<DIV><p>'Your kindness to the human race has earned you this.<BR> A god who would not bow to the gods' anger – you<BR> Transgressing right, gave privileges to mortal men'</p> <p>Aeschylus (525–456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art. In <b>Prometheus Bound</b> the defiant Titan Prometheus is brutally punished by Zeus for daring to improve the state of wretchedness and servitude in which mankind is kept. <b>The Suppliants</b> tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaus who must flee to escape enforced marriages, while <b>Seven Against Thebes</b> shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the cursed family of Oedipus. And <b>The Persians</b>, the only Greek tragedy to deal with events from recent Athenian history, depicts the aftermath of the defeat of Persia in the battle of Salamis, with a sympathetic portrayal of its disgraced King Xerxes.</p> <p>Philip Vellacott's evocative translation is accompanied by an introduction, with individual discussions of the plays, and their sources in history and mythology.<BR> </p> </div>