Abstract
The article explores the biography of Aeschylus. The biographical information about Aeschylus, known to us, goes back mainly to the biography (Гένος Αἰσχύλου), which prefaced to the dramas of the “father of tragedy” in medieval manuscripts and was compiled by an unnamed author. This biography is a compilation of information from various sources: materials of public records, for example, didascaliae, fragments of extant works of Aeschylus’ contemporaries, as well as excerpts from the works of scholars of the Hellenistic era. It is noteworthy that this biography, along with reliable facts, contains a lot of semi-legendary information and historical anecdotes. The author also draws on other sources to reconstruct the life of Aeschylus: testimonies about the life of the tragedian from Suda Lexicon, the works of Herodotus, Diodorus, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Pausanias, Aelian, Athenaeus, Justin, etc. Some of these testimonies of ancient authors appear to be unreliable due to their fragmentary and often contradictory nature. However, some events mentioned in them, it seems, could have really taken place in the life of the playwright. For example, the fact of accusing Aeschylus of religious impiety, reported by a number of sources, had, most likely, a real historical basis. In general, the excerpts from the testimonies of ancient authors confi rm that a person like Aeschylus often turns out to be enmeshed in many legends and heavily mythologized, and this makes the work of a researcher extremely diffi cult. Nevertheless, the information that we have allows us to get an idea of the main milestones in the life of Aeschylus.
Keywords
Aeschylus, Athens, Ancient Greek theater, tragedy, biography.
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