aeschylus. Prometheus, one of the titans, that is, representatives of the “older generation” of gods, is a friend of humanity. In the fight between Zeus and the Titans, Prometheus took part on the side of Zeus; but when Zeus, after defeating the Titans, set out to destroy the human race and replace it with a new generation, Prometheus opposed this. He brought heavenly fire to people and awakened them to conscious life.
Writing and arithmetic, crafts and sciences - all these are Prometheus’ gifts to people. Aeschylus thus abandons the idea of a former “golden age” and the subsequent deterioration of conditions human life. For the services rendered to people, he is doomed to suffer. The prologue of the tragedy depicts how the blacksmith god Hephaestus, by order of Zeus, chains Prometheus to a rock; Hephaestus is accompanied by two allegorical figures - Power and Violence. Zeus opposes Prometheus only with brute force. All nature sympathizes with the suffering of Prometheus; when at the end of the tragedy Zeus, irritated by the inflexibility of Prometheus, sends a storm and Prometheus, along with the rock, falls into the underworld, the chorus of nymphs Oceanids (daughters of the Ocean) is ready to share his fate with him. In Marx's words, "the confession of Prometheus:
In truth, I hate all gods
eat her [i.e. e. philosophy] its own recognition, its own saying, directed against all heavenly and earthly gods.”
The surviving tragedies make it possible to outline three stages in the work of Aeschylus, which at the same time are stages in the formation of tragedy as a dramatic genre. The early plays (“Suppliants”, “Persians”) are characterized by a predominance of choral parts, little use of a second actor, poor development of dialogue, and abstract images. The middle period includes such works as “Seven Against Thebes” and “Prometheus Bound”. Here a central image of the hero appears, characterized by several main features; the dialogue gets more developed, prologues are created; The images of episodic figures (“Prometheus”) also become clearer. The third stage is represented by the Oresteia, with its more complex composition, increasing drama, numerous secondary characters and the use of three actors.
Question No. 12. Aeschylus. Ideological and artistic features of creativity. In Aeschylus, elements of the traditional worldview are closely intertwined with attitudes generated by democratic statehood. He believes in the real existence of divine forces that influence man and often insidiously lay snares for him. Aeschylus even adheres to the ancient idea of hereditary clan responsibility: the guilt of the ancestor falls on the descendants, entangles them with its fatal consequences and leads to inevitable death. Heroic tales serve as material for Aeschylus. He himself called his tragedies “crumbs from the great feasts of Homer,” meaning, of course, not only the Iliad and the Odyssey, but the entire set of epic poems attributed to “Homer,” i.e., the “cycle” The fate of the hero or heroic Aeschylus most often depicts the clan in three successive tragedies that make up a plot-wise and ideologically integral trilogy; it is followed by a satyr drama based on a plot from the same mythological cycle to which the trilogy belonged. However, borrowing plots from the epic, Aeschylus not only dramatizes the legends, but also reinterprets them and imbues them with his own problems. From the tragedies of Aeschylus it is clear that the poet was a supporter of a democratic state, although he belonged to a conservative group within democracy. Ancient scholars counted 90 dramatic works (tragedies and satyr dramas) in the literary heritage of Aeschylus; Only seven tragedies have been preserved in their entirety, including one complete trilogy. In addition, 72 plays are known to us by their titles, from which it is usually clear what mythological material was developed in the play; their fragments, however, are few in number and small in size.
Ancient Greek playwright.
Aeschylus was not the first Greek playwright, but is often called the "father of tragedy." Aristotle reports that it was Aeschylus who introduced a second actor into the tragedy (before him, only one actor and a chorus acted on stage), which shortened the chorus parts and expanded the dialogue, making it possible to introduce a much larger number characters, since two actors could play several roles at once...
The names have reached us 79 of his works, but we only know the full texts 7 his dram.
“In the 5th century. BC e. Aeschylus, the first of the great playwrights, introduced a second actor into the dramatic ensemble and made his actors the main performers, accordingly reducing the role of the chorus, which nevertheless retained considerable importance for the development of the plot.
His tragedies have no sharp plot moves, surprises or unexpected turns.
Drawing inspiration from well-known myths - such as “The Fall of the House of Atrides”, with which this chapter began, Aeschylus presents us with majestic and leisurely magnificent spectacles that resurrect the distant past.
His characters deliver poetic speeches, speaking in sublime language.
The simplicity of Aeschylus' tragedy cycles is akin to that which distinguishes the medieval mystery cycles.
Everything in them is called by its proper name. The beauty of these works is not in the complexity of metaphors, not in the sophistication of the main idea; it is the embodiment of the clarity of orthodox religious thinking - God is God, and man cannot fool him.
