Aeschylus, es'ki lus, (525?-456 B. C.), the earliest of the three great writers of Greek tragedy. He was of noble family, according to legend a descendant of Codrus, the last king of Athens. His father was probably connected with the worship of Ceres, and Aeschylus himself was early familiar with the Eleusinian Mysteries, strange religious rites into which he was afterward initiated. Aeschylus first won fame, not by poetry, but by bravery on the battlefield during the Persian wars. This military experience probably had an influence on his work in two ways; it turned his thoughts to patriotic studies and the glorification of his country, and it disposed the Athenians to regard his work favorably. For distinguished valor at Marathon (490), he, with his two brothers, received public honors. The first success of Aeschylus in a dramatic competition was won in 485, and we are told that this was the first of thirteen such successes. In the latter part of his life he was defeated by Simonides in the contest for a prize offered for the best elegy on those who fell at Marathon. Aeschylus spent most of his latter years in Sicily and died there according to an improbable legend, as the result of a blow upon the head from a tortoise which an eagle dropped. Of Aeschylus's seventy dramas but seven are preserved, in addition to a few fragments. These are The Persians, The Suppliants, Prometheus Bound The Seven against Thebes, Agamemnon, Choephori and Eumenides. The three last named form a trilogy. The Prometheus is perhaps the best known to English readers through Mrs. Browning's poetical version. Aeschylus introduced a second actor, and was the first to provide appropriate scenery and costumes. In style, the tragedies of Aeschylus are grand and somber, as befits their themes.