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                                ÆSCHYLOS
                               TRAGEDIES
                                  AND
                               FRAGMENTS


                        _Translated by the late_

                          E. H. PLUMPTRE D.D.

                            _Dean of Wells_

WITH NOTES AND RHYMED CHORAL ODES

                                                            IN TWO PARTS

                             BOSTON U.S.A.

                      D. C. HEATH & CO. PUBLISHERS

                                  1901




                            PUBLISHER'S NOTE


_The reception accorded to the pocket edition of Dean Plumptre's “Dante”
has encouraged the publishers to issue in the same_ format _the Dean's
masterly translation of the Tragedies of Æschylos._

_In preparing the present issue they have followed the carefully revised
text of the second edition, and have included the scholarly and
suggestive annotations with which the Dean invariably delighted to
enrich his work as a translator._

_The seven Plays, which are all that remain of the seventy or eighty
with which Æschylos is credited, are presented in their chronological
order. Passages in which the reading or the rendering is more or less
conjectural, and in which, accordingly, the aid of the commentator is
advisable, are marked by an asterisk; and passages which are regarded as
spurious by editors of authority have been placed in brackets._

_In translating the Choral Odes the Dean used such unrhymed
metres—observing the strophic and antistrophic arrangement—as seemed to
him most analogous in their general rhythmical effect to those of the
original. He added in an appendix, however, for the sake of those who
preferred the rhymed form with which they were familiar, a rhymed
version of the chief Odes of the Oresteian trilogy. Those in the other
dramas did not appear to him to be of equal interest, or to lend
themselves with equal facility to a like attempt. The Greek text on
which the translation is based is, for the most part, that of Mr.
Paley's edition of 1861._

_A translation was also given of the Fragments which have survived the
wreck of the lost plays, so that the work contains all that has been
left to us associated with the name of Æschylos._

_In the present edition a chronological outline has been substituted for
the biographical sketch of the poet, who from his daring enlargement of
the scope of the drama, the magnificence of his spectacular effects and
the splendour of his genius, was rightly honoured as “the Father of
Tragedy.”_




                                 PART I


                                                                  _Page_

 CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ÆSCHYLOS                        11

 THE PERSIANS                                                         17

 THE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THEBES                                  65

 PROMETHEUS BOUND                                                    113

 THE SUPPLIANTS                                                      161




                                PART II


                                                                  _Page_

 AGAMEMNON                                                             9

 THE LIBATION-POURERS                                                 87

 EUMENIDES                                                           137

 FRAGMENTS                                                           185


 RHYMED CHORUSES

   _From_ Agamemnon                                                  191

   _From_ The Libation-Pourers                                       210

   _From_ Eumenides                                                  219




             CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ÆSCHYLOS


   B.C.

    527 Peisistratos died.

    525 Birth at Eleusis, in Attica, of Æschylos, son of Euphorion.

    510 Expulsion of the Peisistratidæ. Democratic constitution of
        Cleisthenes.

        Approximate date of incident in the legend that Æschylos was set
        to watch grapes as they were ripening for the vintage, and fell
        asleep; and lo! as he slept Dionysos appeared to him and bade
        him give himself to write tragedies for the great festival of
        the god. And when he awoke, he found himself invested with new
        powers of thought and utterance, and the work was as easy to him
        as if he had been trained to it for many years (Pausan, _Att._
        i. 21, § 3).[1]

    500 Birth of Anaxagoras.

    499 Æschylos exhibited his first tragedy, in unsuccessful
        competition with Pratinas and Chœrilos.

        The wooden scaffolding broke beneath the crowd of spectators,
        and the accident led the Athenians to build their first stone
        theatre for the Dionysiac festivals.

        Partly out of annoyance at his defeat, it is said, and partly in
        a spirit of adventure, Æschylos sailed for Sicily.

    497 Death of Pythagoras (?).

    495 Birth of Sophocles at Colonos.

    491 Æschylos at Athens.

    490 The Battle of Marathon. Æschylos and his brothers, Kynægeiros
        and Ameinias, so distinguished themselves, that the Athenians
        ordered their heroic deeds to be commemorated in a picture.

        Death of Theognis (?).

    488 Prize awarded to Simonides for an elegy on Marathon. Æschylos,
        piqued, it is said, at his failure in the competition, again
        departed to Sicily.

    485 Xerxes succeeded Dareios.

    484 Æschylos won, in a dramatic contest with Pratinas, Chœrilos, and
        Phrynichos, the first of a series of thirteen successes.

        Birth of Herodotos.

    480 Athens burnt by Xerxes.

        Æschylos fought at Artemisium and Salamis. At Salamis his
        brother Ameinias lost his hand, and was awarded the prize of
        valour.

        Sophocles led the Chorus of Victory.

        Birth of Euripides.

    479 Æschylos at the Battle of Platæa.

    477 Commencement of Athenian supremacy.

    473 Æschylos carried off the first prize with _The Persians_ (the
        first of the extant plays), which belonged to a tetralogy that
        included two tragedies, _Phineus_ and _Glaucos_, and a satyric
        drama, _Prometheus the Fire-stealer_.

        _The Persians_ has the interest of being a contemporary record
        of the great sea-fight at Salamis by an eye-witness.

    471 Æschylos appears to have produced this year his next tetralogy,
        of which _The Seven against Thebes_ survives.

        The play was directed against the policy of aiming at the
        supremacy of Athens by attacking other Greek States, and, in
        brief, maintained the policy of Aristeides as against that of
        Themistocles.

        Birth of Thucydides.

    468 Sophocles gained his first victory in tragedy with his
        _Triptolemos_; Æschylos defeated.

        Æschylos charged with impiety, on the ground that he had
        profaned the Mysteries by introducing on the stage rites known
        only to the initiated; tried and acquitted; departure for
        Syracuse.

    467 Æschylos at the court of Hieron at Syracuse, where he is said to
        have composed dramas on local legends, such as _The Women of
        Ætna_.

        Death of Simonides.

    461 Ostracism of Kimon; ascendency of Pericles.

 460-59 Probable date of _The Suppliants_, if the play be connected with
        the alliance between Argos and Athens (B.C. 461), and the war
        with the Persian forces in Egypt, upon which the Athenians had
        entered as allies of the Libyan Prince Inaros. (B.C. 460.)

        The date of _Prometheus Bound_ has been referred to B.C. 470 on
        the strength of a description of Ætna (vv. 370-380), which is
        supposed to be a reference to the eruption of B.C. 477. Internal
        evidence, however, seems to warrant the view that _The
        Suppliants_ and the _Prometheus Bound_ were separated by only a
        brief interval of time.

    458 Æschylos in Athens. He found new men and new methods;
        institutions, held most sacred as the safeguard of Athenian
        religion, were being criticised and attacked; the Court of
        Areiopagos was threatened with abolition under pretence of
        reform.

        Production of the Oresteian Trilogy (or, rather, tetralogy, as
        in addition to the _Agamemnon_, the _Libation-pourers_, and the
        _Eumenides_, there was a satyric drama, _Proteus_).

        This trilogy was a conservative protest, religious, social, and
        political, which culminated in the assertion of the divine
        authority of the Areiopagos.

        Popular feeling was once more excited against the poet, who left
        Athens never to return, and settled at Gela, in Sicily, under
        the patronage of Hieron.

    456 Death of Æschylos, aged 69.

        An oracle foretold that he was to die by a blow from heaven, and
        according to the legend, an eagle, mistaking the poet's head for
        a stone as he sat writing, dropped a tortoise on it to break the
        shell.

        He was buried at Gela, and his epitaph, ascribed to himself,
        ran: “Beneath this stone lies Æschylos, son of Euphorion. At
        fertile Gela he died. Marathon can tell of his tested manhood,
        and the Persians who there felt his mettle.”

        He is said to have produced between seventy and eighty plays, of
        which only seven survive.

-----

Footnote 1:

  _Cf._, the legend of Caedmon, “the Father of English Song.”




                            THE PERSIANS[2]


                            DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

                       ATOSSA

                       _Ghost of_ DAREIOS

                       _Messenger_

                       XERXES

                       _Chorus of Persian Elders_


_ARGUMENT.—When Xerxes came to the throne of Persia, remembering how his
father Dareios had sought to subdue the land of the Hellenes, and
seeking to avenge the defeat of Datis and Artaphernes on the field of
Marathon, he gathered together a mighty host of all nations under his
dominion, and led them against Hellas. And at first he prospered and
prevailed, crossed the Hellespont, and defeated the Spartans at
Thermopylæ, and took the city of Athens, from which the greater part of
its citizens had fled. But at last he and his armament met with utter
overthrow at Salamis. Meanwhile Atossa, the mother of Xerxes, with her
handmaids and the elders of the Persians, waited anxiously at Susa,
where was the palace of the great king, for tidings of her son._

-----

Footnote 2:

  _Note._—Within two years after the battle of Salamis, the feeling of
  natural exultation was met by Phrynichos in a tragedy bearing the
  title of _The Phœnikians_, and having for its subject the defeat of
  Xerxes. As he had come under the displeasure of the Athenian _demos_
  for having brought on the stage the sufferings of their Ionian kinsmen
  in his _Capture of Miletos_, he was apparently anxious to regain his
  popularity by a “sensation” drama of another kind; and his success
  seems to have prompted Æschylos to a like attempt five years later,
  B.C. 473. The Tetralogy to which the play belonged, and which gained
  the first prize on its representation, included the two tragedies
  (unconnected in subject) of _Phineus_ and _Glaucos_, and the satyric
  drama of _Prometheus the Fire-stealer_.

  The play has, therefore, the interest of being strictly a contemporary
  narrative of the battle of Salamis and its immediate consequences, by
  one who may himself have been present at it, and whose brother
  Ameinias (Herod, viii. 93) distinguished himself in it by a special
  act of heroism. As such, making all allowance for the influence of
  dramatic exigencies, and the tendency to colour history so as to meet
  the tastes of patriotic Athenians, it may claim, where it differs from
  the story told by Herodotos, to be a more trustworthy record. And it
  has, we must remember, the interest of being the only extant drama of
  its class, the only tragedy the subject of which is not taken from the
  cycle of heroic myths, but from the national history of the time. Far
  below the Oresteian Trilogy as it may seem to us as a work of art,
  having more the character of a spectacle than a poem, it was, we may
  well believe, unusually successful at the time, and it is said to have
  been chosen by Hiero for reproduction in Syracuse after Æschylos had
  settled there under his patronage.




                              THE PERSIANS


       SCENE.—SUSA, _in front of the palace of_ XERXES, _the tomb
          of_ DAREIOS _occupying the position of the thymele_

                   _Enter Chorus of_ Persian Elders.

 We the title bear of Faithful,[3]
 Friends of Persians gone to Hellas,
 Watchers left of treasure city,[4]
 Gold-abounding, whom, as oldest,
 Xerxes hath himself appointed,
 He, the offspring of Dareios,
 As the warders of his country.
 And about our king's returning,
 And our army's, gold-abounding,
 Over-much, and boding evil,                                          10
 Does my mind within me shudder
 (For our whole force, Asia's offspring,
 Now is gone), and for our young chief
 Sorely frets: nor courier cometh,
 Nor any horseman, bringing tidings
 To the city of the Persians.
 From Ecbatana departing,
 Susa, or the Kissian fortress,[5]
 Forth they sped upon their journey,
 Some in ships, and some on horses,
 Some on foot, still onward marching,
 In their close array presenting
 Squadrons duly armed for battle:                                     20
 Then Armistres, Artaphernes,
 Megabazes, and Astaspes,
 Mighty leaders of the Persians,
 Kings, and of the great King servants,[6]
 March, the chiefs of mighty army.
 Archers they and mounted horsemen.
 Dread to look on, fierce in battle,
 Artembares proud, on horseback,
 And Masistres, and Imæos,                                            30
 Archer famed, and Pharandakes,
 And the charioteer Sosthanes.
 Neilos mighty and prolific
 Sent forth others, Susikanes,
 Pegastagon, Egypt's offspring,
 And the chief of sacred Memphis;
 Great Arsames, Ariomardos,
 Ruler of primeval Thebæ,
 And the marsh-men,[7] and the rowers,
 Dread, and in their number countless.                                40
 And there follow crowds of Lydians,
 Very delicate and stately,[8]
 Who the people of the mainland
 Rule throughout—whom Mitragathes
 And brave Arkteus, kingly chieftains,
 Led, from Sardis, gold-abounding,
 Riding on their many chariots,
 Three or four a-breast their horses,
 Sight to look upon all dreadful.
 And the men of sacred Tmôlos[9]
 Rush to place the yoke of bondage
 On the neck of conquered Hellas.                                     50
 Mardon, Tharabis, spear-anvils,[10]
 And the Mysians, javelin-darting;[11]
 Babylôn too, gold-abounding,
 Sends a mingled cloud, swept onward,
 Both the troops who man the vessels,
 And the skilled and trustful bowmen;
 And the race the sword that beareth,
 Follows from each clime of Asia,
 At the great King's dread commandment.
 These, the bloom of Persia's greatness,
 Now are gone forth to the battle;                                    60
 And for these, their mother country,
 Asia, mourns with mighty yearning;
 Wives and mothers faint with trembling
 Through the hours that slowly linger,
 Counting each day as it passes.


                               STROPHE I

 The king's great host, destroying cities mighty,
 Hath to the land beyond the sea passed over,
 Crossing the straits of Athamantid Helle,[12]                        70
     On raft by ropes secured,
 And thrown his path, compact of many a vessel,
 As yoke upon the neck of mighty ocean.


                             ANTISTROPHE I

 Of populous Asia thus the mighty ruler
 'Gainst all the land his God-sent host directeth
 In two divisions, both by land and water,
     Trusting the chieftains stern,
 The men who drive the host to fight, relentless—
 He, sprung from gold-born race, a hero godlike.[13]                  80


                               STROPHE II

 Glancing with darkling look, and eyes as of ravening dragon,
 With many a hand, and many a ship, and Syrian chariot driving,[14]
 He upon spearmen renowned brings battle of conquering arrows.[15]


                             ANTISTROPHE II

 Yea, there is none so tried as, withstanding the flood of the mighty,90
 To keep within steadfast bounds that wave of ocean resistless;
 Hard to fight is the host of the Persians, the people stout-hearted.


                                 MESODE

 Yet ah! what mortal can ward the craft of the God all-deceiving?
 *Who, with a nimble foot, of one leap is easily sovereign?
 For Atè, fawning and kind, at first a mortal betraying,             100
 Then in snares and meshes decoys him,
 Whence one who is but man in vain doth struggle to'scape from.


                              STROPHE III

 For Fate of old, by the high Gods' decree,
 Prevailed, and on the Persians laid this task,
     Wars with the crash of towers,
 And set the surge of horsemen in array,
 And the fierce sack that lays a city low.                           110


                            ANTISTROPHE III

 But now they learnt to look on ocean plains,[16]
 The wide sea hoary with the violent blast,
     Waxing o'er confident
 In cables formed of many a slender strand,
 And rare device of transport for the host.


                               STROPHE IV

     So now my soul is torn,
 As clad in mourning, in its sore affright,
 Ah me! ah me! for all the Persian host!                             120
     Lest soon our country learn
 That Susa's mighty fort is void of men.


                             ANTISTROPHE IV

     And through the Kissians' town
 Shall echo heavy thud of hands on breast.
 Woe! woe! when all the crowd of women speak
     This utterance of great grief,
 And byssine robes are rent in agony.


                               STROPHE V

     For all the horses strong,
     And host that march on foot,
 Like swarm of bees, have gone with him who led                      130
   The vanguard of the host.
 Crossing the sea-washed, bridge-built promontory
 That joins the shores of either continent.[17]


                             ANTISTROPHE V

   And beds with tears are wet
   In grief for husbands gone,
 And Persian wives are delicate in grief,
   Each yearning for her lord;
 And each who sent her warrior-spouse to battle                      140
 Now mourns at home in dreary solitude.
   But come, ye Persians now,
 And sitting in this ancient hall of ours,
 Let us take thought deep-counselling and wise,
   (Sore need is there of that,)
 How fareth now the great king Xerxes, he
   Who calls Dareios sire,
 Bearing the name our father bore of old?
 Is it the archers' bow that wins the day?
   Or does the strength prevail                                      150
 Of iron point that heads the spear's strong shaft?
 But lo! in glory like the face of gods,
 The mother of my king, my queen, appears:
 Let us do reverent homage at her feet;
   Yea, it is meet that all
 Should speak to her with words of greeting kind.

                 _Enter_ ATOSSA _in a chariot of state_

 _Chor._ O sovereign queen of Persian wives deep-zoned,
 Mother of Xerxes, reverend in thine age,
   Wife of Dareios! hail!
 'Twas thine to join in wedlock with a spouse
   Whom Persians owned as God,[18]
 And of a God thou art the mother too,
 Unless its ancient Fortune fails our host.                          160

 _Atoss._ Yes, thus I come, our gold-decked palace leaving,
 The bridal bower Dareios with me slept in.
 Care gnaws my heart, but now I tell you plainly
 A tale, my friends, which may not leave me fearless,
 Lest boastful wealth should stumble at the threshold,
 And with his foot o'erturn the prosperous fortune
 That great Dareios raised with Heaven's high blessing.
 And twofold care untold my bosom haunteth:
 We may not honour wealth that has no warriors,
 Nor on the poor shines light to strength proportioned;
 Wealth without stint we have, yet for our eye we tremble;           170
 For as the eye of home I deem a master's presence.
 Wherefore, ye Persians, aid me now in counsel;
 Trusty and old, in you lies hope of wisdom.

 _Chor._ Queen of our land! be sure thou need'st not utter
 Or thing or word twice o'er, which power may point to;
 Thou bid'st us counsel give who fain would serve thee.

 _Atoss._ Ever with many visions of the night[19]
 Am I encompassed, since my son went forth,
 Leading a mighty host, with aim to sack
 The land of the Ionians. But ne'er yet                              180
 Have I beheld a dream so manifest
 As in the night just past. And this I'll tell thee:
 There stood by me two women in fair robes;
 And this in Persian garments was arrayed,
 And that in Dorian came before mine eyes;
 In stature both of tallest, comeliest size;
 And both of faultless beauty, sisters twain
 Of the same stock.[20] And they twain had their homes,
 One in the Hellenic, one in alien land.
 And these two, as I dreamt I saw, were set                          190
 At variance with each other. And my son
 Learnt it, and checked and mollified their wrath,
 And yokes them to his chariot, and his collar
 He places on their necks. And one was proud
 Of that equipment,[21] and in harness gave
 Her mouth obedient; but the other kicked,
 And tears the chariot's trappings with her hands,
 And rushes off uncurbed, and breaks its yoke
 Asunder. And my son falls low, and then
 His father comes, Dareios, pitying him.
 And lo! when Xerxes sees him, he his clothes                        200
 Rends round his limbs. These things I say I saw
 In visions of the night; and when I rose,
 And dipped my hands in fountain flowing clear,[22]
 I at the altar stood with hand that bore
 Sweet incense, wishing holy chrism to pour
 To the averting Gods whom thus men worship.
 And I beheld an eagle in full flight
 To Phœbos' altar-hearth; and then, my friends,                      210
 I stood, struck dumb with fear; and next I saw
 A kite pursuing, in her wingèd course,
 And with his claws tearing the eagle's head,
 Which did nought else but crouch and yield itself.
 Such terrors it has been my lot to see,
 And yours to hear: For be ye sure, my son,
 If he succeed, will wonder-worthy prove;
 But if he fail, still irresponsible
 He to the people, and in either case,
 He, should he but return, is sovereign still.[23]

 _Chor._ We neither wish, O Lady, thee to frighten
 O'ermuch with what we say, nor yet encourage:
 But thou, the Gods adoring with entreaties,
 If thou hast seen aught ill, bid them avert it,
 And that all good things may receive fulfilment
 For thee, thy children, and thy friends and country.                220
 And next 'tis meet libations due to offer
 To Earth and to the dead. And ask thy husband,
 Dareios, whom thou say'st by night thou sawest,
 With kindly mood from 'neath the Earth to send thee
 Good things to light for thee and for thine offspring,
 While adverse things shall fade away in darkness.
 Such things do I, a self-taught seer, advise thee
 In kindly mood, and any way we reckon
 That good will come to thee from out these omens.

 _Atoss._ Well, with kind heart, hast thou, as first expounder,
 Out of my dreams brought out a welcome meaning
 For me, and for my sons; and thy good wishes,
 May they receive fulfilment! And this also,
 As thou dost bid, we to the Gods will offer                         230
 And to our friends below, when we go homeward.
 But first, my friends, I wish to hear of Athens,
 Where in the world do men report it standeth?[24]

 _Chor._ Far to the West, where sets our king the Sun-God.

 _Atoss._ Was it this city my son wished to capture?

 _Chor._ Aye, then would Hellas to our king be subject.

 _Atoss._ And have they any multitude of soldiers?

 _Chor._ A mighty host, that wrought the Medes much mischief.

 _Atoss._ And what besides? Have they too wealth sufficing?

 _Chor._ A fount of silver have they, their land's treasure.[25]240

 _Atoss._ Have they a host in archers' skill excelling?

 _Chor._ Not so, they wield the spear and shield and bucklers.[26]

 _Atoss._ What shepherd rules and lords it o'er their people?

 _Chor._ Of no man are they called the slaves or subjects.

 _Atoss._ How then can they sustain a foe invading?

 _Chor._ So that they spoiled Dareios' goodly army.

 _Atoss._ Dread news is thine for sires of those who're marching.

 _Chor._ Nay, but I think thou soon wilt know the whole truth;
 This running one may know is that of Persian:[27]
 For good or evil some clear news he bringeth.                       250

                           _Enter_ Messenger

 _Mess._ O cities of the whole wide land of Asia!
 O soil of Persia, haven of great wealth!
 How at one stroke is brought to nothingness
 Our great prosperity, and all the flower
 Of Persia's strength is fallen! Woe is me!
 'Tis ill to be the first to bring ill news;
 Yet needs must I the whole woe tell, ye Persians:
 All our barbaric mighty host is lost.[28]


                               STROPHE I

 _Chor._ O piteous, piteous woe!                              260
       O strange and dread event!
 Weep, O ye Persians, hearing this great grief!

 _Mess._ Yea, all things there are ruined utterly;
 And I myself beyond all hopes behold
       The light of day at home.


                             ANTISTROPHE I

 _Chor._ O'er-long doth life appear
       To me, bowed down with years,
 On hearing this unlooked-for misery.

 _Mess._ And I, indeed, being present and not hearing
 The tales of others, can report, ye Persians,
       What ills were brought to pass.


                               STROPHE II

 _Chor._ Alas, alas! in vain
 The many-weaponed and commingled host                               270
 Went from the land of Asia to invade
       The soil divine of Hellas.

 _Mess._ Full of the dead, slain foully, are the coasts
 Of Salamis, and all the neighbouring shore.


                             ANTISTROPHE II

 _Chor._ Alas, alas! sea-tossed
 The bodies of our friends, and much disstained:
 Thou say'st that they are drifted to and fro
       *In far out-floating garments.[29]

 _Mess._ E'en so; our bows availed not, but the host
 Has perished, conquered by the clash of ships.


                              STROPHE III

 _Chor._ Wail, raise a bitter cry                             280
 And full of woe, for those who died in fight.
 How every way the Gods have wrought out ill,
 Ah me! ah me, our army all destroyed.

 _Mess._ O name of Salamis that most I loathe!
 Ah, how I groan, remembering Athens too!


                            ANTISTROPHE III

 _Chor._ Yea, to her enemies
 Athens may well be hateful, and our minds
 Remember how full many a Persian wife                               290
 She, for no cause, made widows and bereaved.

 _Atoss._ Long time I have been silent in my woe,
 Crushed down with grief; for this calamity
 Exceeds all power to tell the woe, or ask.
 Yet still we mortals needs must bear the griefs
 The Gods send on us. Clearly tell thy tale,
 Unfolding the whole mischief, even though
 Thou groan'st at evils, who there is not dead,
 And which of our chief captains we must mourn,
 And who, being set in office o'er the host,
 Left by their death their office desolate.                          300

 _Mess._ Xerxes still lives and sees the light of day.

 _Atoss._ To my house, then, great light thy words have brought,
 Bright dawn of morning after murky night.

 _Mess._ Artembares, the lord of myriad horse,
 On the hard flinty coasts of the Sileni
 Is now being dashed; and valiant Dadakes,
 Captain of thousands, smitten with the spear,
 Leapt wildly from his ship. And Tenagon,
 Best of the true old Bactrians, haunts the soil
 Of Aias' isle; Lilaios, Arsames,                                    310
 And with them too Argestes, there defeated,
 Hard by the island where the doves abound,[30]
 Beat here and there upon the rocky shore.
 [And from the springs of Neilos, Ægypt's stream,
 Arkteus, Adeues, Pheresseues too,
 These with Pharnuchos in one ship were lost;]
 Matallos, Chrysa-born, the captain bold
 Of myriads, leader he of swarthy horse
 Some thrice ten thousand strong, has fallen low,
 His red beard, hanging all its shaggy length,
 Deep dyed with blood, and purpled all his skin.
 Arabian Magos, Bactrian Artames,                                    320
 They perished, settlers in a land full rough.
 [Amistris and Amphistreus, guiding well
 The spear of many a conflict, and the noble
 Ariomardos, leaving bitter grief
 For Sardis; and the Mysian Seisames.]
 With twelve score ships and ten came Tharybis;
 Lyrnæan he in birth, once fair in form,
 He lies, poor wretch, a death inglorious dying:
 And, first in valour proved, Syennesis,
 Kilikian satrap, who, for one man, gave
 Most trouble to his foes, and nobly died.                           330
 Of leaders such as these I mention make,
 And out of many evils tell but few.

 _Atoss._ Woe, woe! I hear the very worst of ills,
 Shame to the Persians, cause of bitter wail;
 But tell me, going o'er the ground again,
 How great the number of the Hellenes' navy,
 That they presumed with Persia's armament
 To wage their warfare in the clash of ships.

 _Mess._ As far as numbers went, be sure the ships
 Of Persia had the better, for the Hellenes                          340
 Had, as their total, ships but fifteen score,
 And other ten selected as reserve.[31]
 And Xerxes (well I know it) had a thousand
 Which he commanded—those that most excelled[32]
 In speed were twice five score and seven in number;
 So stands the account. Deem'st thou our forces less
 In that encounter? Nay, some Power above
 Destroyed our host, and pressed the balance down
 With most unequal fortune, and the Gods
 Preserve the city of the Goddess Pallas.

 _Atoss._ Is the Athenians' city then unsacked?               350

 _Mess._ Their men are left, and that is bulwark strong.[33]

 _Atoss._ Next tell me how the fight of ships began.
 Who led the attack? Were those Hellenes the first,
 Or was't my son, exulting in his strength?

 _Mess._ The author of the mischief, O my mistress,
 Was some foul fiend or Power on evil bent;
 For lo! a Hellene from the Athenian host[34]
 Came to thy son, to Xerxes, and spake thus,
 That should the shadow of the dark night come,
 The Hellenes would not wait him, but would leap                     360
 Into their rowers' benches,