Zeus's retribution falls on the daring, whose pride prompted them to challenge the established order of things. Guilt, like wealth, can be inherited, falling in an endless chain reaction on the children, and then grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the perpetrators. Only the creation of a new, more humane system of justice - which in the Eumenides Aeschylus, the final tragedy of the Oresteia, turns out to be Athenian democracy - it can interrupt this downward spiral and turn the ancient goddesses of endless vengeance into patroness of the city and people, caring for the well-being of Athens.
Aeschylus used ancient legend, to raise topical issues, namely: the resistance of the aristocrats to the loss of their former power in the face of democratic reforms.
The final idea of the cycle: heaven wishes a better fate for people, and therefore all your objections, like those put forward by the Erinyes, are meaningless; although we should fear you and take you into account, you can no longer determine the outcome of everything.
This was the secret path open to Aeschylus and his followers: a sacred, familiar story, whose truth was beyond doubt, whose roots ran deep into the Greek collective consciousness, used by the playwright to speak of the present of the polis.
In many plays, the chorus represents ordinary citizens, the audience, speaking simple truths and gaining new understanding of things as the drama progresses.”
Thomas Cahill, The Greek Heritage: What Western Civilization Owes to the Hellenes, St. Petersburg, Amphora, 2006, pp. 148-149.
Aeschylus:"Since the beginning of time, every famous poet always served people. Orpheus inspired disgust for murder, the Museum solved the prophecies of oracles and taught medicine, Hesiod- agriculture, divine Homer- heroism. And after Homer, I sing the praises of Patroclus with the heart of a lion, so that every citizen strives to be like the great people.”
Quoted from Aristophanes' Frogs, verse 1039.
“Perhaps the oldest example is tragedy Aeschylus"Persians", where the Greek describes the war from the position of the enemies.
Subsequently, this technique was repeatedly used by writers and publicists of a humanistic orientation. Experience shows that it is capable of producing a partial positive result, although it is fraught with danger for the peacemaker himself. Psychologists use it in the treatment of family conflicts: inviting each spouse to anticipate the reproaches that the other party will make against him or her in an individual conversation (everyone strives to look more objective in the eyes of the psychotherapist), in some cases directly leads to resolution conflict situation».
Nazaretyan A.P., Anthropology of violence and the culture of self-organization: essays on evolutionary-historical psychology, M., “Librocom”, 2012, p. 97.
The work of Aeschylus - "the father of tragedy"
The early tragedies of Aeschylus, whom the ancients called “the father of tragedy,” were staged at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries. BC.
In 534, in Athens, through the efforts of the tyrant Pisistratus, the first tragedy was presented and the cult of Dionysus was officially recognized. In 508, after the overthrow of tyranny and the establishment of democracy, the state took over the organization of dramatic competitions. From that time on, theatrical performances turned out to be the most effective means of educating citizens of the first democratic state, since dramas clearly substantiated the basic norms of behavior and provided answers to the most pressing issues of socio-political life of that time. Carrying out new tasks assigned to it by the state and society, the tragedy “becomes serious.” Traces of the former cheerful tragedy are preserved in the humorous satyr drama, with which every playwright is obliged to complete his tragic trilogy. Our information about Aeschylus' predecessors and older contemporaries is very scarce. But it is known that before him the tragedy was a pathetic lyrical cantata of the choir, almost devoid of action. “Aeschylus was the first to introduce two actors instead of one; he also reduced the parts of the chorus and put dialogue in first place.” 28 Thus, the tragedy acquired action, that is, it became a drama. With the introduction of a second actor, the dramatic conflict which forms the true basis of tragedy became possible, and, in the words of Aristotle, thanks to all this, it "subsequently achieved its illustrious greatness." Aeschylus, whose biography is very poorly known, was born in 525 BC. in Eleusis (a suburb of Athens) in a noble aristocratic family. At the age of 25, he first competed in dramatic competitions, but only at the age of forty he won his first victory. Aeschylus's dramas from this period have not survived. Aeschylus probably devoted most of these years to the war for the freedom of his homeland.
By the beginning of the 5th century. The threat of Persian conquest loomed over Athens, as well as over all of Hellas. The Persian kings, who proclaimed themselves rulers of "all men from the rising to the setting of the sun," had already extended their Asian borders from the Indus to Libya and from Arabia to the Hellespont. The way forward The Persians lay in the Balkans, providing access to the entire eastern Mediterranean. In the face of a formidable enemy with his powerful naval and ground forces The Greeks managed to overcome their internal differences and unite to repel the Persians. The struggle for freedom and independence of all of Hellas was led by Athens and Sparta. Aeschylus fought and was wounded at Marathon, where the Athenian army inflicted the first defeat on the Persians. In the same battle, his brother died when, while pursuing enemies, he tried to hold a Persian ship sailing from the shore with his hand. Then Aeschylus fought at Salamis, where the Persian fleet was defeated, and took part in the Battle of Plataea, where in 479 the Persians suffered a final defeat. Aeschylus always put his military-patriotic activities above his merits as a playwright and even composed an epitaph in which he noted only his military merits:
Euphorion's son, Aeschylus of Athens, covers the bones of the land of Gela, rich in grain; His courage is remembered by the Marathon Grove and the tribe of the Long-haired Medes, who recognized him in battle.
