The Emptiness of Asia Aeschylus' 'Persians' and the History of the Fifth Century

by Harrison, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780715629680
• ISBN10: 0715629689
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-24
• Publisher: Bristol Classical Press

Summary

Aeschylus' Persians is not only the first surviving Greek drama. It is also the only tragedy to take for its subject historical rather than mythical events: the repulse of the army of Xerxes at Salamis in 480 B.C. It has frequently been mined for information on the tactics of Salamis or the Greeks' knowledge of Persian names or institutions, but it also has a broader value, one that has not often been realised. What does it tell us about Greek representations of Persia, or of the Athenians' self-image? What can we glean from it of the politics of early fifth-century Athens, or of the Athenians' conception of their empire? How, if at all, can such questions be approached without doing violence to the Persians as a drama? What are the implications of the play for the nature of tragedy?

Author Biography

Thomas Harrison is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 9
Abbreviations	p. 11
Introduction	p. 13
Framing the play
Aeschylus the historian?	p. 25
Politics and partisanship	p. 31
Aeschylus, Atossa and Athenian ideology	p. 40
Finding Athens
The use and abuse of Persia	p. 51
Where is Athens?	p. 58
Athens and Greece	p. 61
The emptiness of Asia	p. 66
Democracy and tyranny	p. 76
Conclusions
Themistocles and Aristides	p. 95
Athens and Persia	p. 103
Notes	p. 117
Bibliography	p. 167
Index	p. 187
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