The Persians

The Persians (Πέρσαι) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. It is the oldest surviving play in the history of theater. It is also notable for being the only extant Greek tragedy based on contemporary events. The Persians was part of a trilogy produced in 472 BC that won the first prize at the dramatic competition in Athens’ City Dionysia festival. According to a hypothesis appended to a manuscript of the play, the first play in the trilogy was called Phineus, and it presumably dealt with Jason and the Argonauts’ rescue of King Phineus from the torture of the monstrous Harpies. The subject of the third play, Glaucus, was either a mythical Corinthian king who was eaten by his own horses, or else a Boeotian farmer who ate a magical herb that transformed him into a sea deity with the gift of prophecy. Given Aeschylus’ propensity for writing connected trilogies, it has been argued by some that these two plays would have indirectly forecast events of the Persian invasion...