After his first victory in the tragic competition, Aeschylus was the favorite poet of the Athenians for twenty years, then losing his primacy to the young Sophocles. But two years before his death, the 67-year-old poet won his last brilliant victory over his rivals with the Oresteia trilogy. Soon after this he left for Sicily, where he died at Gela in 458.
According to ancient sources, Aeschylus wrote about 80 dramas. The literary fertility of Greek authors characterizes their attitude towards writing, which they considered the most important form of fulfilling civic duty 30. Only 7 tragedies of Aeschylus have reached us, not counting numerous scattered fragments.
The earliest of the surviving tragedies, "The Petitioners", still resembles a lyrical choral cantata. There's almost no action in it. All attention is focused on the chorus, which is the main character. “The Petitioners” is the first part of the trilogy about the Danaids, which is based on the ancient myth about the daughters of Danaus.
The Libyan king Danaus had 50 daughters, and his brother Egypt had 50 sons. The latter wished to marry their cousins and forced Danae and Danaid to agree. But on their wedding night, the Danaids, except for one, stabbed their husbands to death.
In the tragedy of Aeschylus, the Danaids, fleeing their pursuers, arrive in the Greek city of Argos to King Pelasgus, begging him to save and protect them from the Egyptians. The laws of hospitality prompt Pelasgus to help the unfortunate, but saving the girls threatens his entire people with war. Pelasgus is characterized as an ideal ruler who always acts in solidarity with the people. After much hesitation, he requests a national assembly, which agrees to help the Danaids. The tragic conflict between the ruler and the people found its resolution - the will of Pelasgus and his duty were united. But there is a war ahead with the Egyptians, which is spoken of by the rude and impudent messenger of the sons of Egypt, who came to demand the surrender of the girls.
In 472, Aeschylus staged a tetralogy in Athens, from which the tragedy “The Persians,” dedicated to the clash between Persia and Hellas and the defeat of the Persian army near the island of Salamis in 480, has been preserved. Although “The Persians” is based on real historical events, they are revealed in a mythological aspect. Aeschylus explains the defeat of the Persian state as punishment from the gods for the lust for power and immense pride of the Persian ruler, King Xerxes. In order to dramatize the action, Aeschylus takes his audience to the city of Susa, the capital of Persia. The old Persian advisers, who form the chorus of the tragedy, are worried by grave forebodings. Alarmed by an ominous dream, Xerxes' mother summons from the tomb the shadow of her deceased husband, who predicts the defeat of the Persians, sent by the gods as punishment for Xerxes' insolence. The accumulation of names unfamiliar to the Greek ear, the endless listing of states, cities, and leaders is evidence of an archaic dramatic technique. What is new is the feeling of fear and tense anticipation that permeates the remarks of the queen and the choir luminary. Finally Xerxes himself appears. In torn clothes, exhausted by a long journey, he bitterly mourns his misfortune.
The mythological perception of events did not prevent Aeschylus from correctly establishing the balance of forces both in the matter of personal human behavior and objective necessity, and in assessing the political situation. Military power Aeschylus contrasts the Persians with the love of freedom of the Greeks, about whom the Persian elders say:
“They are not slaves to mortals, they are not subject to anyone.”
The ill-fated fate of Xerxes, who wished to turn the sea into dry land and chain the Hellespont, should have served as a warning to anyone who would encroach on free Hellas. In the tragedy "The Persians" the role of the chorus has already been significantly reduced in comparison with "The Petitioners", the role of the actor has been increased, but the actor has not yet become the main carrier of the action. The first tragedy with a tragic hero in the modern sense of the word is Seven Against Thebes.
The plot of the tragedy is taken from the Theban cycle of myths. Once upon a time, King Lai committed a crime, and the gods predicted his death at the hands of his son. He ordered the slave to kill the newborn baby, but he took pity and handed the child over to another slave. The boy was adopted by the Corinthian king and queen and named Oedipus. When Oedipus grew up, God predicted to him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Considering himself the son of a Corinthian couple, Oedipus left Corinth and went wandering. On the way, he met Lai and killed him. Then he came to Thebes, saved the city from the monster Sphinx, and the grateful Thebans gave him the dowager queen as his wife. Oedipus became king of Thebes. From his marriage to Jocasta, he had daughters Antigone and Yemene and sons Eteocles and Polyneices. When Oedipus learned of his involuntary crimes, he blinded himself and cursed the children. After their death, the sons quarreled among themselves. Polynices fled from Thebes, gathered an army and approached the city gates. This begins the tragedy, the last in the trilogy about Laius and Oedipus. Like Homer's Hector, Eteocles is the only defender of the besieged city. Just like Hector, he is doomed to death, being the bearer of the Labdacid family curse 31. But, unlike Hector, belonging to an outcast clan and the inevitability near death made him gloomy and gloomy: the crying and groans of the Theban girls, who learned about the approach of enemies, evoke disgust and anger in him, but not pity. However, Eteocles is a valiant defender of the fatherland, a brave and decisive commander. He voluntarily enters into single combat with his brother, realizing that except him, no one will defeat Polyneices, and otherwise Thebes will be given over to the invaders for plunder. Realizing the inevitability of his death, Eteocles chooses for himself such a death, which becomes the key to the victory of Thebes. Both brothers die in a duel, and the Thebans joyfully exclaim:
The yoke of bondage will not fall on our city: The boast of mighty warriors has fallen to dust...
