Persians
Aeschylus
Aeschylus, Volume 1. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.
- I feel alarm, and I accept her libations in kindly mood; while you, standing near my tomb, make lament, and with shrill cries that summon the spirits of the dead, invoke me piteously. Not easy is the path out of the tomb, for this reason above all, that the gods beneath the earth
- are readier to seize than to release. Nevertheless, since I have obtained dominion among them, I have come. But make haste, so that I may not incur blame regarding the time of my sojourn. What is this unexpected ill that weighs the Persians down?
- I shrink in awe from gazing upon you.
- I shrink in awe from speaking in your presence by reason of my former dread of you.
- Since, in compliance with your moanings, I have come from the world below, lay aside your awe of me; make your tale not long, but brief; speak out and deliver your story in its entirety.
- I fear to do your bidding; I fear to speak in your presence and deliver to those I love news hard to utter.
- Since dread long ingrained in your mind restrains you,
- cease, noble woman, venerable partner of my bed, from your tears and laments, speak to me with all frankness. Afflictions ordained for human life must, we know, befall mankind. For many calamities from the sea, many from the land, arise to mortal men if their span of life is extended far.
- O you who in prosperity surpassed all mortal men by your happy destiny,
- since, so long as you gazed upon the beams of the sun, you lived a life of felicity, envied of all, in Persian eyes a god, so now too I consider you fortunate in that you died before you beheld the depth of our calamities. The whole tale, O Darius, you will hear in brief space of time: the power of Persia is ruined almost utterly.
- How did it happen? Did some stroke of pestilence or factional strife come upon the State?
- Neither; but near Athens our whole host has been brought to ruin.
- Tell me, what son of mine led our army there?
- Impetuous Xerxes, depopulating the whole surface of the continent.
- Was it by land or sea that he made this mad expedition, the reckless man?
- By both. There was a twofold front of double armies.
- But how was it that so vast a land force won a passage to the farther shore?
- By a clever device he yoked the Hellespont so as to gain a passage.
- What! Did he succeed in closing the mighty Bosporus?
- Yes indeed. One of the divine powers must have assisted him in his purpose.