History, Collective Memory, and Aeschylus' Persians

Aeschylus' The Persians (472 BCE) affords an example of the interplay of history and memory, as these concepts have been articulated by twentieth-century historiographers such as Patrick Hutton and Pierre Nora. The play's diction links it to the oral memorialist tradition of epic exultation, while the spectacle of its defeated Persians offers a historical lesson to Athens and suggests empathy with all who mourn for loss in war. Twentieth-century productions of the play have tended to dissovle its carefully crafted ambiguity.