“Classicists see O’Neill as adapting the ancient themes of Aeschylus to and for an America unsophisticated about classical tragedy. When O’Neill was asked why he returned to classical antiquity to deal with modern democracy, he responded that the Greek stage allows us to look into ourselves. Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle held up reason as the highest human faculty. Rational reflection was, they taught, the key to discovering life’s meaning. By grasping eternal and immutable truths, we could fathom who we are and why we exist, they believed.”