AEOLIANS 



72 



AESCHYLUS 



other aperture, and when the wind causes the 

 strings to vibrate it produces beautiful har- 

 monies of sound, which swell 

 or die away as the breeze varies 

 in strength. 



AEOLIANS, co f lianz, one 

 of the four divisions into which 

 the ancient Greeks were di- 

 vided. They were mostly 

 island-dwellers, inhabiting the 

 islands of the Aegean Sea, 

 though some lived along the 

 coast of Asia Minor. A literary 

 and imaginative people, they 

 seem to have given birth to the 

 stories which Homer made im- 

 mortal in the Iliad; and their 

 genius reached its highest point 

 in the poet Sappho, about the 

 seventh century B. c. 



AEOLUS, e' olus, a Greek 

 god, to whom was assigned the 

 troublesome task of caring for 

 the winds. His boisterous 

 charges were shut up in a cave 

 in the Aeolion Islands, and a 

 noisy, breezy place it was. Ac- 

 cording to some accounts he 

 might release them as he 

 wished, but others declared that 

 he could do it only at the com- 

 mand of Neptune. His name 

 was given to the Aeolian harp 

 (which see). HARP 



AEROPLANE. See FLYING MACHINE. 



AESCHINES, es' kineez (389-314 B. c.) a 

 celebrated orator of ancient Athens, the rival 

 and opponent of Demosthenes (which see). 

 He headed the party in Greece which favored 

 an alliance with Philip of Macedon, while 

 Demosthenes took the opposite side. Having 

 failed in 330 B. c. to convict Ctesiphon of 

 treason in having proposed to bestow a crown 

 of gold upon Demosthenes for his services to 

 the state, he withdrew from Athens. Later he 

 established a school of eloquence at Rhodes. 



AESCHYLUS, es' kilus, (525?-456 B. c.), 

 one of the world's great writers of tragedy. 

 Ancient Greece produced three whose tragedies 

 have never been surpassed Aeschylus, Sopho- 

 cles and Euripides; and of these Aeschylus 

 was the first. Unfortunately, of the ninety 

 plays which he is supposed to have written, 

 only seven and a few fragments still exist. 

 These are enough, however, to prove that his 

 own age did not rate him too highly, for he 



has treated in a masterly manner hhs exalted, 

 somber themes. Most of his tragedies were 

 arranged in groups of three, and of those- which 

 have been preserved Agamemnon, Choephori 

 and Eumenides form such a triology. The others 

 are The Persians, The Sup}>liantx, Prometheus 

 Bound and The Seven Against Thebes. Mrs. 

 Browning had an especial admiration for 

 Aeschylus; she wrote a poetical version of 

 Prometheus Bound, which is therefore prob- 

 ably better known to English readers than any 

 other drama of Aeschylus. 



The details of the life story ' of Aeschylus 

 are shadowy. Born of a noble family, which 

 traced its descent to the famous Codrus, king 

 of Athens, he entered the army and fought 

 against the Persians for the glory of the city 

 of which he was so proud. Athenian vic- 

 tories increased his patriotic fervor, and many 

 of his plays had as their central theme the 

 exalting of Athens. He won his first prize in 

 the great dramatic competitions in 485 B. c., 

 and twelve other like successes followed. One 

 great disappointment he had in his later years. 

 He himself had fought at Marathon and had 

 won public honors for his bravery, and he 

 entered the contest for a prize offered for the 

 finest elegy on those who fell on that field ; but 

 he was defeated, Simomdes winning the prize. 



AESCHYLUS 



Tradition declares that the later life of 

 Aeschylus was spent largely in Sicily, and re- 

 lates an incredible legend as to the manner 

 of his death. An eagle, it is said, flying far 

 above him, dropped from its talons a tortoise, 

 which struck Aeschylus on the head and killed 

 him. The Greeks seem to have found pleasure 



