The Suppliants - Aeschylus

Advantages: four distinct plays, including the brilliant prometheus bound
Disadvantages: only parts of the orinal trilogies survive

...this book is a collection of woks by the greek dramatist Aeschylus who is more widely known for his Orestia trilogy. the plays here would have originally been part of their own trilogies but only seven complete works have survived to this day. the first play, the persians, depicts the aftermath of the persian defeat following the battle of Salamis with a sympathetic portrayal of the persian king Xerxes. this is one of the main sources for historical information regarding that period. the second play, seven against thebes is about the downfall of the last surviving memebers of the cursed family of Oedipus as they defend the city of thebes from a seige. the third play, the suppliants, tells the story of fifty daaughters of Danaus, who must flee to escape enforced marraige. the final play, prometheus bound, is arguably the greatest... Read review

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Advantages: Classic, unique amongst extant Greek tragedy in being historical - and the oldest, relatively easy to follow
Disadvantages: Not for everyone, not much action, basic structure

...tragedies, The Persians will probably be more difficult and expensive to come across. You might find it in a set of every Aeschylus plays – some or all of Suppliant Maidens, Seven Against Thebes and Prometheus Bound (which along with the Oresteia trilogy complete his surviving works). Those four are currently available on Amazon as a digital download for £2.29, and in various books for £8-9. I have a single translation and commentary by A. J. Podlecki (pictured). It uses some slightly archaic sounding language, which is perfectly in keeping with the play, but is more readable I’d say than Shakespeare or such like. What’s more it has an introduction, and extensive notes – although it’s slightly annoying that these are in the form of end notes, with parts of the text (often a dozen words/phrases a page) in bold to indicate where there’s a note... Read review

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Advantages: It's fairly easy to follow, interesting themes to be explored, based on well-known Oedipus
Disadvantages: Not a lot of action, religious/mythology references may pass you by

...Greek drama wasn’t like most modern stories, for being based on legends everyone knew who the characters were, and at least the main gist of the plot. I’m sure most of you know Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, even if you haven’t seen or read the play. The job of tragic poets was to tell the tales with their own twist, thus you would often find several of them seizing on the same famous myth, but giving slightly different versions of it. Aeschylus (?525-456BC) was the earliest of the great tragic poets, before Sophocles and Euripides. Apparently he practically invented the genre, even being the one to introduce a second actor to proceeding. Details are hard to verify though – only seven of an estimated 90-100 plays remain. The Seven Against Thebes is the final part of a trilogy dealing with Oedipus – although... Read review

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