Editing Aeschylus (section)

==Death==
[[File:Death of Aeschylus in Florentine Picture Chronicle.jpg|thumb|The death of Aeschylus illustrated in the 15th century ''Florentine Picture Chronicle'' by [[Maso Finiguerra]]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Meditation in Solitude |author=Ursula Hoff |journal=Journal of the Warburg Institute |volume=1 |year=1938 |pages=292–294 |jstor=749994 |issue=44 |doi=10.2307/749994|s2cid=192234608 }}</ref>]]

In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of [[Gela]], where he died in 456 or 455&nbsp;BC. [[Valerius Maximus]] wrote that he was killed outside the city by a [[tortoise]] dropped by an [[eagle]] which had mistaken his head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell, and killed him.<ref name=CGC/> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historiæ]]'', adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object,<ref name=CGC>{{citation |page=136 |quote=The unusual nature of Aeschylus' death&nbsp;... |title=A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the Cradle of Western Civilization |author =J. C. McKeown |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-998210-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Pliny the Elder |title=The Natural History |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D3 |chapter=Book X, Chapter 3 |quote=This eagle has the instinct to break the shell of the tortoise by letting it fall from aloft, a circumstance which caused the death of the poet Æschylus. An oracle, it is said, had predicted his death on that day by the fall of a house, upon which he took the precaution of trusting himself only under the canopy of the heavens.}}</ref> but this story may be a legend and due to a misunderstanding of the iconography on Aeschylus' tomb.<ref>Critchley 2009</ref> Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death his tragedies were the only ones allowed to be restaged in subsequent competitions.{{sfn|Sommerstein|2010}} His sons [[Euphorion (playwright)|Euphorion]] and Euæon and his nephew Philocles also became playwrights.{{sfn|Sommerstein|2010}}

The inscription on Aeschylus' gravestone makes no mention of his theatrical renown, commemorating only his military achievements:
{{poemquote|
{{lang|grc|Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει
μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας·
ἀλκὴν δ' εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποι
καὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος}}

Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian,
who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela;
of his noble prowess the grove of Marathon can speak,
and the long-haired Persian knows it well.|source={{cite book |title=Anthologiae Graecae Appendix, vol. 3, Epigramma sepulcrale |page=17}}}}