Messenger.
Her sons surviving, she firm bulwark hath.
Atossa.
What the commencement of the sea-fight? Say.
Did the Hellenès first the onset lead,
Or did my son, proud of innumerous ships?
Messenger.
All our disaster, Queen! from spirit of ill
Or vengeful power, none knoweth whence, began.
For a Hellene from out the Athenian host
Came to thy son, to Xerxes, with this tale,[1]
That when the gloom of dusky night set in,
The Hellenès would not stay, but, springing straight
On to the benches of their ships, would seek, 360
Some here, some there, safety by secret flight.
But he, when he had heard, perceiving not
The Hellenic guile, or envy of the gods,
To all his captains issues this command;
When with his beams the sun to scorch the earth
Should cease, and darkness hold the expanse of sky,
Their squadrons they should marshal in three lines,
Guarding the outlets and the billowy straits,
And others station around Aias' isle:— 370
For did the Hellenès 'scape a wretched fate,
- ↑ Allusion is here made to the desperate stratagem of Themistoklês, by which he thwarted the resolution of the Grecian leaders to remove the fleet to the Isthmus, a resolution which, if taken, would have involved the ruin of the Hellenic cause.
