Democracy's Age of Bronze: Aeschylus's Plays and Athenian History, 508/7–454 bce

Written in a period of exceptional change, Aeschylus's tragedies were deeply engaged with major political, social and military issues confronting Athens after 508/7, although the nature of that engagement has recently become more complicated. If over the last century these plays have often been judged liberal, progressive and democratic, recent work has sometimes been more cautious, and major scholars describe him in darker terms, including misogynist, elitist and “inventor of the barbarian”. This chapter considers Aeschylus's plays in respect to these and other issues, on which all the plays prove similar, whether supporting or challenging recent interpretations. Just as contemporary Athenians viewed themselves as democratic, non‐hierarchical, temperate and masculine, Aeschylus's Persians are tyrannical, decadent, luxurious and effeminate. Persians, sponsored by populist aristocrat, Pericles, in 472, contrasts Persian despotism with Athenian democracy.