Xerxes led forth, woe! woe!
Xerxes hath all laid low!
Xerxes hath wrought malignant overthrow
To many a sea-borne raft.
Why did Darius rule unharmed the state,
Lord of the archers' craft,
Susa's beloved leader?
Antistrophe I.
Landmen and seamen flax-winged galleys bare:[1] 560
Galleys led forth; woe! woe!
Galleys wrought overthrow,
Galleys, by deadly crash of blue-faced prow,
But through Ionian hands.
The king hath 'scaped, we hear, by fortune rare,
Through Thracia's wide-spread lands;
Paths swept by storms of winter.
Strophe II.
The first, alas! laid low, 570
Perforce unurned, woe! woe!
Around Kychreia's shores spray-drenchèd lie.
Pour the lament, uplift on high
To heaven deep notes of pain;
Raising the dismal cry,
Your voices strain.
Antistrophe II.
By eddying currents torn,
Gnawed are their limbs, woe! woe!
- ↑ λινόπτεροι. I have adopted the emendation proposed by Schütz.
