The Flaws of Aristotle`s Judgment on Æschylus’ Seven Survived Plays

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD in Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, University of Shiraz, Iran

2 Associate Professor in Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, University of Shiraz, Iran

10.30480/dam.2023.4763.1791

Abstract

Aristotle’s Poetics has valuable information in various sections which needs to be interpreted owing to its particular structure. One of these sections is Aristotle’s judgment on the tragedians’ innovations. Thus, the interpretation of Aeschylus’ plays is particularly significant because he is the earliest of the three great tragic poets. Aristotle has attributed four innovations to Aeschylus: increasing the number of actors, decreasing the importance of chorus, attention to dialogue, and best-selecting the mythos. Although except the latter, the other are approximately close to each other, Aristotle has separated them into sections based on different perspectives. The main purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent Aeschylus’ plays are in line with Aristotle’s Poetics and to identify the flaws of the Aristotelian model. The method which is used in this article consists of perusing all Aeschylus’ survived works and Aristotle’s Poetics for identifying Aristotle’s direct analyses of him and analyzing the elements which have been mentioned above and reviewing their development based on the date of their composition. The results of the research show that among all four mentioned elements, Aristotle`s judgment on the mythos applies to the plays; but as for the other two elements, namely increasing the number of actors and decreasing the importance of chorus, there are several instances that refute the Aristotle’s arguments in Poetics regarding these plays. It seems one of the most eminent reasons for this contradiction is that in compiling Poetics all Aeschylus’ plays have not been analyzed and other great Greek poets have been taken into consideration.

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Volume 14, Issue 33
November 2023
Pages 137-152

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