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
pain memories sleep
Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, So men against their will Learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods.
mankind misfortunes
The misfortunes of mankind are of varied plumage.
pain suffering would-be
For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.
done firsts causes
Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?
fashion eagles hands
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft: With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.
hands smitten feathers
With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.
force irresistible
The force of necessity is irresistible.
revenge war night
I pray for no more youth To perish before its prime; That Revenge and iron-heated War May fade with all that has gone before Into the night of time.
moving light golden
The moving light, rejoicing in its strength, Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way, In golden glory, like some strange new sun...
fear stronger arms
Fear is stronger than arms.
birthday age taught
By Time and Age full many things are taught.
heart wine mirrors
Bronze is the mirror of form, wine of the heart.
art pain physicians
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse.
summer dog stars
I pray the gods some respite from the weary task of this long year's watch that lying on the Atreidae's roof on bended arm, dog- like, I have kept, marking the conclave of all night's stars, those potentates blazing in the heavens that bring winter and summer to mortal men, the constellations, when they wane, when they rise.