Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/345

Rh motives for the residence of Æschylus in Sicily, which was an ascertained fact, by enumerating all the circumstances in his life at Athens, which could have induced him to become a voluntary exile. Some accounts of a different character have, however, been preserved, on which we may safely rely. Æschylus was in Sicily with Hiero, just after this ruler of Syracuse had built the town of Ætna, at the foot of the mountain, and in the place of the ancient Catana. At this time he composed his tragedy of the "Women of Ætna," in which he announced the prosperity of the new colony. The subject of it, as its name, borrowed from the chorus, betokens, must have been taken from the events of the day. At the same time he reproduced the Persians at the court of Hiero; but whether with alterations, or as it had been acted at Athens, was a matter of controversy among the ancient scholars. Hence it appears that Æschylus, soon after the appearance of the Persians, went to Sicily, about the year 471 B. C., four years after the time when Ætna was founded, and when it was not quite finished. Hiero died four years afterwards, in 467 B. C. (Olymp. 78. 2.); but Æschylus must have left Sicily before this event, as in the beginning of the year 468 B. C. (Olymp. 77. 4.) we find him again at Athens, and engaged in a poetical contest with Sophocles. According to the ancients, his acquaintance with the Pythagorean philosophy and his use of certain rare Doric expressions then used in Sicily, may be traced to his residence in that island.

§ 6. The tragedy of the Seven against Thebes falls in the next time. It is known to have been acted after the Persians, and before the death of Aristides (which occurred about 462 B. C.) In this drama the ancients peculiarly admired the warlike spirit exhibited by the poet; and, in fact, a fire burns throughout it which could only have been kindled in a brave and heroic breast. Eteocles appears as a wise and resolute general and hero, as well in the manner in which he recommends tranquillity to the women of the chorus, as in the answers which he makes to the tidings of the messengers, and in his opposing to each of the seven haughty leaders of the hostile army (who come like giants to storm the walls of Thebes) a brave Theban hero; until at length Polynices, his own brother, is named, when he declares his resolution to go out himself to meet him. The determination of Polynices to reserve himself for the combat with his brother creates an anxious interest in an attentive hearer; and his announcement of this resolution is the pivot upon which the whole piece turns. Nothing can be more striking than the gloomy resoluteness with which Eteocles