SOURCE: Herington, C. J. Introduction to Persians, by Aeschylus, translated by Janet Lembke and C. J. Herington, pp. 3-29. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

In the following essay, Herington summarizes the Persian Wars—explaining that Aeschylus's accounts of them are more those of a poet than a historian's—as well as describes the stage-set of the Persians and explores its themes.

I Background: History and Poetry

Aeschylus was there, at the desperate struggle between Greeks and Persians in the Strait of Salamis. That is one of the few certainly attested facts in our poet's personal life.¹ Thus it comes about that the Persians is not merely a play but also a precious historical document: the description of the battle contained in its long scene 417-867² is in fact the only account of any event in the Great Persian Wars that has been composed by an eyewitness.

Yet it...