248
The Persians.
Rhode, Lemnos, Cnidos; Cyprian towns of fame, 880
Paphos and Soli, Salamis, dread name,
Whose mother-city wakes these doleful cries.
Epode.
And to his will Ionia's towns he bent,
Well peopled by Hellenès, opulent;
And strength exhaustless his of mailed array,
Of allies too, a motley band;
But now, not dubiously, by God's own hand,
Smitten with mighty blow
Through naval overthrow, 890
Behold we former glories swept away.
[Enter Xerxes, with Attendants.]
Xerxes.[1]
Ah, wretched me, whom Fate
With most unlook'd-for blow
Hath smitten! With what hate
A God on Persia's race
Hath trampled! What dire woe
Is mine! Unhappy wight!
- ↑ The account given by Herodotus of the lamentations of the Persian host on occasion of the death of Masistius, general of the Persian cavalry at the brittle of Platæa, may be quoted as illustrating the prolonged wail which concludes the drama of the Persians. "The grief was violent and unbounded, manifested by wailings so loud as to echo over all Bœotia; while the hair of men, horses, and cattle was abundantly cut in token of mourning."—Grote's History of Greece.
