Expert: Maria - 6/15/2006

Question
Subject: Ancient Greek History.In �The Praise Singer� (page 96-97) Mary Renault seems to say that Athens was sacked and burned by the Medes when Aeschylus was 10 years old and Simonides was 40. That would be about 515 BC.  As far as I�ve been able to find, Athens was first sacked and burned by the Persians just before the battle of Salamis in 480 BC.  What am I missing? Also, Can you refer me to works of history or historical fiction that would fill in details of the life of Aeschylus?

Answer
Hello,

As you say, Athens was first sacked and burned by the Persians just after the Battle of Thermopylae and before the battle of Salamis in 480 BC, when Aeschylus was 45 years old, while  Simonides was 76  and lived in Sicily at the court of Hiero I of Syracuse where he died in about 469 BC.

As for a reliable biography of Aeschylus, I can suggest the following books:

Herington, John. Aeschylus. Yale University Press, 1986.

Spatz, Lois. Aeschylus. Twayne Publishers, 1982.

Thomson, George. Aeschylus & Athens (1940; repr. 1969)

Murray, Gilbert. Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy  (1940, repr. 1978)

Beck, Robert Holmes. Aeschylus: Playwright, Educator. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1975


Finally I must point out that the only  uncertain biographical notes we have on Aeschylus date back to an anonymous text called Aeschylus Life wich was handed down to posterity together with his seven tragedies in the Codex Mediceus Laurentius, a manuscript in the Biblioteca Laurentiana in Florence, Italy.

Quite rightly in fact it was said that “in the lives of the three great Greek tragedians, tradition is so mixed with fact, and the facts themselves frequently so uncertain, that it is hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins”.

Best regards,
Maria