Using the examples of the fate of Xerxes and Eteocles, Aeschylus asserted the human right to freedom of personal will. But Xerxes' personal will was contrary to the public welfare, and therefore his actions ended in disaster. Eteocles’ personal will was directed toward saving his homeland; he achieved what he wanted and died a hero’s death.
The most famous of all surviving tragedies of Aeschylus, “Chained Prometheus” - part of the trilogy about Prometheus that has not reached us - sounds like a hymn to reason and justice. The myth of the Titan Prometheus is first found in literature in Hesiod, who portrays him as an intelligent and insidious deceiver, deservedly punished by Zeus, who was deceived by him. In Athens, Prometheus has long been revered along with Hephaestus as the god of fire. At the festival dedicated to him, young men competed in a race with burning torches (“Promethean fire”). The action of Aeschylus' tragedy takes place at the ends of the earth, in the wild country of the Scythians. In the prologue, Power and Strength, the rude servants of Zeus, bring the chained Prometheus, and Hephaestus, against his will, on the orders of Zeus, nails the titan to a high cliff 32. Prometheus, the only one left, laments his fate, calling on nature to bear witness to his suffering:
O you, divine ether, and you, O swift-winged winds, and rivers, And the laughter of the innumerable waves of the sea, The Earth is the all-mother, the all-seeing circle of the sun, I call you all as witnesses: look, what now, O God, I endure from the gods!
Prometheus' mournful monologue is interrupted by unexpected sounds:
What kind of noise is heard nearby from rushing birds? And the ether began to ring, We cut it with the blows of soaring wings.
A choir appears, depicting the daughters of the god Ocean, who have flown in on a winged chariot to console the sufferer. The Oceanids sing the first song of the choir (parod) entering the orchestra and ask Prometheus to tell what made Zeus resort to such a cruel punishment. The first episode, that is, the first act of the drama, opens with the story of Prometheus. Prometheus's guilt lies in his love for people and in his desire to protect them from the unjust attacks of the gods. Wishing people happiness, Prometheus hid the secrets of the future from them, gave them hope and, finally, brought fire. He did this knowing for sure that
Helping mortals, he prepared execution for himself.
The old man Ocean himself flies from the depths of the sea on a winged dragon to console Prometheus. But humility and repentance are alien to Prometheus. The ocean flies away, and the first act ends with the song-cry of the choir of the Oceanids, together with which all the people of the earth mourn Prometheus, the depths of the sea groan, crushing the angry surf against the coastal rocks, the silvery waves of the rivers cry, and even the gloomy Hades trembles dully in its underground chambers.
The second act opens with a long monologue of Prometheus, listing the benefits he showed to people: once, like miserable ants, they swarmed in underground caves, devoid of feelings and reason. Prometheus “showed them the rising and setting of the heavenly stars,” taught them “the science of numbers and literacy,” “gave them creative memory, the mother of the muses.” Thanks to him, people learned to tame wild animals and sail the seas, he revealed to them the secrets of healing and extracted for them the riches of the earth's bowels - "iron, and silver, and gold, and copper." “Everything is from me,” Prometheus ends his story, “wealth, knowledge, wisdom!” The era of the formation and victorious establishment of Athenian democracy, which proclaimed the freedom of the human mind and called upon man to active creative activity, is characterized by faith in the progressive development of human society. She found artistic expression in the image of the titan Prometheus. Hesiod's pessimistic ideas about social regression, reflected in the myths about Pandora, sent to people as punishment for the crime of Prometheus, and about five generations, no longer met with sympathy. According to the centuries-old mythological tradition, social progress is embodied in Aeschylus in the image of a benefactor god, who was the root cause of all cultural achievements of civilization. The Titan Prometheus becomes in Aeschylus' tragedy an active fighter for justice, an opponent of evil and violence. The greatness of his image is also emphasized by the fact that he, a seer, knew about his future suffering, but in the name of the happiness of people and the triumph of truth, he deliberately doomed himself to torture. The enemy of Prometheus, the enemy of people, the unbridled rapist and despot is Zeus himself, the father of gods and people, the ruler of the universe. In order to emphasize the arbitrariness of his power, Aeschylus brings out another victim of Zeus in his tragedy. Io runs up to the rock on which Prometheus is crucified. The unhappy beloved of Zeus, once beautiful girl, she is turned into a heifer by the jealous Hero and is doomed to endless wanderings. The gods changed Io's appearance, but retained her human mind. She is pursued by a gadfly, whose bites plunge the unfortunate woman into madness. Io's undeserved torment makes Prometheus forget about his own suffering. He consoles Io and predicts her imminent end to her torment and glory. In conclusion, he threatens the death of their common tormentor - Zeus, the secret of whose fate is known to him alone. The words of Prometheus reach the ears of Zeus, and the frightened tyrant sends the servant of the gods Hermes to Prometheus to find out the secret. Now the powerless, crucified Prometheus holds in his hands the fate of the omnipotent autocrat. He refuses to reveal the secret of Zeus and looks with contempt at Hermes, who voluntarily exchanged his freedom for the service of Zeus:
Know well that I would not exchange My sorrows for slave service 33.
