The Persians and Other Plays: The Persians / Prometheus Bound / Seven Against Thebes / The Suppliants (Penguin Classics)

Aeschylus

ISBN 10: 014044999X / ISBN 13: 9780140449990

Published by Penguin Classics, 2009

About this Item

2009. First Edition. paperback. Deals with events from Athenian history, and depicts the final defeat of Persia in the battle of Salamis. This work shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the cursed family of Oedipus, and relates the pursuit of the fifty daughters of Danaus by the fifty sons of Aegyptus, and their final rescue by a heroic king. Translator(s): Sommerstein, Alan H. Num Pages: 304 pages, maps. BIC Classification: DB; DD. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 196 x 130 x 19. Weight in Grams: 230. . . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780140449990

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Persians and Other Plays: The Persians / Prometheus Bound / Seven Against Thebes / The Suppliants (Penguin Classics)
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 014044999X
• ISBN 13: 9780140449990
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art. The Persians, the only Greek tragedy to deal with events from recent Athenian history, depicts the final defeat of Persia in the battle of Salamis, through the eyes of the Persian court of King Xerxes, becoming a tragic lesson in tyranny. In Prometheus Bound, the defiant Titan Prometheus is brutally punished by Zeus for daring to improve the state of wretchedness and servitude in which mankind is kept. Seven Against Thebes shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the cursed family of Oedipus, while The Suppliants relates the pursuit of the fifty daughters of Danaus by the fifty sons of Aegyptus, and their final rescue by a heroic king.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

Aeschylus (born at Eleusis, near Athens, c. 525 BC; died at Gela, Sicily, 456 BC) was the dramatist who first made Athenian tragedy one of the world's great art forms, though in his epitaph he preferred that he should be remembered as one of those who fought the Persians at Marathon. Although he is said to have written over seventy plays, only seven have survived.

Alan H. Sommerstein has been Professor of Greek at the University of Nottingham since 1988. He has written or edited more than thirty books on Ancient Greek language and literature, especially tragic and comic drama, including Aeschylean Tragedy (1996), Greek Drama and Dramatists (2002), and a complete edition of the comedies of Aristophanes with translation and commentary (1980-2003).