Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/147

present, will give the liveliest and most correct idea of the scene. He represents the messenger in the Persoe as thus describing the fight:—

“The hour was come, and straightway ship on ship
Dashed brazen beak, and first to strike a blow
Some Grecian craft break all the forward gear
Of a Phoenician bark. Then here and there
Right on some foe each drave his armed prow.
At first the long stream of the Persian host
Held out and brake not. But when as the swarm
Of countless ships, cramped in the narrow seas,
Crashed each on each—entangled in a maze
Where none could aid his fellow—friend on friend
Struck with their brazen beaks; and banks of oars
Were splintered in the rowers' hands; and still
The Grecian ships—watchful to miss no chance—
Rowed round them and charged: then many a hull
Keel uppermost went drifting; the wide sea
Was hidden with the wreckage and slain men;
And all the jutting headlands and the rocks
Were choked with corpses.”

Xerxes, sitting upon a throne which commanded a view of the bay of Salamis, watched with extreme agitation the issue of these combats, in nearly all of which the Greek ships were successful. The number of his ships made the confusion more disastrous when they attempted to retreat, for the retiring ships frequently crashed in upon those that were still rowing up to join in the struggle. The loss of life on the Persian side was the greater from the fact that they had less facilities than the Greeks for escaping to land. The small island of Psysttaleia had been occupied by some Persian troops for the purpose of securing a refuge for men whose ships