Aeschylus wrote his tragedy "The Persians" in a period of peace following a series of particularly violent wars between the Greeks and the Persians. Persian forces (499-449) which ultimately ended in Greek victory, with the Persian fleet defeated at the Straits of Salamis, which may explain the playwright's emphasis on historical events throughout his play , which is clearly influenced by the historical context. While the context surrounding the original production, aiming to win a literary competition at a festival dedicated to Dionysus, can be seen as shaping the structure of the plot's events, it is the historical context of the Persian Wars that ultimately guides the messages overall results of the film. play, which are hyperbolized due to its status as a tragedy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay “The Persians” by Aeschylus was designed with the aim of winning the annual Dionysia festival tragedy writing competition, and this context may seem to affect the play's message and the playwright's motivations, which appear to be to dazzle audience members and judges in order to place in the competition. This is immediately made evident by the massive prostration of the chorus during the play's opening hymn, as they sing of the glory of the Persian soldiers. Indeed, we can understand how the complicated dance routines likely followed by the chorus here would have particularly impressed the row of 10 judges seated at the front of the stadium, with the collective mass of voices echoing loudly around the amphitheater - which was built with uneven surfaces. in order to amplify the sound, both of which help create a sensation of spectacle, thus helping Aeschylus' chances of winning the competition. Yet even before these opening actions of the chorus, the audience is confronted with the setting of a royal Persian palace, associated with the tomb of the late King Darius, and the detail of a tomb - in symbolizing the concept of death - immediately signifies the tragic outcome of the play for the audience, thus ensures that the spectators' emotions are tense from the first scenes of the play. This shows how Aeschylus' emphasis on the context of the literary competition distorted his dramatic decisions, ensuring that spectators and judges were kept in sufficient suspense throughout the plot. The grandiose setting of a palace, coupled with the chariot vehicle in which Queen Atossa makes her entrance would have added an element of wonder and awe to Athenian perceptions of the play as extremely removed from their own minimalist culture, and such may have been deliberate tactics employed by the playwright to ensure that the judges considered Aeschylus' play as the first in a series of three winners, which is further evidence of the effect of competitive context on the message and the plot of the play. The play's supernatural elements, such as the sudden appearance of Darius' ghost and Atossa's elaborate necromancy which causes his appearance (involving prayers and offerings), would further have been intended to impress the judges by letting hear that the play was almost supernatural in its excellence, and in this way the context of the play encouraged Aeschylus to introduce elements of the divine into his narrative. Overall, the positioning of many moments of spectacular theater in the opening scenes of "Persians" suggests that Aeschylus's desire to win the tragic contest of the Dionysia festival enormously influenced theproduction of his work, which benefited the playwright who won the prestigious prize. of a golden tripod after winning first place in the competition. The literary context of ancient Greece was extremely focused on the growth of the tragic genre, which obviously influenced "The Persians" in its focus on the theme of pride, coupled with its adherence to a clear tragic structure. The cycle of pride and nemesis - recognized by the audience - would have been a cycle against which the tragedy aimed to warn and prevent through its characters, and Xerxes' action of connecting the Hellespont with a string of ships would have been considered grossly hubristic in its sense. corruption of a natural world created by God, but is punished by a catastrophic Persian defeat - thus highlighting the effect of the hubris/nemesis cycle on the plot of the play. The fact that this event holds significant historical truth might suggest an alternative interpretation that it is not influenced by a tragic structure but simply serves to reflect the past, the fact that it is depicted through multiple characters throughout the plot—the chorus, then Atossa, then Darius—reinforces the tragedy's doctoral goal of warning the audience of the dangers of hubris, thereby prioritizing the argument that the tragic context actually affected the moral message of the play. Indeed, Darius' obvious shame at his son's decision to cross the Hellespont not only serves to warn of the dangers of destroying the gods' creation, but also creates traditional tragic feelings of pity and fear in the within the public, who could here sympathize with the Persian king. as condemned even by his own father as worthless. The long mourning sequence that closes "The Persians" is