AESCHYLUS PERSIANS Translated by Ian Johnston Vancouver Island University Nanaimo, BC Canada 2012 [Reformatted 2019] Students, teachers, performing artists, and member of the general public are permitted to download and distribute this document freely and without permission; they may also edit or adapt it to suit their purposes. Commercial publication, however, is not permitted without the consent of the translator. For comments and questions, please contact Ian Johnston (
[email protected]). PERSIANS TRANSLATOR’S NOTE In the following text, the numbers without brackets refer to the English text, and those in square brackets refer to the Greek text. Indented partial lines are included with the line above in the reckoning. All stage directions and footnotes have been provided by the translator. HISTORICAL NOTE Aeschylus (c.525 BC to c.456 BC) is one of the three great Greek tragic dramatists whose works have survived. Of his many plays, seven still remain. Aeschylus may have fought against the Persians at Marathon (490 BC), and he did so again at Salamis (480 BC). According to tradition, he died from being hit with a tortoise dropped by an eagle. After his death, the Athenians, as a mark of respect, permitted his works to be restaged in their annual competitions. Aeschylus’s play The Persians was first produced in 472 BC. It is the oldest surviving play in our traditions. Originally the work was the second part of a trilogy: the first play was called Phineus, and the third Glaucus. These were followed by a satyr play, Prometheus Pyrcaeus. It is not immediately clear how the subject matter of the missing plays is related to the Persians.