Aeschylus on Darius and Persian Memory

Abstract

This paper considers how Aeschylus dramatizes the memory of his Persian characters, and argues that the contradictory recollection of Marathon in Persae reflects an imperial ideology with which failure is incompatible: the dramatis personae frame Xerxes' defeat at Salamis as unprecedented even as they summon Darius as a semi-divine benefactor. With recourse to what historians and anthropologists term “social” or “collective” memory, the paper then considers how such a portrayal of Persian memory would have resonated with an Athenian audience in 472 engaged in democratic debate over the nature of the burgeoning Delian League.