[f1]
"Æschylus used to say that his tragedies were only slices cut from the
great banquet of Homeric dainties."--Athenæus, VIII. p. 348.
[f2]
In the FROGS (v. 886), Aristophanes makes him show at once the
religiousness of his character, and its source, in the two lines of
invocation--
"O thou that nourished my young soul, Demeter,
Make thou me worthy of thy mysteries!"
[f3]
From the διδασκαλία, or note of the year of representation with the
name of the author, in the argument to that play. On the arguments from
internal evidence brought forward to prove that the SUPPLIANTS is the
oldest extant play, I place no value whatever. The simplicity of
structure proves nothing, because it proves too much. Several of the
extant plays are equally simple. For aught we know, it may have been the
practice of Æschylus to the very last, as we see in the case of the
Choephoræ, to give the middle piece of his trilogies less breadth and
variety than the opening and concluding ones; and it is almost certain
that the SUPPLIANTS was either the second or the first play of a
trilogy.
[f4]
Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1060, Welcker's Tril. p. 475, and the _Vit.
Robortel._ (which, however, I have not seen).
[f5]
Mar. Par. ep. 53. Welcker's _Tril._ p. 116.
[f6]
See Introduction to that piece.
[f7]
Scholiast, Aristoph. Acharn. v. 10.
[f8]
PHILOSTRATUS, Vit. Soph. I. 9; Vit. Apollon. VI. 11, p. 244.
[f9]
The great comedian is particularly amusing in the contrast which he draws
between the rude instinctive grandeur of the Æschylean diction and the
elegant rhetorical decorations of Euripides:--
"With high-sounding words he will make such a pother,
With helmeted speeches he bravely will spout;
With chippings and shavings of rhetoric the other
All whirling and dancing about
Will stand at bay; but the deep-thoughted bard,
With equestrian harmonies, galloping hard,
Will floor in the fight
The glib-tongued wight.
The stiff hair of his mane all alive for the fray,
Bristling and big from the roots he will ruffle;
His black brows he will knit, and terribly bray,
Like a lion that roars for the scuffle.
Huge words by rivets and spike-nails bound,
Like plank on plank he will fling on the ground,
Blasting so bold
Like a Titan of old."
[f10]
ARISTOTLE, Ethic. Nicom. III. 1. CLEMEN. ALEX., Strom II. 14, p.
461. POTT. Aelian, V.H.V. 19, and WELCKER, Trilog. p. 106.
[f11]
The primary authorities for the life of Æschylus are the PARIAN
MARBLE, the Βίος Αισχύλου, the FROGS of ARISTOPHANES, the
arguments of the extant plays, and various incidental notices in
ATHENÆUS and other ancient authors, most of whom have been quoted or
mentioned in the text. With regard to secondary sources of information,
the present writer has been much assisted, and had his labour
essentially curtailed, by PETERSEN's _Vita Æschyli_, Havniae, 1812;
the article ÆSCHYLUS, by WHISTON, in Dr. SMITH's Dictionary of
Biography and Mythology; the admirable condensed summary in
BERNHARDY's _Grundriss der Griechischen Litteratur, 2ter, Theil_,
HALLE, 1845; and DONALDSON's Greek Theatre. In Chronology, I have
followed CLINTON.