Tragedies VII

1580

Shoults La 1580 A

[Antwerp: Christophe Plantin]

Barnes states ‘To the Greeks we attribute virtually all our literary forms… [for example] historical writing, literary criticism, … lyrical poetry… philosophical dialogue…comedy’ and of course tragedy. Composed for the Dionysia, an Athenian festival celebrating the god of wine Dionysus, Greek tragedies pitted man against the gods in battles of will and destiny. Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BC), wrote about 70 plays, seven of which survive to this day. Agamemnon, the first play in Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy, tells of Agamemnon’s return from the Trojan War and his subsequent assassination by his wife, Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) quoted Aeschylus, ‘his favourite poet’, on the campaign trail in 1968 after hearing of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).