English literary scholar Maurice Bowra writes about the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus, “the father of tragedy,” in Landmarks in Greek Literature,

Aeschylus may have found some of his starting-points in contemporary events but he looked far beyond them to the lasting principles which they illustrated and which could best be presented in a mythical form without any distracting local or ephemeral details. If Pindar illuminates the events of his own time by myths, Aeschylus goes further and makes myths illustrate matters which pass far beyond the present and are often everlasting principles behind the changing scene.