Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

those who boast their site

      By Hellè's full, wide stream,

      Propontis with its bays, and mouth of Pontos broad.

Strophe III

      And all the isles that lie

      Facing the headland jutting in the sea,66

      Close bound to this our coast;

      Lesbos, and Samos with its olive groves;

      Chios and Paros too;

      Naxos and Myconos, and Andros too

      On Tenos bordering.

Antistrophe III

      And so he ruled the isles

      That lie midway between the continents,

      Lemnos, and Icaros,

      Rhodes and Cnidos and the Kyprian towns,

      Paphos and Soli famed,

      And with them Salamis,

      Whose parent city now our groans doth cause;67

Epode

      And many a wealthy town and populous,

      Of Hellenes in the Ionian region dwelling,

      He by his counsel ruled;

      His was the unconquered strength of warrior host,

      Allies of mingled race.

      And now, beyond all doubt,

      In strife of war defeated utterly,

      We find this high estate

      Through wrath of God o'erturned,

      And we are smitten low,

      By bitter loss at sea.

Enter Xerxes in kingly apparel, but with his robes rent, with Attendants

      Xer. Oh, miserable me!

      Who this dark hateful doom

      That I expected least

      Have met with as my lot,

      With what stern mood and fierce

      Towards the Persian race

      Is God's hand laid on us!

      What woe will come on me?

      Gone is my strength of limb,

      As I these elders see.

      Ah, would to Heaven, O Zeus,

      That with the men who fell

      Death's doom had covered me!

      Chor. Ah, woe, O King, woe! woe!

      For the army brave in fight,

      And our goodly Persian name,

      And the fair array of men,

      Whom God hath now cut off!

      And the land bewails its youth

      Who for our Xerxes fell,

      For him whose deeds have filled

      Hades with Persian souls;

      For many heroes now

      Are Hades-travellers,

      Our country's chosen flower,

      Mighty with darts and bow;

      For lo! the myriad mass

      Of men has perished quite.

      Woe, woe for our fair fame!

      And Asia's land, O King,

      Is terribly, most terribly, o'erthrown.

      Xer. I then, oh misery!

      Have to my curse been proved

      Sore evil to my country and my race.

      Chor. Yea, and on thy return

      I will lift up my voice in wailing loud,

      Cry of sore-troubled thought,

      As of a mourner born

      In Mariandynian land,68

      Lament of many tears.

Antistrophe I

      Xer. Yea, utter ye a wail

      Dreary and full of grief;

      For lo! the face of Fate

      Against me now is turned.

      Chor. Yea, I will raise a cry

      Dreary and full of grief,

      Giving this tribute due

      To all the people's woes,

      And all our loss at sea,

      Troubles of this our State

      That mourneth for her sons;

      Yea, I will wail full sore,

      With flood of bitter tears.

Strophe II

      Xer. For Ares, he whose might

      Was in our ships' array,

      Giving victory to our foes,

      Has in Ionians, yea,

      Ionians, found his match,

      And from the dark sea's plain,

      And that ill-omened shore,

      Has a fell harvest reaped.

      Chor. Yea, wail, search out the whole;

      Where are our other friends?

      Where thy companions true,

      Such as Pharandakes,

      Susas, Pelagon, Psammis, Dotamas,

      Agdabatas, Susiskanes,

      From Ecbatana who started?

Antistrophe II

      Xer. I left them low in death,

      Falling from Tyrian ship,

      On Salaminian shores,

      Beating now here, now there,

      On the hard rock-girt coast.

      Chor. Ah, where Pharnuchos then,

      And Ariomardos brave?

      And where Sevalkes king,

      Lilæos proud of race,

      Memphis and Tharybis,

      Masistras, and Artembares,

      Hystæchmas? This I ask.

Strophe III

      Xer. Woe! woe is me!

      They have looked on at Athens' ancient towers,

      Her hated towers, ah me!

      All, as by one fell stroke,

      Unhappy in their fate

      Lie gasping on the shore.

      Chor. And he, thy faithful Eye,69

      Who told the Persian host,

      Myriads on myriads o'er,70

      Alpistos, son and heir

      Of Batanôchos old

· · · · ·

      And the son of brave Sesames,

      Son himself of Megabates?

      Parthos, and the great Œbares,

      Did'st thou leave them, did'st thou leave them?

      Ah, woe! ah, woe is me,

      For those unhappy ones!

      Thou

66

The geography is somewhat obscure, but the words seem to refer to the portion of the islands that are named as opposite (in a southerly direction) to the promontory of the Troad.

67

Salamis in Kypros had been colonised by Teukros, the son of Aias, and had received its name in remembrance of the island in the Saronic Gulf.

68

The Mariandynoi, a Paphlagonian tribe, conspicuous for their orgiastic worship of Adonis, had become proverbial for the wildness of their plaintive dirges.

69

The name seems to have been an official title for some Inspector-General of the Army. Comp. Aristoph. Acharn. v. 92.

70

As in the account which Herodotos gives (vii. 60) of the way in which the army of Xerxes was numbered, sc., by enclosing 10,000 men in a given space, and then filling it again and again till the whole army had passed through.