The Scholia on Aeschylus are notes written in the margins and between the lines of the medieval manuscripts of the plays. They are the work of many hands: the oldest layer goes back to the commentaries of Alexandrian scholars, and Byzantine teachers abridged it and added glosses and paraphrases of their own. The oldest manuscript to carry them is the Medicean, of the tenth century, now in Florence.
These scholia cover five plays: the three plays of the Oresteia, Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides, then Suppliants and Seven against Thebes. Each set follows its play line by line. Several open with ancient matter: plot summaries, one on the Eumenides under the name of Aristophanes of Byzantium, and the production notices for the Agamemnon of 458 BCE and the Seven of 467 BCE. The notes explain rare words and constructions, paraphrase hard lines, and supply myth, setting and staging. The scholia on the Seven against Thebes are by far the largest set, made up mostly of Byzantine glosses, often several on a single word.
Aeschylus Scholia Scholia on Aeschylus: summary and contents (PDF)
Aeschylus Scholia Scholia on Aeschylus: summary and contents (Markdown)
Contents
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Ἀγαμέμνων Agamemnon
A plot summary opens the scholia on the Agamemnon, with the notice of the 458 BCE production, which records first prize for the trilogy and the satyr-play Proteus, the cast list and a note on the watchman's prologue. Short glosses follow, dense on the omen of the eagles and the hymn to Zeus in the parodos, and continue through Cassandra's prophecy to Clytemnestra's defence of the killing.
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Χοηφόροι Libation Bearers
Glosses on the Libation Bearers begin with the chorus of women sent by Clytemnestra and her dream, explain words and construction, and paraphrase hard lines. Among the notes are the great lament at Agamemnon's grave and the dream of the snake that draws blood from the breast. They end with Orestes beside the bodies, displaying the robe that trapped his father and appealing to Apollo's oracle.
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Εὐμενίδες Eumenides
Aristophanes of Byzantium's summary leads the notes on the Eumenides: Orestes, pursued by the Erinyes at Delphi, is acquitted at Athens. One note praises the Pythia's prologue, which reports what she saw rather than narrating offstage events in Euripides's manner. Further notes explain Orestes's silence as a polluted man and Athena's title Tritogeneia, and the last notes treat Athena's offer to the Erinyes and the torchlit procession.
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Ἱκέτιδες Suppliants
From the first anapaests, these scholia on the Suppliants explain the Danaids' flight from the mouths of the Nile, their kinship with the sons of Aegyptus and their descent from Io. Later notes treat the women's threat to hang themselves from the gods' images and Danaus's fear of going into Argos alone. The close comments on the final song and cites Pindar on two ills for every good.
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Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας Seven against Thebes
The scholia on the Seven against Thebes open with the setting, the plot, the production of 467 BCE, when Aeschylus won with the Theban tetralogy, and a long prose account of Laius and Oedipus. Most of what follows is layers of Byzantine glosses, often several on a single word, worked through the shield-scenes at the gates to the last lines of the play.