11 h 51 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when duty to your family becomes a demand for more blood?
Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments gathers the seven surviving plays attributed to Aeschylus and fragments of lost dramas. These verse tragedies bring war, divine power, and family violence close to home. In The Persians, elders and the queen await news of Xerxes’ campaign against Greece. In Seven Against Thebes, Eteocles defends a besieged city while a family curse reaches its gates.
The Oresteia follows a family caught between justice and revenge. Agamemnon returns from Troy to a household marked by his daughter’s sacrifice. Clytemnestra carries that cost into his homecoming, while Orestes faces competing duties to his parents and the gods. In Prometheus Bound, the chained helper of humanity resists Zeus’s authority despite the suffering imposed on him.
What you’ll discover
- War from the defeated side Enter the Persian court, where waiting for news gives public grief a painfully personal shape.
- A household marked by sacrifice Meet Clytemnestra as a king’s homecoming brings the cost of his daughter’s sacrifice into focus.
- Justice against revenge Follow the Oresteia’s searching question: can further bloodshed ever bring lasting order?
- Voices beyond the rulers Hear choruses of elders, women, and divine beings give collective fear and judgment a central place.
- Glimpses of lost dramas Explore fragments that preserve traces of Aeschylus’s wider work without pretending to offer complete stories.
Who will love it
Readers drawn to myth, war, family conflict, courtroom drama and questions of justice will love this collection. It also suits those who enjoy choral song and powerful speeches.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pride leaves others to grieve
- A family curse reaches the gates
- Sufferers stand against a ruler
- Shelter carries a public cost
- A homecoming hides a trap
- Grief becomes a plan for vengeance
- Revenge becomes a question for citizens
- Power and justice carry shared costs
- Justice remains an open question
Who’s who
- AtossaThe Persian queen mother who waits at Susa, haunted by a dream, for news of her son Xerxes and his army.
- EteoclesKing of Thebes, who must defend his city's seven gates against an army led by his own brother.
- PrometheusA Titan chained to a Caucasus cliff by Zeus for giving fire and the arts to mortals.
- ClytæmnestraQueen of Argos, who waits ten years for her husband to return from Troy and welcomes him with a plan she keeps hidden.
- CassandraA captive princess of Troy, gifted by Apollo with prophecy and cursed so that no one will believe her.
- OrestesThe exiled son of Agamemnon, who returns home under the command of Apollo to avenge his father.
- ElectraOrestes's sister, who mourns her father at his tomb and prays for her brother to come home.
- AthenaGoddess of Athens, who hears a hunted man and his pursuers and founds a court of citizens to judge between them.
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Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments
by Aeschylus
A queen in Susa dreams of two women yoked to a chariot, and a messenger runs in with news of Salamis.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
A queen stands outside her palace at Susa, shaken by a dream of two women yoked to a chariot. Elders wait for word of an army that crossed the sea.
Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h5 h 35 min fast, 8 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 99,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Persian court waits and then learns of Salamis
The Persians is set at Susa, before the palace of Xerxes, with the tomb of his father Dareios on the stage. A chorus of old Persian elders guards the kingdom. Their pride slowly turns to dread, because no messenger has come.
They recall how Xerxes bridged the Hellespont with boats and laid a yoke on the neck of the sea. They sing that a deceiving god lures mortals gently into a snare.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Aeschylus. Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/aeschylus-tragedies-and-fragments.
Aeschylus. (2026). Æschylus: Tragedies and fragments. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aeschylus-tragedies-and-fragments
Aeschylus. Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aeschylus-tragedies-and-fragments.
@book{aeschylus2026schylus,
author = {Aeschylus},
title = {Æschylus: Tragedies and Fragments},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aeschylus-tragedies-and-fragments}
}
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What is Aeschylus Tragedies and Fragments about?
It gathers the seven surviving plays of Aeschylus, from the Persian defeat at Salamis to the trial of Orestes in Athens, along with short fragments of lost works. Each play explores power, pride, and justice.
Which plays are in the Oresteia?
The Oresteia is the three-play story of the house of Atreus. Agamemnon tells of a king's homecoming, The Libation Pourers follows his son Orestes, and Eumenides takes the matter to a court in Athens.
Is The Persians a true story?
It is built on a real event, the Persian defeat at Salamis, and it is the only surviving Greek tragedy drawn from recent history. Aeschylus staged it in 472 BC, only eight years after the battle.
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