1. AESCHYLUS

2. LIFE
He was born in Eleusis in 525 BC and died in Sicily in 456 BC. He belonged to the old Attic nobility and was conservative in politics and religion.

3. PARTICIPATION IN ELEYSINIAN MYSTERIES
He had taken part in the Eleysinian Mysteries. He was accused of revealing to much about them in one of his plays and his life was threatened on stage. So Aeschylus found a refuge at the altar of Dionysus.
SOLDIER AT THE PERSIAN WARS
He took part at the battle of Marathon and Salamis

4. HIS FIRST INSPIRATION: Dionysus appeared in his sleep and told him to become a tragic poet. He took his first prize a lot of years of writing and after that he was winning until his death.
WORKS: He wrote more than 90 plays, only seven of which survive; the Persians, Seven against Thebes, The suppliants, The Oresteia, Agamemnon, The libation bearers, The Eumenides, Prometheus bound.
WORKS

5. INNOVATIONS
He diminishes the importance of the chorus and gives prominence to the dialogue.
He adds a second actor.
He removes the bloodsheds from the public view.
He improves the costumes, makes the masks expressive and adopts cothornus (high heels).
He introduces the trilogy, a series of three independent dramas.

6. INFLUENCES INFLUENCES
On the Renaissance and specifically in French and Elisabethian drama. Beyond drama he influenced the literature generally, especially the Romantics.

7. DEATH ALLEGATIONS FOR HIS DEATH
His death might have been caused by an eagle who mistook his bold head for a stone and dropped a turtle on it to break its shell.