For in the strait between Athens and the island
of Salamis the Persian ships were shattered and sunk or put to
flight by those of Athens and Lacedaemon and Aegina and Corinth, and
Xerxes went homewards on the way by which he had come, leaving his
general Mardonius with three hundred thousand men to strive with the
Greeks by land: but in the next year they were destroyed near
Plataea in Boeotia, by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians and Tegeans.
of Salamis the Persian ships were shattered and sunk or put to
flight by those of Athens and Lacedaemon and Aegina and Corinth, and
Xerxes went homewards on the way by which he had come, leaving his
general Mardonius with three hundred thousand men to strive with the
Greeks by land: but in the next year they were destroyed near
Plataea in Boeotia, by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians and Tegeans.
Aeschylus
SEMI-CHORUS
Soft is thy word--the doom is hard.
SEMI-CHORUS
Thou know'st not what the Fates provide.
SEMI-CHORUS
How should I scan Zeus' mighty will,
The depth of counsel undescried?
SEMI-CHORUS
Pray thou no word of omen ill.
SEMI-CHORUS
What timely warning wouldst thou teach?
SEMI-CHORUS
Beware, nor slight the gods in speech.
SEMI-CHORUS
Zeus, hold from my body the wedlock detested, the
bridegroom abhorred!
It was thou, it was thou didst release
Mine ancestress Io from sorrow: thine healing it
was that restored,
The touch of thine hand gave her peace.
SEMI-CHORUS
Be thy will for the cause of the maidens! of two ills,
the lesser I pray--
The exile that leaveth me pure.
May thy justice have heed to my cause, my prayers
to thy mercy find way!
For the hands of thy saving are sure.
[_Exeunt omnes_.
THE PERSIANS
ARGUMENT
Xerxes, son of Darius and of his wife Atossa, daughter of Cyrus,
went forth against Hellas, to take vengeance upon those who had
defeated his father at Marathon. But ill fortune befell the king and
his army both by land and sea; neither did it avail him that he cast
a bridge over the Hellespont and made a canal across the promontory
of Mount Athos, and brought myriads of men, by land and sea, to
subdue the Greeks.
For in the strait between Athens and the island
of Salamis the Persian ships were shattered and sunk or put to
flight by those of Athens and Lacedaemon and Aegina and Corinth, and
Xerxes went homewards on the way by which he had come, leaving his
general Mardonius with three hundred thousand men to strive with the
Greeks by land: but in the next year they were destroyed near
Plataea in Boeotia, by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians and Tegeans.
Such was the end of the army which Xerxes left behind him. But the
king himself had reached the bridge over the Hellespont, and late and
hardly and in sorry plight and with few companions came home unto
the Palace of Susa.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHORUS OF PERSIAN ELDERS.
ATOSSA, WIDOW OF DARIUS AND MOTHER OF XERXES.
A MESSENGER.
THE GHOST OF DARIUS.
XERXES.
_The Scene is laid at the Palace of Susa_.
CHORUS
Away unto the Grecian land
Hath passed the Persian armament:
We, by the monarch's high command,
We are the warders true who stand,
Chosen, for honour and descent,
To watch the wealth of him who went--
Guards of the gold, and faithful styled
By Xerxes, great Darius' child!
But the king went nor comes again--
And for that host, we saw depart
Arrayed in gold, my boding heart
Aches with a pulse of anxious pain,
Presageful for its youthful king!
No scout, no steed, no battle-car
Comes speeding hitherward, to bring
News to our city from afar!
Erewhile they went, away, away,
From Susa, from Ecbatana,
From Kissa's timeworn fortress grey,
Passing to ravage and to war--
Some upon steeds, on galleys some,
Some in close files, they passed from home,
All upon warlike errand bent--
Amistres, Artaphernes went,
Astaspes, Megabazes high,
Lords of the Persian chivalry,
Marshals who serve the great king's word
Chieftains of all the mighty horde!
Horsemen and bowmen streamed away,
Grim in their aspect, fixed to slay,
And resolute to face the fray!
With troops of horse, careering fast,
Masistes, Artembares passed:
Imaeus too, the bowman brave,
Sosthanes, Pharandakes, drave--
And others the all-nursing wave
Of Nilus to the battle gave;
Came Susiskanes, warrior wild,
And Pegastagon, Egypt's child:
Thee, brave Arsames! from afar
Did holy Memphis launch to war;
And Ariomardus, high in fame,
From Thebes the immemorial came,
And oarsmen skilled from Nilus' fen,
A countless crowd of warlike men:
And next, the dainty Lydians went--
Soft rulers of a continent--
Mitragathes and Arcteus bold
In twin command their ranks controlled,
And Sardis town, that teems with gold,
Sent forth its squadrons to the war--
Horse upon horse, and car on car,
Double and triple teams, they rolled,
In onset awful to behold.
