We can trace Aeschylus’ outward descent—­as Shakespeare’s from Chaucer—­from the nascent Greek drama and the rudimentary plays at the rustic festivals; but the grand river of his esotericism —­there it shines, as large and majestic, at least, as in Shakespeare; and it was, no more than his, a special creation or new thing.  Our horizon lies there, to prevent our vision going further; but from some higher time-eminence in the future, we shall see it emerge again in the backward vastnesses of pre-history; again and again.  The grandeur of Aeschylus his no parent in Greek, or in western extant literature; or if we say that it has a parent in Homer (which I doubt, because not seeing the Soul Symbols in Homer), it is only putting matters one step further back....  But behind Greece, there were the lost literatures of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, of which we know nothing; aye, and for a guess, lost and mighty literatures from all parts of Europe too.  If I could imagine it otherwise, I would say so.

Almost suddenly, during Aeschylus’ lifetime, another Greek Art came into being.  When he was a boy, sculpture was still a very crude affair; or perhaps just beginning to emerge from that condition.  The images that come down to us, say from Pisistratus’ time and earlier, are not greatly different from the ‘primitive’ carvings of many so-called savage peoples of our own day.  That statement is loose and general; but near enough the mark to serve our purpose.  You may characterize them as rude imitations of the human form, without any troublesome realism, and with a strong element of the grotesque.  Says the Encyclopeadia Britannica (from which the illustration is taken): 

“The statues of the gods began either with stiff and ungainly figures roughly cut out of the trunk of a tree, or with the monstrous and symbolical representations of Oriental art....  In early decorations of vases and vessels one may find Greek deities represented with wings, carrying in their hands lions or griffins, bearing on their heads lofty crowns.  But as Greek art progressed it grew out of this crude symbolism...  What the artists of Babylonia and Egypt express in the character of the gods by added attribute or symbol, swiftness by wings, control of storms by the thunderbolt, traits of character by animal heads, the artists of Greece work more and more fully into the scultptural type; modifying the human subject by the constant addition of something which is above the ordinary levels of humanity, until we reach the Zeus of Pheidias or the Dimeter of Cnidus.  When the decay of the high ethical art of Greece sets in, the Gods become more and more warped to the merely human level.  They lose their dignity, but they never lose their charm.”