And so began the second Persian invasion of Greece. Although Xerxes would enjoy some successes, most notably in the Battle of Thermopylae, the conflict would ultimately result in victory for the Greek peoples.

1 The Aleuadae were the Thessalian reigning family.

THE FALL OF THE BARBARIANS

Persians

Aeschylus

Translated by Janet Lembke and C. John Herington, 1981

Aeschylus’ Persians is the earliest surviving Greek tragedy. First performed in 472 BC, eight years after the Greeks defeated the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis, the play won first prize at the annual theatre festival in Athens. You can see why. Written from the Greek perspective, the play characterizes the Persians as indulgent over-reachers and ‘barbarians’. Darius was not without his faults (see Story 16), but by comparison with his hubristic and headstrong son Xerxes, he is depicted as a man of wisdom and integrity. At Susa, the Persian capital, Darius’ widow Atossa awaits news of their son Xerxes’ progress. She is joined by a Chorus of elder statesmen.

ATOSSA. [In unaccompanied iambic verse] Night after night

since my son left with the army he mustered

I am joined with many dreams

He’s gone,

gone to Greece,

bent on making it Persian and his.

But never has a vision showed more clear

than what I saw last night

in the kind-hearted dark.

I’ll tell you:

It seemed to me

two well-dressed women—

one robed with Persian luxury,

the other in a plain Greek tunic—

came into view, both

taller far than any woman now living,

and flawless in beauty,

and sisters from the one same

parentage.

And for a fatherland, a home,

one was allotted Greek soil,

the other, the great world beyond.

Then I saw

the two of them build bitter quarrels,

one against the other,

and when my son learned this,

he tried to curb and gentle them:

under his chariot

he yokes the two, and on their necks

he straps broad leather collars.

And the one towered herself

proud in this harness

and she kept her mouth

well-governed by the reins.

But the other bucked stubborn

and with both hands

she wrenches harness from the chariot fittings

and drags it by sheer force,

bridle flung off, and she

shatters the yoke, mid-span

and he falls,

my son falls,

and his father is standing beside him—

Darius, pitying him

and when Xerxes sees that

he shreds around his body

the clothes that a king wears.

I tell you

I did see these things last night.

Today, when I’d risen

and dipped both hands in a clear-rippling spring

to cleanse me of bad dreams,

hands busy with offerings,

I stood by Phoibos’ altar

wanting to give mixed honey and wine,

their expected due,

to the undying Powers that turn away evil.

And I see

an eagle

fleeing toward the altar’s godbright flame.

Frightened, mute, my friends, I

just stood there,

and soon I see a hawk in downstoop

raising wings to break the fall and working