was converted, by judicious alterations in the treatment, leaving its fundamental character unchanged, into the best metrical form for a vigorous, animated, and yet serious conversation. But in the works of Æschylus it maintained a greater elevation above ordinary prose than in those of his predecessors; not only from the stately sound of the reiterated long syllables, but also from the regular accordance of the pauses in the sense with the ends of verses, by which the several verses stand out distinct. The later tragedians not only made the construction of the verses more varied, light, and voluble, but also divided and connected them more frequently according to the endings and beginnings of sentences; whereby the dialogue acquired an expression of freer and more natural movement.
After having thus investigated and analyzed in detail the forms in which the tragic poet had to embody the creations of his genius, we should naturally proceed to investigate the essence of a Greek tragedy, following the track indicated by the celebrated definition of Aristotle, "Tragedy is the imitation of some action that is serious, entire, and of a proper magnitude; effecting through pity and terror the refinement of these and similar affections of the soul."[1]
But this cannot be done till we have examined more closely the plan and contents of separate tragedies of Æschylus and Sophocles. We shall therefore best accomplish our aim by proceeding to consider the peculiar character of Æschylus as presented to us by his life and works.
CHAPTER XXIII.
§ 1. Life of Æschylus. § 2. Number of his tragedies, and their distribution into trilogies. § 3. Outline of his tragedies; the Persians. § 4. The Phineus and the Glaucus Pontius. § 5. The Ætnæan women. § 6. The Seven against Thebes. § 7. The Eleusinians. § 8. The Suppliants; the Egyptians. § 9 The Prometheus bound. § 10. The Prometheus unbound. § 11. The Agamemnon. § 12. The Choëphoræ. § 13. The Eumenides, and the Proteus. § 14. General characteristics of the poetry of Æschylus. § 15. His latter years and death.
§ 1. Æschylus, the son of Euphorion, an Athenian, from the hamlet of Eleusis, was, according to the most authentic record, born in Olymp. 63. 4. B. C. 525.[2] He was therefore thirty-five years old at the time of the battle of Marathon, and forty-five years old at the time of the battle of Salamis. Accordingly, he was among the Greeks who were contemporary, in the fullest sense of the word, with these great events,
- ↑ Aristot. Poet. 6. μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας, μέγεθος ἐχούσης . . . δι᾽ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.
- ↑ The celebrated chronological inscription of the island of Paros states the year of his death and his age, whence the year of his birth can be determined.
