Greek drama has been very important for the ancient Greeks, later literary development, and modern audiences. Aeschylus, the earliest Greek tragedian, laid the foundation for an aesthetics of drama that would influence plays for well over two thousand years. As E. Christian Kopf stated in "Aeschylus" from The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 176: Ancient Greek Authors, "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."

The artistic effects of Greek tragedy—the earliest form of drama created—were felt almost immediately. Aristophanes' Frogs, produced in 405 B.C., compares the work of Aeschylus and Euripides. Athenian philosophers began to analyze Greek drama as its period of greatness drew to an end. Plato initiated the history of criticism of tragedy with his speculation on the...