In the twentieth century Aeschylus's plays, especially his trilogy known as the
Oresteia (458
B.C.), are widely considered to be masterpieces containing some of the greatest poetry ever composed for the stage. Unfortunately, only seven plays of Aeschylus have survived intact.
Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion, was born in 525-524 B.C., of a noble family with Athenian citizenship in the deme, or village, of Eleusis. Not far from the growing city of Athens, Eleusis was sacred to the two goddesses of grain, Demeter and her daughter, Persephone; it was also the center for the Eleusinian Mysteries, a principal mystery religion in ancient Greece. In 534, about ten years before Aeschylus was born, the Athenian dictator Peisistratus transferred the cult center of Dionysus Eleuthereus ("of Eleutherae," a village on the border of Attica) to downtown Athens, just south of the Acropolis. Here Peisistratus instituted an annual festival, the Great or City Dionysia, which included public performances where songs and dances by a chorus alternated with solo recitations by a poet; in each performance, poet and chorus explored themes from the Greek myths.
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