Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschyluswas an ancient Greek tragedian. His plays, alongside those of Sophocles and Euripides, are the only works of Classical Greek literature to have survived. He is often described as the father of tragedy: critics and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater to allow conflict among them, whereas characters previously had interacted only...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
fire black smoke
Black smoke, the flickering sister of fire.
yoke slavery
Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
heart wine mirrors
Bronze is the mirror of form, wine of the heart.
laughter ocean wave
Myriad laughter of the ocean waves.
time justice voiceless
Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time. These lines are from a section of doubtful or spurious fragments.
men justice hypocrisy
Many among men are they who set high the show of honor, yet break justice.
quality female deceit
Wiles and deceit are female qualities.
hands smitten feathers
With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.
birthday age taught
By Time and Age full many things are taught.
pain wall suffering
Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers.
dream children men
Old men are children once again a dream that sways and wavers into the hard light of day.
heaven mouths temples
No bribes. Nothing that passes under the roof of a temple Or under the roof of the mouth, can appease heaven's anger Or deflect its aim.
hate fate men
For this our task hath Fate spun without fail to last for ever sure, that we on man weighed down with deeds of hate should follow till the earth his life immure. Nor when he dies can he boast of being truly free.
stronger age youth
Old age hath stronger sense of right than youth.