indicative of the effect of literary culture not only on the message, but also on the plot of the play - which ends with a traditional tragic denouement in which the characters lament and reflect on the catastrophic events that changed the course of their lives: in this case, royal character. The tragic protagonist is cemented, the very length of the denouement prolonging the cathartic emotions felt by the audience, who would also be encouraged to cry in horror at the king's misfortune. Nevertheless, the characterization of Xerxes in other parts of the narrative as authoritative and ill-tempered perhaps deteriorates from the tragic structure by encouraging viewers to perceive Xerxes as the antagonist of the play rather than the protagonist , and this is reinforced by the knowledge that many Athenians in the audience would have fought the forces of Xerxes in the Persian Wars, making him a real antagonist in their lives, and in this way Aeschylus as a writer is more influenced by the historical circumstances of his time than by the theater. Thus, the structure and message of Aeschylus' "The Persians" is obviously enormously rooted in and influenced by tragic conventions, and yet the character of Xerxes can be seen as straying from the confines of tragedy and not entirely fitting in in the role of “tragic protagonist”. '. Yet Aeschylus' descriptions of the king are nonetheless affected by the recent history of wars between the Persians and Greeks, suggesting that indeed the context of the play greatly affects its meaning, even if that context is literary or historical. Persian history is greatly influenced by Aeschylus' desire to commemorate the Greek victory in earlier Persian wars, which involvesone-dimensional descriptions of Persian characters as “other” to the Greeks and their virtues. Aeschylus' characterization of Xerxes particularly juxtaposes Athenian politics by presenting the Persian oligarchy as a predominantly destructive force, and this is demonstrated by word of the king”, fearing for their lives. for he threatens to “cut off their heads” if they allow Greek triremes to protect themselves from death. This demonstration of the dangers of the Persian oligarchy can be seen as the antithesis of descriptions of the Greeks as operating as a "single impulse" refusing to obey any man as master, and thus, it becomes evident that descriptions of Persian politics are just hyperbolic opposites. auThe Athenian system of "demokratia", designed to commemorate the superior system of Greek government: this would have been particularly evident in a contemporary production of the play, in which seats at the amphitheater divided spectators into demes (a Greek variation of constituencies political), spectators would therefore be immediately aware of the shortcomings of the Persian government compared to their own. Indeed, the further characterization of Xerxes as an individual is certainly influenced by Aeschylus' goal of commemorating the superiority of Greek forces and leadership: "madness" and "foolishness" are adjectives repeatedly applied to the king throughout the story, a particularly compelling moment being that of Darius. ' criticizes his son as a 'weak imbecile!' driven by madness into battle. Such moments help create an image of Xerxes as irrational and immature, thus establishing the Greek emphasis on collective unity as opposed to a single leader in battle ("they are not called slaves of any man"), overriding the Persian leadership systems. and in this way sensationalize the exemplary teamwork of the Greeks in battles such as Salamis and Artemisium for all to see. Indeed, Xerxes' decision to tear his clothes coupled with Atossa's immediate concern to clothe his child upon his return perhaps deters true historical events, yet it succeeds in signifying the Persian obsession with luxury and l outward appearance, thus emphasizing and casting a positive light on the Greek emphasis on the mental state of their soldiers rather than their appearance, which is greatly indicative of the effect of cultural context on the message of " Persians.” Furthermore, we can understand how these acts might have been made all the more shocking to a contemporary audience through the use of costume - Aeschylus' choice of clothing for the king as a torn and shredded version of armor Minimal Persian worn in battle would have been a visual representation of Greek disdain for the poor outfits worn by Persians in battle, made from softer fabrics than Greek armor. In conclusion, Aeschylus' characterization of the Persian leader Xerxes in "The Persians" is almost entirely produced by Greek stereotypes of the Persians developed in the historical context of the Persian Wars. Aeschylus, in order to qualify the Persians as antagonistic individuals without common values ​​with the Greeks, characterizes them above all as an unflattering "negation" of Greek virtues and values: the Persians are what the Greeks are not, which leads critics such as Hall to call the texts "a document for the collective Athenian imagination" - used perhaps to alleviate the guilt felt by members of the Athenian public when they watched the battles in which they were involved take place on scene. Keep..