Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

and commingled host

      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

      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

      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.

      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,

      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,

      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.

      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

      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 excelled32

      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?

      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 host34

      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

      Into their rowers' benches, here and there,

      And save their lives in secret, hasty flight.

      And he forthwith, this hearing, knowing not

      The Hellene's guile, nor yet the Gods' great wrath,

      Gives this command to all his admirals,

      Soon as the sun should cease to burn the earth

      With his bright rays, and darkness thick invade

      The firmament of heaven, to set their ships

      In threefold lines, to hinder all escape,

      And guard the billowy straits, and others place

      In circuit round about the isle of Aias:

      For if the Hellenes 'scaped an evil doom,

      And

29

Perhaps – “On planks that floated onward,”

or – “On land and sea far spreading.”

30

Possibly Salamis itself, as famed for the doves which were reared there as sacred to Aphrodite, but possibly also one of the smaller islands in the Saronic gulf, which the epithet would be enough to designate for an Athenian audience. The “coasts of the Sileni” in v. 305 are identified by scholiasts with Salamis.

31

Perhaps – “And ten of these selected as reserve.”

32

As regards the number of the Persian ships, 1000 of average, and 207 of special swiftness. Æschylos agrees with Herodotos, who gives the total of 1207. The latter, however, reckons the Greek ships not at 310, but 378 (vii. 89, viii. 48).

33

The fact that Athens had actually been taken, and its chief buildings plundered and laid waste, was, of course, not a pleasant one for the poet to dwell on. It could hardly, however, be entirely passed over, and this is the one allusion to it. In the truest sense it was still “unsacked:” it had not lost its most effective defence, its most precious treasure.

34

As the story is told by Herodotos (vii. 75), this was Sikinnos, the slave of Themistocles, and the stratagem was the device of that commander to save the Greeks from the disgrace and ruin of a sauve qui peut flight in all directions.