A CROSSROADS OF CULTURES One warm day approximately 2,500 years ago the future Greek playwright Aeschylus had only one task to tend the grapes which were slowly ripening on the hillsides It was not hard work so it was no wonder Aeschylus fell asleep on the job He had a dream then in which the god Dionysus the one in charge of wine and festivals visited him The message Dionysus CHAPTER 1 Ruins of ancient Greek theaters still exist 7 7 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 710 23 14 11 42
delivered to the teenaged Aeschylus in the dream was straightforward become a playwright Aeschylus began writing immediately It took him years to perfect his craft but eventually he went on to win many competitions at the Dionysia a festival of theater that celebrated Dionysus Aeschylus became a successful playwright and one of the most respected citizens of the Greek city-state Athens Aeschylus was at the height of his career in the early 400s BCE At the time Athens operated under a newly established democracy This form of government that gave power to the masses would become widespread more than 2,000 years later But in the first decades of the 400s BCE democracy was controversial and still evolving It was an idea not an institution Members of the aristocracy still struggled to retain power and it was rarely a peaceful process On stage Aeschylus’s plays explored the conflict in real-life Athens and in other parts of Greece In one of his plays The Eumenides Aeschylus seems to reveal his preferences for an aristocratic government This view did not sit well with many of Athens’s residents At one point Aeschylus was threatened while on stage He also stood trial for revealing the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries a religious cult based in his hometown He was acquitted but the political tide was against him Shunned by his fellow citizens Aeschylus moved to the island of Sicily where he lived the rest of his life in peace 8 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 8 10 23 14 11 42
In the middle of the 400s BCE Greece was changing The ancient mythology of gods and goddesses still dominated the culture but an age of reason was emerging Battles made heroes and people celebrated military achievements but Greeks were also developing more intellectual pursuits math science theater and philosophy The political voices of the masses were coming together as they tried the new experiment of democracy At this time the city of Athens was at the heart of this crossroads in thinking And ideas from this time in history still have resonance today OUT OF MYTHOLOGY Ancient Greece was steeped in mythology The Greeks believed Mount Olympus in northern Greece was home to a group of gods Zeus hurled his thunderbolts when he was angry Poseidon raised his trident to stir up storms on the sea Apollo pulled the sun across the sky In every way the gods had control over people’s lives They could be temperamental but they were not irrational If people behaved well toward each other and particularly if they Mount Olympus Located in northern Greece Mount Olympus stands approximately 9,570 feet 2,920 m at its highest point The steep sides make it difficult to climb The Greeks did not venture to the summit of Mount Olympus that was the home of the gods and they considered it off-limits to humans In Greek mythology it was a beautiful place with never-ending nice weather but at one time it had been a battleground the place where Zeus led a campaign to overthrow his father Cronus leader of the Titans Zeus then became king of the gods and ruler on Mount Olympus 9 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 910 23 14 11 42
