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
toil fame
Death hath a fairer fame than a life of toil.
truth pain suffering
The truth Has to be melted out of our stubborn lives By suffering. Nothing speaks the truth, Nothing tells us how things really are, Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain. And this is how the gods declare their love.
night men thinking
Nor does night conceal men's deeds of ill, but whatsoe'er thou dost, think that some God beholds it.
compulsion destroyed
Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed.
suffering birth glory
Still to the sufferer comes, as due from God, a glory that to suffering owes its birth.
blood
In the sinews of the dead there is no blood.
air heaven earth
The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.
judgment fortune
Fortune is for all, judgment is theirs who have won it for themselves.
men deliverance crime
If a man should wanton walk with crime ... he shall find in death no great deliverance.
long suffering lasts
Courage! Suffering, when it climbs highest, lasts not long.
destiny men shadow
Alas, poor men, their destiny. When all goes well a shadow will overthrow it. If it be unkind one stroke of a wet sponge wipes all the picture out.
women burning spirit
The burning gaze of a young woman, such as hath tasted man, shall not escape me; for I have a spirit keen to mark these things.
wine water house
Jars neither of wine nor of water shall fail in the houses of the rich.
destiny wealth stealth
Nought is there in wealth That serves as bulwark 'gainst the subtle stealth Of Destiny and Doom.