Suppliant Maidens
(Aeschylus)
This one of the earliest Greek plays to use more than just one actor and a chorus. It was written by Aeschylus, who is credited with being the first person to develop Greek tragedy into a dramatic form. Also known as The Suppliants it was written around 490BC.The chorus is composed of fifty young women ? the daughters of Danaus. They have just arrived in Argos having fled from Egypt to avoid being married to their cousins ? the fifty sons of Aegyptus.The reason they have come to Argos is because it was once the home of Io, the ancestress of their race. The King of Argos, Pelasgus, is reluctant to protect them but agrees after they threaten to hang themselves in the shrine of the gods.Meanwhile the sons of Aegyptus are pursuing the women in a ship. When Danaus sees the ship he hurries to get help from the people of Argos, reminding them of their promise to protect his daughters.The sons of Aegyptus send a herald ahead of them. He finds the woman unprotected in the shrine and attempts to drag them away. He is stopped when the king and his bodyguards appear and send the herald back with the message that the king of Argos is prepared to protect the young woman.Danaus is also prepared to fight to prevent his daughters being forced into unwanted marriages and the play ends on an optimistic note that the suppliants have escaped their fate. Unfortunately the other two plays of the trilogy are lost, which is a pity as the story hots up with Danaus being forced to give his daughters in marriage to their cousins.The girls respond by murdering their bridegrooms on their wedding night. Only Hypermnestra spared her husband Lynceus and they went on to found the Argive royal house.
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