Head of Aeschylus

[Head of Aeschylus,](https://ncartmuseum.org/art/detail/aeschylus) Roman, 1st century Marble, Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina. Museum Label states: 'Aeschylus, the great poet and dramatist of the fifth century BCE is generally regarded as the founder of Greek tragedy. His plays brought the tales of the heroic age of Greece to the stage. Little is known from antiquity of his physical appearance. One ancedote records that, as an old man, Aeschylus was killed by an eagle dropping a tortise on his bald head. Although this portrait head shows Aeschylus as a younger man, somewhat thinning hear can be detected. This portrait was probably copied during the Roman period from a statue erected in the theater of Athens in the late fourth century BCE along with those of two other famous playwrights, Sophocles and Euripides. Currently located in the North Carolina Museum of Art.