“Wisdom comes through suffering.”
Agamemnon
Aeschylus fought at Marathon and Salamis before becoming the leading dramatist of fifth-century Athens. He expanded tragedy from a chorus with one speaker to a full dialogue of multiple actors, costumes and spectacle.
The Oresteia traces the curse on the house of Atreus from Agamemnon's murder to the first jury trial in Athens, ending with the Furies transformed into guardians of the city. Myth becomes law's origin story.
Legacy
He is the earliest tragedian whose plays survive whole, and the first to treat myth as a debate about society.