People

Aeschylus - was born in the city of Eleusis, near Athens, in 525 BC and died in 456 BC. He was a Greek dramatist, the earliest of the city's great tragic poets. As the predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides, he is the founder of Greek tragedy.

He fought successfully against the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, at Salamís in 480 BC, and possibly at Plataea in the following year. He made at least two trips, perhaps three, to Sicily, where on his final visit he died at Gela. A monument was later erected there in his memory.

It was a major step for drama when Aeschylus introduced the second actor. He also attempted to involve the chorus directly in the action of the play. Aeschylus is said to have written about 90 plays. His tragedies, first performed about 500 BC, were presented as trilogies, or groups of three, usually bound together by a common theme, and each trilogy was followed by a satyr drama (low comedy involving a mythological hero, with a chorus of satyrs). The titles of 79 of his plays are known, but only 7 have survived.

Aeschylus' Plays:

Agamemnon trans. E. D. A. Morshead (from The Internet Classics Archive)

The Choephori (from Virginia Tech)

Eumenides trans. E. D. A. Morshead (from The Internet Classics Archive)

Libation Bearers trans. Herbert Weir Smyth, 1926 (from Perseus)

The Persians trans. Robert Potter (from The Internet Classics Archive)

Prometheus Bound (from The Internet Classics Archive)

The Seven Against Thebes trans. E. D. A. Morshead (from The Internet Classics Archive)

The Suppliants trans. E. D. A. Morshead (from The Internet Classics Archive)

Perseus Encyclopedia- Aeschylus

Euripides - was born in 480 BC and died in 406 BC. Euripides was the youngest of the three principal fifth-century tragic poets. His work, which was quite popular in his own time, exerted great influence on Roman drama. In more recent times he has influenced English and German drama, and most conspicuously such French dramatists as Pierre Corneille and Jean-Baptiste Racine.

His plays began to be performed in the Attic drama festivals in 454 BC, but it was not until 442 BC that he won first prize. This distinction, despite his prolific talent, fell to him again only four times. Aside from his writings, his chief interests were philosophy and science.

Euripides represented the new moral, social, and political movements that were taking place in Athens towards the end of the 5th century BC. It was a period of enormous intellectual discovery, in which "wisdom" ranked as the highest earthly accomplishment. Anaxagoras had just proven that air was an element, and that the sun was not a divinity but matter. New truths were being established in all departments of knowledge, and Euripides, reacting to them, brought a new kind of consciousness to the writing of tragedy. His interest lay in the thought and experience of the ordinary individual rather than in the experiences of legendary figures of the heroic past.

Euripides' Plays:

Alcestis written 438 B.C.E trans. by Richard Aldington

Andromache written 428-24 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

The Bacchantes written 410 B.C.E

The Cyclops written ca. 408 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Electra written 420-410 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Hecuba written 424 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Helen written 412 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Heracleidae written ca. 429 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Heracles written 421-416 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Hippolytus written 428 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Ion written 414-412 B.C.E trans. by Robert Potter

Iphigenia At Aulis written 410 B.C.E

Iphegenia in Tauris written 414-412 B.C.E trans. by Robert Potter

Medea written 431 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Orestes written 408 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

The Phoenissae written 411-409 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

Rhesus written 450 B.C.E

The Suppliants written 422 B.C.E trans. by E. P. Coleridge

The Trojan Women written 415 B.C.E

from The Internet Classics Archive

The Euripides Home Page

Michael Psellus on Euripides and George of Pisidia

Sophocles - was born about 496 BC in Colonus Hippius (now part of Athens), he was to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age. The son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy all the comforts of a thriving Greek empire. Sophocles was provided with the best traditional aristocratic education. He studied all of the arts. By the age of sixteen, he was already known for his beauty and grace and was chosen to lead a choir of boys at a celebration of the victory of Salamis in 480 BC. In 468 BC, at the age of 28, he defeated Aeschylus, whose pre-eminence as a tragic poet had long been undisputed, in a dramatic competition.

In 441 BC he was in turn defeated in one of the annual Athenian dramatic competitions by Euripides. From 468 BC, however, Sophocles won first prize about 20 times and many second prizes. His life, which ended in 406 BC at about the age of 90, coincided with the period of Athenian greatness. He was not politically active or militarily inclined, but the Athenians twice elected him to high military office.

Sophocles wrote more than 100 plays of which seven complete tragedies and fragments of 80 or 90 others are preserved. He was the first to add a third actor. He also abolished the trilogic form. Sophocles chose to make each tragedy a complete entity in itself--as a result, he had to pack all of his action into the shorter form, and this clearly offered greater dramatic possibilities. Sophocles also effected a transformation in the spirit and significance of a tragedy; thereafter, although religion and morality were still major dramatic themes, the plights, decisions and fates of individuals became the chief interest of Greek tragedy.

Sophocles' Plays:

Ajax written 440 B.C.E trans. by R. C. Trevelyan

Antigone written 442 B.C.E trans. by R. C. Jebb

Electra written 410 B.C.E trans. by R. C. Jebb

Oedipus at Colonus trans. by F. Storr

Oedipus the King trans. by F. Storr

Philoctetes written 409 B.C.E trans. by Thomas Francklin

The Trachiniae written 430 B.C.E trans. by R. C. Jebb

from The Internet Classics Archive

Amazon- The Complete Plays of Sophocles

Sophocles - guide to his life and works.

Alexander the Great - one of the greatest military genius in history, Alexander the Great was born in 356 B.C. in Pella, Macedonia, the son of Philip of Macedon, who was an excellent general and organizer. His mother was Olympias, princess of Epirus.

He conquered much of what was then the civilized world, governed by his divine ambition of the world conquest and creation of universal world monarchy. He was the first great conqueror which has reached, Greece, Egypt , Asia Minor, and Asia till Afghanistan and India. He is famous for having created ethnic fusion between the Macedonians and the Persians. From victory to victory, from triumph to triumph Alexander created empire wich had marked history and brought him eternal glory.

Alexander the Great This project is dedicated to the most charismatic and heroic king of all times.

Alexanderama A catalogue of pages related to Alexander

In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great With Michael Wood

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great Web Site

Alexander the Great [williams.edu]

Archimedes - Born in 287 B.C., in Syracuse, a Greek seaport colony in Sicily, Archimedes was the son of Phidias, an astronomer. Archimedes was schooled at Euclid's school in Alexandria, Egypt, which was one of the biggest cities of the time.

In pure mathematics he anticipated many of the discoveries of modern science, such as the integral calculus, through his studies of the areas and volumes of curved solid figures and the areas of plane figures. He also proved that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a cylinder that circumscribes the sphere.

Archimedes spent the major part of his life in Sicily, in and around Syracuse. He did not hold any public office but devoted his entire lifetime to research and experiment.

Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier after snapping at him ``Don't disturb my circles,'' a reference to a geometric figure he had outlined on the sand.

Several of his works on mathematics and mechanics survive, including Floating Bodies, The Sand Reckoner, Measurement of the Circle, Spirals, and Sphere and Cylinder.

Archimedes This site is a collection of Archimedean miscellanea under continual development.