Hermes threatens Prometheus with new unheard-of torments, but Prometheus knows that Zeus is not able to kill him, and “to endure torment for an enemy from an enemy is not at all shameful.” An angry Zeus brings down all the elements under his control on Prometheus. The crying, frightened Oceanids leave Prometheus in fear. The sky splits in the fire of sparkling lightning. Rolls of thunder shake the mountains. The earth is shaking. Winds intertwine in black clubs. The rock with Prometheus falls into the abyss. Further fate Promethea in Aeschylus's trilogy remains unknown, and all attempts by researchers to restore the lost parts of the trilogy have been unsuccessful. The surviving tragedy seemed strange to many. The image of Zeus, who in other dramas of Aeschylus acted as the embodiment of world order and justice, was considered especially mysterious. According to some ancient sources, we can conclude that the trilogy ended with the reconciliation of Prometheus and Zeus, Perhaps believing in world progress and forward movement peace to universal harmony, Aeschylus showed in his trilogy how Zeus, according to myth, forcibly seized power over the world, and subsequently, with the help of Prometheus, at the cost of his suffering, ceased to be a rapist and despot. But such assumptions continue to remain only hypotheses.
The tragedy of Aeschylus is still archaic in its composition. There is almost no action in it, it is replaced by a story about events. The hero crucified on the rock is motionless; he only monologues or talks with those who come to him.
However, the emotional impact of this tragedy is enormous. For many centuries, the most advanced ideas of society were associated with the image of the titan Prometheus, and the fire he brought to earth was considered the personification of the fire of thought that awakens people. For Belinsky, “Prometheus is a reasoning force, a spirit that does not recognize any authorities other than reason and justice” 34. The name of Prometheus forever became common noun a fearless fighter against despotism and tyranny. Under the influence of Aeschylus, the young Goethe created his rebellious "Prometheus". Romantic hero, Prometheus became a passionate hater of evil and an ardent dreamer in Byron’s poem of the same name and in Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound.” The symphonic poem "Prometheus Unbound" was written by Liszt, the symphony "Prometheus, or the Stealing of Fire" by Scriabin. In 1905, Bryusov called the fire of Prometheus, kindled in the rebellious souls of recent slaves, the flaring flame of the first Russian revolution.
In his last work, in the dramatic trilogy "Oresteia", Aeschylus showed a new, truly dramatic hero who, suffering and resisting, overcomes all obstacles and even defeats death. "Oresteia" was staged in the spring of 458 and received the first award. Its plot is based on the myth of the death of Agamemnon and the fate of his family. Before Aeschylus, this myth was used in choral lyric poetry to assert the power of the Delphic priests and glorify the cult of the god Apollo, the patron of the aristocracy, which they instilled. Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean army, after returning from Troy, was killed in his home, according to one version, by his cousin Aegisthus, according to another, by his wife Clytamestra. Agamemnon's son Orestes avenged his father's death by killing Aegisthus and his mother, and the god Apollo, who ordered Orestes to commit the murders, acquitted him and cleansed him of filth.
