Who is Aeschylus?
Aeschylus was a Greek playwright, the first of the three great tragedians of Ancient Greece. His work continues to be widely read, performed, and discussed today in nations all over the world, despite the fact that it is thousands of years old. Many people credit Aeschylus with setting a number of reforms to Greek theatre in motion, setting the stage for Euripides and Sophocles, the other tragedians of Ancient Greece who have towered over the genre of playwriting for centuries. Aeschylus was born in 525 BCE, in a rural part of Attic Greece, the region of Greece which was ruled by the Athenian city-state. According to Greek legend, he originally worked in a vineyard, later taking care of his family’s animals, and the Gods visited him with a vision at the age of 26, telling him that he should take up the pen instead of the shepherd’s staff. His first play won accolades, and he turned to playwriting as a career. It is estimated that Aeschylus may have written as many as 90 plays, but unfo
