Persians
Persians (Persai; Persae) Author: Aeschylus
First Performance: 472 BC, Athens
First English Translation: 1777
Genre: Greek trag. in verse
Setting: The Persian royal palace at Susa, 480 BC
Cast: 3m, 1f, chorus (m)
The chorus of old men sings of the massive army that the Persian King Xerxes is leading against the Greeks to avenge the shame of his defeat at Marathon. They and Xerxes' mother Atossa, wait anxiously for news from the battle. A messenger arrives with the terrible news that the Persian army has been destroyed by the Greeks. Amidst the general mourning, the ghost of the last king Darius appears. He foretells the destruction of the last remnants of the Persian army. Xerxes now returns, and the play ends with his lamentation and self-reproach.
Persians is the earliest extant Greek tragedy...
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