AESCHYLUS QUOTES III
Greek dramatist (525 B.C.-456 B.C.)
Death is preferable -- it is a milder fate than tyranny.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
For there below ground sits the Dark God, strong to call men to judgment; he sees all, and writes it in his memory.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
Give heed, give heed and give your sympathy
To one who suffers; sorrow roaming wide
Impartial stops and stays awhile with me,
To tarry later seated close by thee.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
To him that toileth God oweth glory, child of his toil.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
For this our task hath Fate spun without fail to last for ever sure, that we on man weighed down with deeds of hate should follow till the earth his life immure. Nor when he dies can he boast of being truly free.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
The gods at will can shape a gladder strain, and from the lamentations at the graveside, a song of triumph may arise.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
The Sphinx, the Watch-dog that presideth over evil days.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Sphinx
For in the voyage of the heart, there is a freight of hatred, and the wind of wrath blows shrill.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.
AESCHYLUS
The Seven Against Thebes
Wisdom to learn is e'en for old men good.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
You'll see all other mortal sinners, the ones who flout the honor owed to gods or guests, or loving parents--you'll see them get the justice they deserve. For Hades holds men mightily to a strict accounting down below the earth; he sees all things, inscribes them within the book of his remembering.
AESCHYLUS
Eumenides
Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
If a man should wanton walk with crime ... he shall find in death no great deliverance.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
Ares ever loves to pluck all the fairest flower of an armed host.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Europe
Old men are always young enough to learn.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
Too credulous a woman's longing flies
And spreading swiftly, swiftly dies.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
For, alone of gods, Death loves not gifts; no, not by sacrifice, nor by libation, canst thou aught avail with him; he hath no altar nor hath he hymn of praise; from him, alone of gods, Persuasion stands aloof.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Niobe
What house
would ask for Vengeance
to perch heavy,
defiling the rafters like some bird of ill omen?
AESCHYLUS
The Suppliants