THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

INTRODUCTION
THE PERSIANS enjoys a unique position among the Greek tragedies which
we now possess because it is the only play which deals with historical subject
matter. It was presented at Athens in 472 B.C., eight years after the
victory of the Greeks at Salamis, which it celebrates, and about twenty
years after the composition of The Suppliants. Aeschylus has chosen
for his setting Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire, at the time when
news from the battle was being eagerly awaited. When word finally arrives,
the poet conveys to the audience the magnitude of Athens' victory
by studying how the Persians react to their overwhelming defeat. He
presents first the abject despair of Dowager Queen Atossa, wife of the
great Darius and mother of the present King, Xerxes, leader of the illstarred
expedition. The ghost of Darius returns, conjured up from the
dead, to join in the lamentation, and finally, at the close of the play
Xerxes himself appears, broken and desolate.
Aeschylus was faced with a difficult artistic task in dealing with this
subject. He had to present a play which would redound to the greater
glory of Athens and at the same time maintain itself upon a level appropriate
to tragedy. Perhaps in no other place has he given better evidence
of the power of his creative imagination than in this play. As has been
pointed out, 1 by placing it at Susa, a spot remote in space, he gains a
dignity for his piece which is usually brought about in tragedy by remoteness
in time. Then further his praise of Athens is generally by indirection.
He mentions none of the great Greeks connected with the battle,
not even Themistocles, but at the same time he incorporates into his
lines dozens of Persian proper names, whose very size and sound are
effective for the poet's purpose. Or again, it seems to be more than simply
a dramatic device when Atossa asks, in her speech on page 57, to be told
where Athens is.
The play is perhaps most remarkable in that it does not exult over the
defeated enemy. In fact, it rather builds up a profound and deep human
sympathy for the conquered Persians. Aeschylus seems to have been able
to lift himself above the limitations of time and space, and to have seen
1 Cf. G. Norwood, Greek Tragedy, p. 88.
49