AESCHYLUS (Greek, c. 525-456 BCE)
The earliest of the three well-known ancient Greek tragedians (though their lives overlapped), he is called (naturally) the "father of tragedy." He wrote 70-90 plays, of which only seven survive. Among these, The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Choephoroe, and The Eumenides) is the only ancient Greek trilogy--a form he may have introduced, and which became standard--to survive. It tells the violent story of the family of Agamemnon, centering on Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's son Orestes. His other extant plays are The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, and Prometheus Bound (though some scholars think the last may have been written by his son Euphorion).
Please leave a comment - I can't WAIT to hear from you!