Achilleis (trilogy)

[5] In his commentary on The Libation Bearers, Garvie states that it is "highly likely that Aeschylus often, though not always (of the surviving plays Persae is an almost certain exception) composed trilogies consisting of tragedies connected in their subject matter.

"[6] In addition to the Oresteia (to which 'The Libation Bearers' belongs), the Seven Against Thebes and Suppliants formed part of connected trilogies, as did the lost plays that make up the Lycurgeia.

During the first half of the 20th century papyrus fragments of numerous lost Aeschylean plays, including the Myrmidons, were discovered that added much material to, and greatly altered the modern conception of, the dramatist's corpus.

[9] Given Aeschylus' tendency to write connected trilogies, three plays attested in the catalogue of his work have been supposed to constitute the Achilleis: Myrmidons, Nereids and Phrygians (alternately titled The Ransoming of Hector).

Despite the paucity of surviving text, the Myrmidons has achieved some measure of fame, because of Aristophanes' satire of it at Frogs 911–13 in which Euripides mocks Aeschylus' stagecraft: This play, along with the also lost Niobe, are two famous examples cited in antiquity of the often-discussed theme of the "Aeschylean silence".

263–72 Radt; 242–59 Mette) almost certainly corresponded with Book 24 of the Iliad: Achilles' defilement of Hector's corpse and his eventually agreeing to ransom the body back to the grieving father, Priam.

[11] The Achilleis and the circumstances of its transmission came to broader public notice in 2003 when ThoC, Cyprus' national theatre, announced that it would be staging an adaptation (by way of creative reconstruction) of the trilogy by Elias Malandris.