Persians
Aeschylus
Aeschylus, Volume 1. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.
- a god-like hero whose race is sprung from gold.[*](The hero Perseus, here regarded as the ancestor of Xerxes, and in l. 146 as giving his name to the whole Persian race, was the son of Zeus, who descended to Danae in a shower of gold.)
- With eyes flashing with the dark glare of a deadly dragon, attended by soldiers and mariners in great numbers, and speeding his Syrian chariot,
- he leads against a people renowned for the spear a warlike host of archers.
- And there is no man skilled to withstand the mighty stream of men, and with strong barriers keep out the sea’s invincible surge;
- for Persia’s host cannot be withstood, and her men are courageous.
- For by the will of the gods Fate has held sway
- since ancient time, and has ordained for the Persians the pursuit of rampart-destroying war, the turmoil of fighting horsemen, and the storming of cities.
- And they have learned to look upon the precinct of the deep when the broad-wayed sea whitens to foam beneath the tempest’s blast, trusting in their finely wrought
- cables and their devices which give passage to their army.
- Yet the insidious guile of god—what mortal man can escape it? Who with agile foot can lightly overleap
- and escape its toils?
- For Delusion, with her fair appearance, lures men astray into her snares, from which it is not possible to escape without meeting with disaster.
- Therefore my heart is wrapped in gloom and is racked with fear for the Persian army lest the state learn that the mighty capital of Susa is empty of men.
- Fearful I am too that as bands of women cry aloud woe, the Cissian stronghold will raise a resounding shout responsive to the beating of breasts,
- and that there will be a tearing of fine linen robes.
- For all the men-at-arms, those who urge on steeds and those who march along the plain, have left the city and gone forth, like bees in a swarm, together with the captain of the host.
- They have crossed the headland, projecting into the sea and common to either continent, through which both shores are bridged.
- And marriage-beds are filled with tears through longing for husbands;
- each Persian woman has sent to the field her warlike and fiery consort, and now in grief and longing for her beloved lord, is left forsaken by her mate.