Aeschylus was not satisfied with the old religious interpretation of the myth, and he put new content into it. Shortly before the production of The Oresteia, Aeschylus's young rival, the poet Sophocles, introduced a third actor into the tragedy. Aeschylus in the Oresteia took advantage of Sophocles' innovation, which allowed him to complicate the action and focus on the images of the main characters. The first part of the trilogy, the tragedy "Agamemnon", tells about the death of the Achaean hero. Agamemnon's wife, Queen Clytaemestra, arranges a magnificent ceremony to welcome her husband, who returns victorious with rich booty. All those present are gripped by forebodings of impending disaster: the old servant, whom Clytaemestra forced to guard the return of the ships, is confused and frightened, the elders of Argos are in dismay, they listen with horror to the terrible prophecies of the Trojan princess Cassandra, Agamemnon’s captive. Only Agamemnon is calm and far from suspicion. But as soon as he enters the palace and crosses the threshold of his bath, Clytaemestra strikes him from behind with an ax and, having finished with her husband, kills Cassandra, who came running to Agamemnon’s cry. According to the laws ancient theater spectators were not supposed to see the murders. They heard only the screams of the victims and learned about what happened from the messenger's story. Then the ekkyclema, on which lay the bodies of the dead, was rolled out onto the orchestra. A triumphant Clytaemestra stood above them with an ax in her hands. According to traditional motivation, she took revenge on Agamemnon for the fact that once, wanting to speed up the departure of the Greek fleet to Troy, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the gods. The gods chose Clytaemestra as the instrument of punishment for the criminal father and carried out their justice. But this interpretation of the myth no longer satisfied Aeschylus. He was interested primarily in man and the ethical motives of his behavior. In the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" Aeschylus first connected a person's behavior with his character, and in "Agamemnon" he further developed this idea. His Clytaemestra is vicious in character, she is cruel and treacherous. It is not the abused feelings of her mother that guide her, but the desire to proclaim her lover Aegisthus the ruler of Argos and the successor of Agamemnon. Spattered with the blood of her victims, Clytaemestra says:
And I rejoiced as the brood rejoices at Zeus’s shower of swollen buds. The choir of elders is afraid of the queen, but does not hide their condemnation: How arrogant you are! There is so much pride in your speeches. The blood has intoxicated you! Fury has seized your soul. Do you believe that bloody stains suit your face...
By her behavior, Clytaemestra condemned herself to death and pronounced a sentence on herself. She did not want to be only an instrument of revenge of the gods on Agamemnon, whose death summed up all his delusions. In Aeschylus's tragedy, the fate of Agamemnon is inextricably intertwined with the fate of his murderer, Clytaemestra.
In the second part of the trilogy, in the tragedy "Choephora", the death of Clytaemestra, killed by her son avenging his father, brings severe trials Orestes. According to the Delphic version of the myth, Orestes killed his mother as the executor of the will of the deity: “Let the mortal blow be avenged with a mortal blow. Let the one who committed it suffer.” In "Choephori" Orestes is no longer a silent instrument of the gods, but a living suffering man. He wants to punish his father’s killer, his intention is clear and fair. But the killer is his own mother, therefore, by raising his hand against her, he becomes a criminal. And yet Orestes kills Clytaemestra. And when the murder is committed, Orestes' suffering reaches its limit, and madness seizes him. Aeschylus embodies the torment of his hero in the images of the disgusting Erinyes, goddesses of vengeance, who arose from the blood of a murdered mother. They pursue the unfortunate Orestes, and it seems that his torment has no end:
Where is the limit, where is the end, Where will the ancestral curse of anger fall asleep forever?
The answer to the troubling question of the final chorus of "Choephor" is the third part of the trilogy, "Eumenides", a tragedy dedicated to the justification of Orestes and the glorification of Athens. Orestes flees to Delphi, hoping to find salvation there, at the altar of Apollo. But Apollo cannot save him from the Erinyes and advises him to seek deliverance in Athens. There, the goddess Athena, the patroness of the city, establishes a special court, the Areopagus, to consider the Erinyes' complaint. Apollo takes upon himself the protection of Orestes. “The whole subject of the dispute,” writes Engels, “is concisely formulated in the debate taking place between Orestes and the Erinnyes. Orestes refers to the fact that Clytemnestra committed a double crime, killing her husband and at the same time his father. Why are the Erinnyes pursuing him, and not her, much more guilty? The answer is amazing: “She was not related by blood” 35. The votes of the judges were divided equally, and then, in order to save Orestes, Athena joins his supporters. “Paternal law triumphed over maternal law.” The dying foundations of matriarchal law defended the Erinyes; Athena and Apollo defended the principles of the emerging patriarchal law, however, with the triumph of the new order, which became the basis of a democratic state, and with the death of old tribal customs, in this case, the custom of blood feud. Erinyes do not want to reconcile.
Finally, Athena manages to persuade them to stay in her city, settle in a shady grove and become eternal givers of blessings for the Athenians - the Eumenides. The Erinyes agree, and the solemn procession heads to the sacred grove where they will settle. In this finale of the tragedy, all conflicts are resolved, the shaken wisdom and justice of the world order are reaffirmed. Citizens' court replaced blood feud; what turned out to be historically progressive triumphed. The mythological plot and its mythological embodiment did not affect the optimistic and life-affirming idea of the trilogy: even if the gods pursue a person and choose him as the arena of their struggle, they can be resisted and justified, despite the doom of the race, you just need to overcome your passivity and defend yourself, then the gods will defend man. In other words, Aeschylus calls people to active and conscious activity, to fight the unknown laws of the surrounding world in the name of mastering and conquering it.
