Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Read Free Page A

upon the wrecksAnd hacked and hewed, with oars and splintered planks,As fishermen hack tunnies or a castOf netted dolphins, and the briny seaRang 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 countOf 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 seaHath burst on us and all the Persian realm!
    MESSENGER Be well assured, the tale is but begun —The further agony that on us fellDoth 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: thereonPan treads the measure of the dance he lovesAlong the sea-beach. Thither the king sentHis noblest, that, whene’er the Grecian foeShould ‘scape, with shattered ships, unto the isle,We might make easy prey of fugitivesAnd slay them there, and from the washing tidesRescue our friends. It fell out otherwiseThan he divined, for when, by aid of Heaven,The Hellenes held the victory on the sea,Their sailors then and there begirt themselvesWith brazen mail and bounded from their ships,And then enringed the islet, point by point,So that our Persians in bewildermentKnew not which way to turn.   On every
side,Battered with stones, they fell, while arrows flewFrom many a string, and smote them to the death.Then, at the last, with simultaneous rushThe foe came bursting on us, hacked and hewedTo 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 commandAnd fled, with shame beside him! Now, lamentThat second woe, upon the first imposed!
    ATOSSA Out on thee, Fortune! thou hast foiled the hopeAnd power of Persia: to
this bitter endMy son went forth to wreak his great revengeOn 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 survivedFled in disorder, scudding down the wind,The while our land-force on Boeotian soilFell into ruin, some beside the springsDropping 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 diedOf drought and hunger’s twofold present scourge.Thence to Magnesia came we, and the landWhere Macedonians dwell, and crossed the fordOf Axius, and Bolbe’s reedy fen,And mount Pangaeus, in Edonian land.There, in the very night we came, the godBrought winter ere its time, from bank to bankFreezing the holy Strymon’s tide. Each manWho heretofore held lightly of the gods,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 sunShed its warm rays, won to the farther side.For soon the fervour of the glowing orbDid 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