Oh, the torment bred in the race, the grinding scream of death and the stroke that hits the vein, the hemorrhage none can staunch, the grief, the curse no man can bear. But there is a cure in the house, and not outside it, no, not from others but from them, their bloody strife. We sing to you, dark gods beneath the earth. Now hear, you blissful powers underground -- answer the call, send help. Bless the children, give them triumph now.

At least one of his works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece which took place during his lifetime. Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Regius Professor of Greek Emeritus at Oxford University) draws attention to Wagner's reverence of Aeschylus. During Aeschylus's lifetime dramatic competitions became part of the City Dionysia in the spring.

So important was the war to Aeschylus and the Greeks that upon his death around 456 BC his epitaph commemorated his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon rather than his success as a playwright. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy and his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived.