Four Plays of Aeschylus Part 11

Know, if mere count of ships could win the day, The Persians had prevailed. The Greeks, in sooth, Had but three hundred galleys at the most, And other ten, select and separate.

But-I am witness-Xerxes held command Of full a thousand keels, and, those apart, Two hundred more, and seven, for speed renowned!- So stands the reckoning, and who shall dare To say we Persians had the lesser host?

ATOSSA

Nay, we were worsted by an unseen power Who swayed the balance downward to our doom!

MESSENGER

In ward of heaven doth Pallas' city stand.

ATOSSA

How then? is Athens yet inviolate?

MESSENGER

While her men live, her bulwark standeth firm!

ATOSSA

Say, how began the struggle of the ships?

Who first joined issue? did the Greeks attack, Or Xerxes, in his numbers confident?

MESSENGER

O queen, our whole disaster thus befell, Through intervention of some fiend or fate- I know not what-that had ill will to us.

From the Athenian host some Greek came o'er, To thy son Xerxes whispering this tale- Once let the gloom of night have gathered in, The Greeks will tarry not, but swiftly spring Each to his galley-bench, in furtive flight, Softly contriving safety for their life.

Thy son believed the word and missed the craft Of that Greek foeman, and the spite of Heaven, And straight to all his captains gave this charge- As soon as sunlight warms the ground no more, And gloom enwraps the sanctuary of sky, Range we our fleet in triple serried lines To bar the pa.s.sage from the seething strait, This way and that: let other ships surround The isle of Ajax, with this warning word- That if the Greeks their jeopardy should scape By wary craft, and win their ships a road.

Each Persian captain shall his failure pay By forfeit of his head. So spake the king, Inspired at heart with over-confidence, Unwitting of the G.o.ds' predestined will.

Thereon our crews, with no disordered haste, Did service to his bidding and purveyed The meal of afternoon: each rower then Over the fitted rowlock looped his oar.

Then, when the splendour of the sun had set, And night drew on, each master of the oar And each armed warrior straightway went aboard.

Forward the long ships moved, rank cheering rank, Each forward set upon its ordered course.

And all night long the captains of the fleet Kept their crews moving up and down the strait.

So the night waned, and not one Grecian ship Made effort to elude and slip away.

But as dawn came and with her coursers white Shone in fair radiance over all the earth, First from the Grecian fleet rang out a cry, A song of onset! and the island crags Re-echoed to the shrill exulting sound.

Then on us Eastern men amazement fell And fear in place of hope; for what we heard Was not a call to flight! the Greeks rang out Their holy, resolute, exulting chant, Like men come forth to dare and do and die Their trumpets pealed, and fire was in that sound, And with the dash of simultaneous oars Replying to the war-chant, on they came, Smiting the swirling brine, and in a trice They flashed upon the vision of the foe!

The right wing first in orderly advance Came on, a steady column; following then, The rest of their array moved out and on, And to our ears there came a burst of sound, A clamour manifold.-On, sons of Greece!

On, for your country's freedom! strike to save Wives, children, temples of ancestral G.o.ds, Graves of your fathers! now is all at stake.

Then from our side swelled up the mingled din Of Persian tongues, and time brooked no delay- Ship into ship drave hard its brazen beak With speed of thought, a shattering blow! and first One Grecian bark plunged straight, and sheared away Bowsprit and stem of a Phoenician ship.

And then each galley on some other's prow Came crashing in. Awhile our stream of ships Held onward, till within the narrowing creek Our jostling vessels were together driven, And none could aid another: each on each Drave hard their brazen beaks, or brake away The oar-banks of each other, stem to stern, While the Greek galleys, with no lack of skill, Hemmed them and battered in their sides, and soon The hulls rolled over, and the sea was hid, Crowded with wrecks and butchery of men.

No beach nor reef but was with corpses strewn, And every keel of our barbarian host Hurried to flee, in utter disarray.

Thereon the foe closed in upon the wrecks And hacked and hewed, with oars and splintered planks, As fishermen hack tunnies or a cast Of netted dolphins, and the briny sea Rang with the screams and shrieks of dying men, Until the night's dark aspect hid the scene.

Had I a ten days' time to sum that count Of carnage, 'twere too little! know this well- One day ne'er saw such myriad forms of death!

ATOSSA

Woe on us, woe! disaster's mighty sea Hath burst on us and all the Persian realm!

MESSENGER

Be well a.s.sured, the tale is but begun- The further agony that on us fell Doth twice outweigh the sufferings I have told!

ATOSSA

Nay, what disaster could be worse than this?

Say on! what woe upon the army came, Swaying the scale to a yet further fall?

