Aeschylus (Greek: Αἰσχύλος; 525 BC – 456 BC) was a playwright of ancient Greece, the earliest of the three greatest Greek tragedians, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.
Born: 525 BCE
Died: 456 BCE
Categories: Greek playwrights, Deaths BCE, Greeks
Quotes: 43 sourced quotes total (includes 3 misattributed, 2 about)
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Words (count) | 17 | 4 - 75 |
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Æschylus is above all things the poet of righteousness. "But in any wise, I say unto thee, revere thou the altar of righteousness": this is the crowning admonition of his doctrine, as its crowning prospect is the reconciliation or atonement of the principle of retribution with the principle of redemption, of the powers of the mystery of darkness with the coeternal forces of the spirit of wisdom, of the lord of inspiration and of light.
I pray the gods will give me some relief And end this weary job. One long full year I've been lying here, on this rooftop, The palace of the sons of Atreus, Resting on my arms, just like a dog. I've come to know the night sky, every star, The powers we see glittering in the sky, Bringing winter and summer to us all, As the constellations rise and sink.
Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise, has established his fixed law— wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, so men against their will learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods seated on their solemn thrones— such grace is harsh and violent.
Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts: Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed By hymns of praise. From him alone of all The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten."
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse.
On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.
Variant translation: In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
But when the dust has drunk the blood of men, No resurrection comes for one who's dead.
Aeschylus is not impersonal but transpersonal, a believer in fate and moral responsibility at the same time.
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
Only when man's life comes to its end in prosperity can one call that man happy.
Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.
God's mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.
Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?
"Reverence for parents" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.
I think the slain care little if they sleep or rise again.
Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god.
Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.
Oh me, I have been struck a mortal blow right inside.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evil.
For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.
What is pleasanter than the tie of host and guest?
Innumerable twinkling of the waves of the sea.
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.
She [Helen] brought to Ilium her dowry, destruction.
Old men are always young enough to learn.
Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny.
Oὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ᾽ εἶναι θέλει
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
A great ox stands on my tongue.
Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.
In war, truth is the first casualty.
Do not kick against the pricks.
δίχα δ' ἄλλων μονόφρων εἰμί
Success is man’s god.