Aeschylus: The Complete Plays, Vol. I

Aeschylean tragedy represents the earliest extant Greek tragedy of the late-6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., as well as being one of the pinnacles of the art form. It is the product of an Athens that in the late 6th century devised and implemented a form of government known as democracy; not of a parliamentary or representative sort, but a direct democracy, one in which the Athenian citizen governed himself, which is what democracy means: rule by the people. Along with this gift to civilzation came trial by jury, and from there the flowering of a culture whose achievement has led the world ever since: Philosophy, sculpture, architecture, poetry--and by no means least--theater. Aeschylus loved Athens, and in particular its achievement in government, to such a degree that no matter in what time his plays are set--at the point just after Time begins, in the days of the Homeric hero, or in his own time--there is always Athens, or Athens' image, and her glory, primarily in regard to justice. In many respects Aeschylus served as Athens' conscience as well as the profoundest expositor of her greatness.