The Life of Aeschylus

Aeschylus was born in 525 B.C. in the city of Eleusis. He has been referred to as the “Father of Tragedy.” Early on in his life he was immersed in the rites of the city and in the worship of the mother and earth goddess Demeter. He was once sent to watch grapes ripen in the countryside. It was here that Aeschylus says Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to write …

…his plays achieved first prize at the Greater Dionysia, which was the annual dramatic festival held in Athens. His first success was in 484 B.C. and he almost continuously won until his death. Aeschylus died in 456 B.C. at the age of seventy. Legend says that an while he was sitting outside one day an eagle flying overhead mistook his bald head for a rock and dropped a turtle on his head which killed him.