The Oresteia trilogy, like all the works of Aeschylus, was addressed to the poet’s compatriots, citizens of Athens, which at that time stood at the head social progress, a stronghold of citizenship and progressive ideas. The tragic heroes of Aeschylus appear before the viewer at the moment of the highest emotional tension and mobilization of all their internal forces. Individual characteristics Aeschylus does not give an image. Personality in itself does not interest the poet; in her behavior he looks for action supernatural powers, depicting the fate of an entire family or even a state. When dramatizing the major political or ethical conflicts of his time, Aeschylus uses a solemn and sublime style that matches the grandeur of the dramatic conflicts. The images of his main characters are monumental and majestic. The pathos of the style is also contributed by original poetic images, rich vocabulary, internal rhymes, and various sound associations. Thus, in the tragedy "Agamemnon" the messenger talks about the winter that overtook the Achaeans near Troy, and characterizes it with one complex epithet - "bird-killing." To emphasize the disgusting appearance and monstrosity of the Erinyes, Aeschylus says that their eyes water with bloody fluid. Fragments of Aeschylus's satyr dramas have recently been discovered and published. In them, the stately and stern “father of tragedy,” the creator of monumental pathetic images, becomes an inexhaustible joker, a sincere and gentle humorist. The fascination of the plot, the bold comedy of the situations, the new everyday “base” characters with their simple experiences amaze us in these passages.
Back at the end of the 5th century BC. The comedic poet Aristophanes prophetically predicted immortality for Aeschylus. In one of his comedies he showed the god Dionysus, who descends into kingdom of the dead and brings Aeschylus to earth. God, the patron saint of the theater, does this because only Aeschylus, as Aristophanes assures the Athenians, has “wisdom,” “experience,” “straightforwardness,” and deserves the high right to be a teacher of the people. The fame that came to Aeschylus during his lifetime has survived centuries. His tragedies laid the foundation for European drama. Marx called the first Greek playwright his favorite poet; he read Aeschylus in the original Greek, considering him and Shakespeare “the greatest dramatic geniuses that humanity has ever produced” 36.
He was a legendary poet, a brave warrior, and possibly an initiate of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries. But we are all grateful to the Greek Aeschylus for the fact that he stood at the origins of the great, mysterious and sacred art, whose name is Theater.
There were three of them, the founders of the ancient theater, and they appeared almost simultaneously on the land of Hellas.
An ancient legend allows us to roughly establish the age ratio of the three great tragedians. When 45-year-old Aeschylus took part in the Battle of Salamis, Euripides was born on the very day of the battle, and Sophocles led the choir of ephebes who glorified this victory. And yet Aeschylus was the first.
He was born in Eleusis, a city in Attica located near Athens. This place, of which only ruins remain today, has been known for a long time thanks to the ancient center of the Mysteries located there. It was located around a crevice in the earth's surface, where, according to ancient Greek myth, Pluto forcibly carried away the daughter of Zeus and Demeter Persephone. In many works this place was later referred to as the “city of Goddesses.”
History has preserved few details from the life of the great tragedian. We know that Aeschylus' two brothers distinguished themselves in battles with the Persians, and he himself fought courageously at Marathon and Salamis. In the first of these battles he was wounded. And now it is quite surprising that the “father of tragedy” never forgot about his military past and was proud of it even more than of his peaceful occupation. This is evidenced by the lines of the epitaph he himself composed: “Under this monument is hidden Aeschylus, son of Euphoriot. He was born an Athenian and died among the fertile plains of Gela. The famous forest of Marathon and the quick-tongued Mede will tell whether he was brave. They know this!” They say that centuries later poets and artists from different eras made a pilgrimage to this slab in Sicily.
Aeschylus spent most of his life in Athens and, for unknown reasons, left them forever. According to one of the legends explaining such an escape, Aeschylus, initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, broke his vow of secrecy and in the tragedy “Prometheus Bound”, albeit allegorically, made the secrets revealed to him public.
Controversy continues to this day about what secrets Aeschylus divulged. It is very difficult to find and recognize them in his poems today. But maybe this legend is actually not far from the truth. Let us at least remember how unusually, again according to legend, the life of the 70-year-old tragic man ended. Roman sources say that an eagle lifted a heavy turtle into the air and dropped it on the bald head of the elder Aeschylus, mistaking it for a stone. Although it is true that this is how eagles sometimes kill their victims, this story is more like an allegory. After all, the eagle is a symbol of Zeus, and the turtle is a symbol of Apollo: an allusion to the retribution sent to Aeschylus for divulging sacred secrets.
“The Petitioners”, “Prometheus Bound”, “The Persians”, “Seven Against Thebes”, “Agamemnon”, “Choephori” and “Eumenides” are the names of seven of his tragedies that have survived to this day. We do not know exactly how many of them Aeschylus wrote. By separate parts From the Greek catalogs, which were available in all ancient libraries, it was possible to restore the names of 79 of his tragedies. It is believed that there were at least 90 of them.
