The tragedy of Aeschylus "The Seven Against Thebes" was first staged in 467 BC. Like the "Persians", it entered one of the tetralogies, which did not reach us.
The plot of "The Seven Against Thebes" is based on the ancient myth of the campaign of seven famous heroes to this Greek city. It was led by the son of the famous Oedipus, Polinik, who fled from Thebes. He fights against the other son of Oedipus Eteocles, who drove him out of the city to reign alone there. After the militantly patriotic speech of the Eteocles, the reports of the Scout about the situation in the enemy camp and the panic cries and screams of the choir of the Theban girls, with whom Eteocles enters into wrangling, we get acquainted with the seven symmetrically located parts of the tragedy of Aeschylus. Each consists of the Infiltrator's report of the enemy's offensive against certain Gate of Thebes, the appointment by Eteocles of a commander for these gates and a small chorus of chorus. To the last, the seventh gate, Eteocles becomes himself. "Seven Against Thebes" ends with report of the mutual murder of the Eteocles and Polinik and a great funeral cry.
This tragedy of Aeschylus, undoubtedly, was written under the strongest impression of the Greek-Persian wars; in particular, it is not difficult to guess Athens in the besieged city, several times taken and burned by the Persians during the war.
According to his usual manner, Aeschylus examines in the "Seven against Thebes" the great historical catastrophes (the death of the communal-tribal system) mythologically: Oedipus's father, Lai, perishes because of the curse of the father of the kidnapped child, and Oedipus and his sons also perish because of this generic curse.
Hence the ideological meaning of the tragedy "The Seven Against Thebes." The clan organization is dying, but a new unconditional authority arises instead: it is a policy, a state-city, for the protection and prosperity of which any sacrifices are possible and necessary. Eteocles and Polinik perish each for their city.
The genre of "The seven against Thebes" contains a lot of new for the creation of Aeschylus. This is not only frenetic (from "frenos" - funeral lamentation) oratorio, but the oratorio is militant, where the pathos of war are transmitted with great force by those who defend Thebes and who attack them. In addition, the novelty of the tragedy is also in the fact that here is given the first dramatic character of Aeschylus - Eteocles.
Eteocles is full of contradictions. In the drama "Seven against Thebes" he is devoted to the gods and prays to them at decisive moments, but he knows about his family curse and his doom and almost blasphemes. He is left by gods and people, he will now kill his brother and by his own hand will perish himself; and he is completely devoted to his city, methodically quietly giving his last military orders. This makes his character not only contradictory, but also effective, and the inevitable death that he knows, moreover, is prescribed from above, makes this character tragic. In Aeschylus, and therefore in the whole history of European drama, this is certainly the first dramatic character.
