The Persians (version 2)

The earliest of Aeschylus' plays to survive is "The Persians" (Persai), performed in 472 BC and based on experiences in Aeschylus's own life, specifically the Battle of Salamis. It is unique among surviving Greek tragedies in that it describes a recent historical event. "The Persians" focuses on the popular Greek theme of hubris by blaming Persia's loss on the pride of its king. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilogy that won the first prize at the dramatic competitions in Athens’ City Dionysia festival in 472 BCE, with Pericles serving as choregos. The first play in the trilogy was called "Phineus"; it presumably dealt with Jason and the Argonauts' rescue of King Phineus from the torture that the monstrous harpies inflicted at the behest of Zeus. The subject of the third play, "Glaucus," was either a mythical Corinthian king who was devoured by his horses because he angered the goddess Aphrodite or a Boeotian farmer who ate a magical herb that transformed him into a sea deity with the gift of prophecy. In "The Persians," Xerxes invites the gods' enmity for his hubristic expedition against Greece in 480/79 BCE; the focus of the drama is the defeat of Xerxes' navy at Salamis. Aeschylus himself had fought the Persians at Marathon (490 BC). He may also have fought at Salamis, just eight years before the play was performed. Summary by Wikipedia (edited by Expatriate) (1 hr 7 min)

Chapters

Part I	23:35	Read by Expatriate
Part II	19:52	Read by Expatriate
Part III	24:13	Read by Expatriate

Reviews

Pride Go-eth Before

(5 stars)

Naesmile

The reader, Expatriate, did an excellent job with the text; reading clearly and carefully with good inflection without overdramatizing. (I did adjust the speed slightly to a 1.2) The play portrays the return of Xerxes after the defeat of his armies at Salamis. It does not convey the same sense of story as others of the same period, but gives the subject (We finally beat the Persians!) a new angle by exposing the defeat from the view of the defeated (Xerxes, his mother Atossa, the ghost of his father Darius, and a chorus of Persian citizens). The lamentations are quite moving, but may have elicited a less generous emotion from an audience who had suffered during the Persian invasion.

Dramatic Ancient Propaganda

(4 stars)

Sean O'Shannessy

Xerxes comes across as a real loser in Aeschylus shamelessly triumphalist version of the Greco-Persian war. His audience probably didn't want to hear how Xerxes soundly defeated the Spartans and killed their king at Thermopolyae nor how his armies conquered and burnt Athens TWICE. Moving poetic accounts of the shame felt by the king of Persia's mother and dead father at their son's humiliation must have played well in the Hellenic world amongst those who wanted a feel good story propping o their own self image but as with any nationalist propaganda they bear very little relationship to the facts.

good