Aeschylus [RARE BOOKS]

"The epic sweep of his plays, their exalted dialogue, their broad strokes of character- ization, and their situations which are fixed upon the peaks of titanic passion, belong to a heroic age. His orchestration favors trum- pets, and his thought-no matter how sub- tle-rings with martial challenge. As he stands at the crossroads of ethics, he has the bearing of a soldier holding his ground against a horde of opponents, neither giving nor asking quarter. Moreover, for all his brooding upon human evil there is in his work a sense of resolute optimism.... Even in his profoundest probings, always ex- pressed in terms of colossal struggle, he remains a fighting poet."

-John Gassner, Masters of The Drama

The Oresteia trilogy (Agamemnon, Choe- phoroe, and Eumenides) is probably the greatest work of Aeschylus. The curse on the House of Atreus involves King Aga- memnon, his wife, Clytemnestra, and their son, Orestes, in a turbulent drama of mur- der and revenge.

Prometheus Bound is one of the great peren- nial themes in literature. Through the suffering of its courageous hero we see the fate of those who defy the gods.