The Age of Pericles | Aeschylus and Early Tragedy (Lecture 13)

Lecture 13: We remember the Greeks for the searing dramas first composed and performed in the age of Pericles by the three geniuses of Attic tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Each was interested in the clash of systems, in particular, dilemmas that left the individual caught between different obligations. In this lecture, we will begin with Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, a play that has been translated and performed thousands of times. The hero is the figure who gave humans fire but was punished by Zeus for helping humankind. In the play, we witness the power of the gods, and it is awful. These gods are greater than we are and compel obedience. In Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus explores the pettiness of power and the powerlessness of the weak. Staged at a time when the Athenians had newly become powerful, the play may be the product of anxieties they felt concerning their own strength and privileges. Like the other great plays of the 5th century, Aeschylus’s masterpiece may be significant precisely because it is both universal and very much the product of Athenian power in the 5th century.

Suggested Reading:
Rosenmeyer, T. G. The Art of Aeschylus. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982.
Griffith, M. The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

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