Editing Aeschylus (section)

==Works==
[[Image:Athen Theatre of Dionysus BW 2017-10-09 14-29-49.jpg|thumb|250px|Modern picture of the [[Theatre of Dionysus]] in Athens, where many of Aeschylus's plays were performed]]
[[File:Tragediae septem.tif|thumb|''Tragoediae septem'' (1552)]]
The seeds of Greek drama were sown in religious festivals for the gods, chiefly [[Dionysus]], the god of wine.<ref name=F241/> During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the [[City Dionysia]], held in spring.<ref name=F241/> The festival opened with a procession which was followed by a competition of boys singing [[dithyramb]]s, and all culminated in a pair of dramatic competitions.<ref name="F242">{{harvnb |Freeman |1999 |p=242}}</ref> The first competition Aeschylus would have participated in involved three playwrights each presenting three tragedies and one [[satyr play]].<ref name=F242/> A second competition involving five comedic playwrights followed, and the winners of both competitions were chosen by a panel of judges.<ref name=F242/>

Aeschylus entered many of these competitions, and various ancient sources attribute between seventy and ninety plays to him.<ref name="F243"/><ref name="P222"/> Only seven tragedies attributed to him have survived intact: ''[[The Persians]]'', ''[[Seven Against Thebes]]'', ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|The Suppliants]]'', the trilogy known as ''[[The Oresteia]]'' (the three tragedies ''[[Agamemnon (play)#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'', ''[[Oresteia#The Libation Bearers|The Libation Bearers]]'' and ''[[The Eumenides#The Eumenides|The Eumenides]]''), and ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' (whose authorship is disputed). With the exception of this last play&nbsp;– the success of which is uncertain&nbsp;– all of Aeschylus's [[Extant literature|extant]] tragedies are known to have won first prize at the City Dionysia.

The Alexandrian ''Life of Aeschylus'' claims that he won the first prize at the City Dionysia thirteen times. This compares favorably with Sophocles' reported eighteen victories (with a substantially larger catalogue, an estimated 120 plays), and dwarfs the five victories of Euripides, who is thought to have written roughly 90 plays.

===Trilogies===
One hallmark of Aeschylean [[dramaturgy]] appears to have been his tendency to write connected trilogies in which each play serves as a chapter in a continuous dramatic narrative.<ref>{{harvnb |Sommerstein |2010}}</ref> The ''[[Oresteia]]'' is the only extant example of this type of connected trilogy, but there is evidence that Aeschylus often wrote such trilogies. The satyr plays that followed his tragic trilogies also drew from myth.

The satyr play [[Oresteia#Proteus|Proteus]], which followed the ''Oresteia'', treated the story of Menelaus' detour in Egypt on his way home from the [[Trojan War]]. It is assumed, based on the evidence provided by a catalogue of Aeschylean play titles, [[scholia]], and play fragments recorded by later authors, that three other extant plays of his were components of connected trilogies: ''Seven Against Thebes'' was the final play in an Oedipus trilogy, and ''The Suppliants'' and ''Prometheus Bound'' were each the first play in a Danaid trilogy and Prometheus trilogy, respectively. Scholars have also suggested several completely lost trilogies, based on known play titles. A number of these treated myths about the Trojan War. One, collectively called the ''[[Achilleis (trilogy)|Achilleis]]'', comprised ''Myrmidons'', ''Nereids'' and ''Phrygians'' (alternately, ''The Ransoming of Hector'').

Another trilogy apparently recounted the entrance of the Trojan ally [[Memnon (mythology)|Memnon]] into the war, and his death at the hands of Achilles (''Memnon'' and ''The Weighing of Souls'' being two components of the trilogy). ''The Award of the Arms'', ''The Phrygian Women'', and ''The Salaminian Women'' suggest a trilogy about the madness and subsequent suicide of the Greek hero [[Ajax the great|Ajax]]. Aeschylus seems to have written about [[Odysseus]]' return to Ithaca after the war (including his killing of his wife [[Penelope]]'s suitors and its consequences) in a trilogy consisting of ''The Soul-raisers'', ''Penelope'', and ''The Bone-gatherers''. Other suggested trilogies touched on the myth of Jason and the Argonauts (''Argô'', ''Lemnian Women'', ''Hypsipylê''), the life of Perseus (''The Net-draggers'', ''Polydektês'', ''Phorkides''), the birth and exploits of Dionysus (''Semele'', ''Bacchae'', ''Pentheus''), and the aftermath of the war portrayed in ''Seven Against Thebes'' (''Eleusinians'', ''Argives'' (or ''Argive Women''), ''Sons of the Seven'').{{sfn|Sommerstein|2010|p=34}}