Seven reached us. Like almost all classic works Ancient Greece, they are preserved in the archives of Alexandria. These were copies taken from official texts, the originals of which were in Athens. They came to Europe from Constantinople, already during the Renaissance.
According to Aristotle, Aeschylus creates a new form of tragedy. He "is the first to increase the number of actors from one to two and to give importance to the dialogue on stage." The actors, chorus and audience in Aeschylus are connected by a single thread of what is happening. The audience participates in the performance, expressing approval of the characters or indignation at their actions. The dialogue between the two actors is often accompanied by murmurs, screams of horror, or crying from the audience. The chorus in Aeschylus's tragedy becomes the spokesman for the thoughts and feelings of the characters and even the audience themselves. What only vaguely arises in their souls under the influence of what is happening on stage suddenly acquires clear outlines and harmony in the wise remarks of the choir.
There is very little information left about what mechanics Aeschylus used during his performances, but it seems that the special effects system of the ancient theater made it possible to work miracles. In one of his now lost works - it was called "Psychostasia" or "Weighing of Souls" - Aeschylus imagined Zeus in the sky, who weighed the fates of Memnon and Achilles on huge scales, while the mothers of both, Eos and Thetis, "floated" in the air next to the scales. How was it possible to lift large weights into the sky and throw them down from a height, to cause during the action, as in Prometheus Bound, lightning, rain and mountain collapses that awed the audience?
It is logical to assume that the Greeks used large cranes, lifting devices, hatches, water and steam drainage systems, as well as all kinds of chemical mixtures, so that fire or clouds appeared at the right moment. Nothing survives that could support this hypothesis. And yet, if the ancients achieved such effects, then they must have had special means and devices for this.
Aeschylus is credited with many other, simpler theatrical innovations. For example, buskins - shoes with high wooden soles, luxurious clothes, as well as improvement of the tragic mask with the help of a special horn to amplify the sound. Psychologically, all these tricks: increasing height and strengthening the sound of the voice - were designed to create an environment befitting the appearance of gods and heroes.
The theater of Ancient Greece was very different from the theater we are used to beginning of the XXI century. Classic theater mystical and religious. The performance does not please the audience, but gives a lesson in life, through empathy and compassion, which imbues the viewer, cleanses his soul from certain passions.
With the exception of "The Persians", which were based on real historical events, Aeschylus' tragedies were always based on epic, myth, folk legends. These were the Trojan and Theban wars. Aeschylus knew how to restore them to their former glory, to give them grandeur and current meaning. King Pelasgus in The Petitioners discusses the affairs of the state as if he were a Greek of the 5th century BC. The controversial Zeus from Prometheus Bound sometimes uses expressions worthy of the Athenian ruler Peisistratus. Eteocles in the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" gives orders to his army as a strategist - a contemporary of Aeschylus - would do.
He had an amazing ability in a separate, particular case to see not just an episode in a chain of events, but its connection with the spiritual world and with fate itself, managing people and the Universe. His tragedies have the rare property of always remaining above the triviality of everyday life and even bringing into it something of Ultimate reality. In this art the followers will not be able to compare with Aeschylus. They will invariably descend to earth, into the human world. And their gods and heroes will be so similar to ordinary people with their passions and desires that we will hardly be able to recognize them as the mysterious inhabitants of the Other Reality. With Aeschylus, everything, absolutely everything, is shrouded in mystery, fanned by the Breath of what stands above people.
For a person at the beginning of the 21st century with his way of thinking, this may seem boring and tedious, but we cannot measure by our standards what existed and was valued 2500 years ago. In addition, Aeschylus sought to teach a lesson, and not to entertain, because this was not what the tragedy served. There were other places and circumstances for entertainment, and therefore no one was surprised by their absence in the theater, just as today it does not seem strange to us that no one laughs at a concert of Beethoven's music - we go to the circus to laugh.
Having learned about the death of Aeschylus, the Athenians awarded him the highest honors, and the tragedies that had won in so many competitions were staged again. Aeschylus, who became the character of Aristophanes' "Frogs", says about himself: "My poetry did not die with me."
Many centuries later, Victor Hugo wrote about Aeschylus: “... it is impossible to approach him without the awe that you experience in the face of something huge and mysterious - He is like a colossal rocky block, steep, devoid of gentle slopes and soft outlines, and at the same time he filled with special charm, like flowers of distant, inaccessible lands. Aeschylus is an ancient mystery in human form, a pagan prophet. His works, if they had all reached us, would have been the Greek Bible.”
It often happens that when we approach our own past, we find that we know very little about it, partly because the sources are scanty, and partly because we are neither inclined to cherish nor try to explain it. Perhaps to some such attempts will seem only a memory of the ashes of forgotten times. But for some they can become the smallest particles of a better, new world. A world that is more humane and more directed towards God.
for the magazine "Man Without Borders"
