Did Aeschylus believe in God? Or is this quote misattributed?

by TheNerdChaplain

There is a quote I really like that is attributed to Aeschylus. It goes,

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

But Aeschylus lived some 500 years BCE, and probably had little to no contact with Judaism. Was there a strain of monotheism in Greece that I am unaware of? Or should this quote be attributed to someone else?

Alkibiades415

There is no mention or reference to the Hebrew "God" here, and I doubt Aeschylos would have any concept of such. This is from Agamemnon, of the Oresteia tragic trilogy, in the middle of the 5th century BCE in Athens. In this passage, the Chorus reflects upon the nature of Zeus (A "god," ruler of THE gods via domination) as a third-generation ruler, the violent supplant of his father, a violent supplant. The singers openly question whether we/they should call the ruler "Zeus" or something else, perhaps a nod to the notion (in this passage) that wisdom through suffering is universal. Maybe in that way if a Jew had been in Athens in 458 and had somehow viewed the play at the Dionysia, he might have understood the references to Zeus here to be applicable to his own "god" as well. The translation you quote is, I believe, the product of a Methodist minister in modern times. The actual text reads:

Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων

τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν:

τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-

σαντα, τὸν πάθει μάθος

θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.

στάζει δ᾽ ἔν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας

μνησιπήμων πόνος: καὶ παρ᾽ ἄ-

κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.

δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος

σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων. (Aesch. Ag. 174-83)

"But whoever willingly sings a victory song for Zeus, he shall gain wisdom altogether—Zeus, who sets mortals on the path to understanding, Zeus, who has established as a fixed law that “wisdom comes by suffering.” But even as trouble, bringing memory of pain, drips over the mind in sleep, so wisdom comes to men, whether they want it or not. Harsh, it seems to me, is the grace of gods enthroned upon their awful seats."