e Medes, but who received bribes and has them still in
his possession. And Themistocles and those who died at Marathon and at
Plataea, and the very graves of your ancestors--will they not cry out if
you venture to grant a crown to one who confesses that he united with
the barbarians against the Greeks?

And now, O earth and sun! virtue and intelligence! and thou, O genius of
the humanities, who teachest us to judge between the noble and the
ignoble, I have come to your succor and I have done. If I have made my
pleading with dignity and worthily, as I looked to the flagrant wrong
which called it forth, I have spoken as I wished. If I have done ill, it
was as I was able. Do you weigh well my words and all that is left
unsaid, and vote in accordance with justice and the interests of
the city!

AESCHYLUS

(B.C. 525-456)

BY JOHN WILLIAMS WHITE

The mightiest of Greek tragic poets was the son of Euphorion, an
Athenian noble, and was born B.C. 525. When he was a lad of eleven, the
tyrant Hipparchus fell in a public street of Athens under the daggers of
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Later, Aeschylus saw the family of tyrants,
which for fifty years had ruled Attica with varying fortunes, banished
from the land. With a boy's eager interest he followed the establishment
of the Athenian democracy by Cleisthenes. He grew to manhood in stirring
times. The new State was engaged in war with the powerful neighboring
island of Aegina; on the eastern horizon was gathering the cloud that
was to burst in storm at Marathon, Aeschylus was trained in that early
school of Athenian greatness whose masters were Miltiades, Aristides,
and Themistocles.

[Illustration: AESCHYLUS]

During the struggle with Persia, fought out on Greek soil, the poet was
at the height of his physical powers, and we may feel confidence in the
tradition that he fought not only at Marathon, but also at Salamis. Two
of his extant tragedies breathe the very spirit of war, and show a
soldier's experience; and the epitaph upon his tomb, which was said to
have been written by himself, recorded how he had been one of those who
met the barbarians in the first shock of the great struggle and had
helped to save his country.

"How brave in battle was Euphorion's son,
The long-haired Mede can tell who fell at Marathon."

Before Aeschylus, Attic tragedy had been essentially lyrical. It arose
from the dithyrambic chorus that was sung at the festivals of