MESSENGER

The very flower and crown of Persia's race, Gallant of soul and glorious in descent, And highest held in trust before the king, Lies shamefully and miserably slain.

ATOSSA

Alas for me and for this ruin, friends!

Dead, sayest thou? by what fate overthrown?

MESSENGER

An islet is there, fronting Salamis- Strait, and with evil anchorage: thereon Pan treads the measure of the dance he loves Along the sea-beach. Thither the king sent His n.o.blest, that, whene'er the Grecian foe Should 'scape, with shattered ships, unto the isle, We might make easy prey of fugitives And slay them there, and from the washing tides Rescue our friends. It fell out otherwise Than he divined, for when, by aid of Heaven, The h.e.l.lenes held the victory on the sea, Their sailors then and there begirt themselves With brazen mail and bounded from their ships, And then enringed the islet, point by point, So that our Persians in bewilderment Knew not which way to turn. On every side, Battered with stones, they fell, while arrows flew From many a string, and smote them to the death.

Then, at the last, with simultaneous rush The foe came bursting on us, hacked and hewed To fragments all that miserable band, Till not a soul of them was left alive.

Then Xerxes saw disaster's depth, and shrieked, From where he sat on high, surveying all- A lofty eminence, beside the brine, Whence all his armament lay clear in view.

His robe he rent, with loud and bitter wail, And to his land-force swiftly gave command And fled, with shame beside him! Now, lament That second woe, upon the first imposed!

ATOSSA

Out on thee, Fortune! thou hast foiled the hope And power of Persia: to this bitter end My son went forth to wreak his great revenge On famous Athens! all too few they seemed, Our men who died upon the Fennel-field!

Vengeance for them my son had mind to take, And drew on his own head these whelming woes.

But thou, say on! the ships that 'scaped from wreck- Where didst thou leave them? make thy story clear.

MESSENGER

The captains of the ships that still survived Fled in disorder, scudding down the wind, The while our land-force on Boeotian soil Fell into ruin, some beside the springs Dropping before they drank, and some outworn, Pursued, and panting all their life away.

The rest of us our way to Phocis won, And thence to Doris and the Melian gulf, Where with soft stream Spercheus laves the soil.

Thence to the northward did Phthiotis' plain, And some Thessalian fortress, lend us aid, For famine-pinched we were, and many died Of drought and hunger's twofold present scourge.

Thence to Magnesia came we, and the land Where Macedonians dwell, and crossed the ford Of Axius, and Bolbe's reedy fen, And mount Pangaeus, in Edonian land.

There, in the very night we came, the G.o.d Brought winter ere its time, from bank to bank Freezing the holy Strymon's tide. Each man Who heretofore held lightly of the G.o.ds, Now crouched and proffered prayer to Earth and Heaven!

Then, after many orisons performed, The army ventured on the frozen ford: Yet only those who crossed before the sun Shed its warm rays, won to the farther side.

For soon the fervour of the glowing orb Did with its keen rays pierce the ice-bound stream, And men sank through and thrust each other down- Best was his lot whose breath was stifled first!

But all who struggled through and gained the bank, Toilfully wending through the land of Thrace Have made their way, a sorry, scanted few, Unto this homeland. Let the city now Lament and yearn for all the loved and lost.

My tale is truth, yet much untold remains Of ills that Heaven hath hurled upon our land.

CHORUS

Spirit of Fate, too heavy were thy feet, Those ill to match! that sprang on Persia's realm.

ATOSSA

Woe for the host, to wrack and ruin hurled!

O warning of the night, prophetic dream!

Thou didst foreshadow clearly all the doom, While ye, old men, made light of woman's fears!

Ah well-yet, as your divination ruled The meaning of the sign, I hold it good, First, that I put up prayer unto the G.o.ds, And, after that, forth from my palace bring The sacrificial cake, the offering due To Earth and to the spirits of the dead.

Too well I know it is a timeless rite Over a finished thing that cannot change!

But yet-I know not-there may come of it Alleviation for the after time.

You it beseems, in view of what hath happed, T' advise with loyal hearts our loyal guards: And to my son-if, ere my coming forth, He should draw hitherward-give comfort meet, Escort him to the palace in all state, Lest to these woes he add another woe!

[Exit ATOSSA.

CHORUS

Zeus, lord and king! to death and nought Our countless host by thee is brought.

Deep in the gloom of death, to-day, Lie Susa and Ecbatana: How many a maid in sorrow stands And rends her tire with tender hands!

How tears run down, in common pain And woeful mourning for the slain!

O delicate in dole and grief, Ye Persian women! past relief Is now your sorrow! to the war Your loved ones went and come no more!