The Persians

"The Persians" is a minor work in the extant plays of Aeschylus, but has considerable historical if not dramatic significance. The play is the second and only remaining tragedy from a lost tetralogy that is based on the historical events of the Persians Wars. The play was performed in 472 B.C., eight years after the defeat of the invaders at the Battle of Salamis. The speech by the Messenger is assumed to be a fairly accurate description of the battle, but the focus of the play is on the downfall of the Persian Empire because of the folly of Xerxes. After the ghost of Darius, father of Xerxes and the leader of the first Persian invasion that was defeated at the Battle of Marathon laments the ruin of the great empire he had ruled, Xerxes offers similar histrionics concerning the destruction of his fleet. The play is interesting because Aeschylus presents Xerxes, a foreign invader, as exhibiting the same sort of hubris that afflicts the greatest of mythological heroes in these Greek tragedies. Laud and honor is given the Athenians for defeating the Persians in battle, but Aeschylus surprisingly provides a look at the Persian king's culpability in the downfall of his empire. There is a reference in the play to the tradition that Xerxes was descended from Perseus (for whom the Persian race was therefore named), but even so it seems quite odd to turn him into a traditional Greek tragic hero. Aeschylus had fought the Persians at the Battles of Marathon and Salamis, which certainly lends authenticity to his description of events. Aeschylus won the festival of Dionysus in 472 B.C. with the tetralogy of "Phineus," "The Persians," "Glaucus of Potniae," and the satyr play "Prometheus the Fire-Kindler." Phineas was the king who became the victim of the Harpies, while this particular Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus and the father of Bellerophon who was torn to pieces by his own mares. Consequently, this particular tetralogy clearly has the theme of kings brought down by their own folly. But even within that context, the fact that Aeschylus would write of a historical rather than legendary figure, not to mention a Persian rather than a Greek, remains more than a minor historical curiosity.

"Persians" deals with a people trying to exceed mortal limits. The king of persia blinds his people into believing they can accomplish deeds that exceed the laws of the divine and it's natural order. The king invades Greece despite bad omens. The people in Persia are told they are defeated by a messenger and mourn in mad disbelief. Searching for answers they summon the spirit of a once great king who cannot undo what has now been done. Persia's once proud army, security, and young sons are perished. This translation is excellent. The ending of the play through subject matter is sad enough, but the helpless lines delivered by King Xerxes and the chorus through dialogue toward each other at the end of the play is devastating.