[Exit ATOSSA.
CHORUS
Zeus, lord and king! to death and nought
Our countless host by thee is brought.
Deep in the gloom of death, to-day,
Lie Susa and Ecbatana:
How many a maid in sorrow stands
And rends her tire with tender hands!
How tears run down, in common pain
And woeful mourning for the slain!
O delicate in dole and grief,
Ye Persian women! past relief
Is now your sorrow! to the war
Your loved ones went and come no more!
Gone from you is your joy and pride —
Severed the bridegroom from the bride —
The wedded couch luxurious
Is widowed now, and all the house
Pines ever with insatiate sighs,
And we stand here and bid arise,
For those who forth in ardour went
And come not back, the loud lament!
Land of the East, thou mournest for the host,
Bereft of all thy sons, alas the day!
For them whom Xerxes led hath Xerxes lost —
Xerxes who wrecked the fleet, and flung our hopes away!
How came it that Darius once controlled,
And without scathe, the army of the bow,
Loved by the folk of Susa, wise and bold?
Now is the land-force lost, the shipmen sunk below!
Ah for the ships that bore them, woe is me!
Bore them to death and doom! the crashing prows
Of fierce Ionian oarsmen swept the sea,
And death was in their wake, and shipwreck murderous!
Late, late and hardly — if true tales they tell —
Did Xerxes flee along the wintry way
And snows of Thrace — but ah, the first who fell
Lie by the rocks or float upon Cychrea’s bay!
Mourn, each and all! waft heavenward your cry,
Stung to the soul, bereaved, disconsolate!
Wail out your anguish, till it pierce the sky,
In shrieks of deep despair, ill-omened, desperate!
The dead are drifting, yea, are gnawed upon
By voiceless children of the stainless sea,
Or battered by the surge! we mourn and groan
For husbands gone to death, for childless agony!
Alas the aged men, who mourn to-day
The ruinous sorrows that the gods ordain!
O’er the wide Asian land, the Persian sway
Can force no tribute now, and can no rule sustain.
Yea, men will crouch no more to fallen power
And kingship overthrown! the whole land o’er,
Men speak the thing they will, and from this hour
The folk whom Xerxes ruled obey his word no more.
The yoke of force is broken from the neck —
The isle of Ajax and th’ encircling wave
Reek with a bloody crop of death and wreck
Of Persia’s fallen power, that none can lift nor save!
[Re-enter ATOSSA, in mourning robes.
ATOSSA
Friends, whosoe’er is versed in human ills,
Knoweth right well that when a wave of woe
Comes on a man, he sees in all things fear;
While, in flood-tide of fortune, ’tis his mood
To take that fortune as unchangeable,
Wafting him ever forward. Mark me now —
The gods’ thwart purpose doth confront mine eyes,
And all is terror to me; in mine ears
There sounds a cry, but not of triumph now —
So am I scared at heart by woe so great.
Therefore I wend forth from the house anew,
Borne in no car of state, nor robed in pride
As heretofore, but bringing, for the sire
Who did beget my son, libations meet
For holy rites that shall appease the dead —
The sweet white milk, drawn from a spotless cow,
The oozing drop of golden honey, culled
By the flower-haunting bee, and therewithal
Pure draughts of water from a virgin spring;
And lo! besides, the stainless effluence,
Born of the wild vine’s bosom, shining store
Treasured to age, this bright and luscious wine.
And eke the fragrant fruit upon the bough
Of the grey olive-tree, which lives its life
In sprouting leafage, and the twining flowers,
Bright children of the earth’s fertility.
But you, O friends! above these offerings poured
To reconcile the dead, ring out your dirge
To summon up Darius from the shades,
Himself a shade; and I will pour these draughts,
Which earth shall drink, unto the gods of hell.
CHORUS
Queen, by the Persian land adored,
By thee be this libation poured,
Passing to those who hold command
Of dead men in the spirit-land!
And we will sue, in solemn chant,
That gods who do escort the dead
In nether realms, our prayer may grant —
Back to us be Darius led!
O Earth, and Hermes, and the king
Of Hades, our Darius bring!
For if, beyond the prayers we prayed,
He knoweth aught of help or aid,
He, he alone, in realms below,
Can speak the limit of our woe!
Doth he hear me, the king we adored, who is god
among gods of the dead?
Doth he hear me send out in my sorrow the pitiful,
manifold cry,
The sobbing lament and appeal? is the voice of my
suffering sped
To the realm of the shades? doth he hear me and
pity my sorrowful sigh?
O Earth, and ye Lords of the dead! release ye that
spirit of might,
Who in Susa the palace was born! let him rise up
once more to the light!
There is none like him, none of all
That e’er were laid in Persian sepulchres!
Borne forth he was to honoured burial,
A royal heart! and followed by our tears.
God of the dead, O give him back to us,
Darius, ruler glorious!
He never wasted us with reckless war —
God, counsellor, and king, beneath a happy star!
Ancient of days and king, awake and come —
Rise o’er the mounded tomb!
Rise, plant thy foot, with saffron sandal shod
Father to us, and god!
Rise with thy diadem, O sire benign,
Upon thy brow!
List to the strange new sorrows of thy line,
Sire of a woeful son!
A mist of fate and hell is round us now,
And all the city’s flower to death is done!
Alas, we wept thee once, and weep again!
O Lord of lords, by recklessness twofold
The land is wasted of its men,
And down to death are rolled
Wreckage of sail and oar,
Ships that are ships no more,
And bodies of the slain!
[The GHOST OF DARIUS rises.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Ye aged Persians, truest of the true,
Coevals of the youth that once was mine,
What troubleth now our city? harken, how
It moans and beats the breast and rends the plain!
And I, beholding how my consort stood
Beside my tomb, was moved with awe, and took
The gift of her libation graciously.
But ye are weeping by my sepulchre,
And, shrilling forth a sad, evoking cry,
Summon me mournfully, Arise, arise.
No light thing
is it, to come back from death,
For, in good sooth, the gods of nether gloom
Are quick to seize but late and loth to free!
Yet among them I dwell as one in power —
And lo, I come! now speak, and speed your words,
Lest I be blamed for tarrying overlong!
What new disaster broods o’er Persia’s realm?
CHORUS
With awe on thee I gaze,
And, standing face to face,
I tremble as I did in olden days!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Nay, but as I rose to earth again, obedient to your call,
Prithee, tarry not in parley! be one word enough for all —
Speak and gaze on me unshrinking, neither let my face appal!
CHORUS
I tremble to reveal,
Yet tremble to conceal
Things hard for friends to feel!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Nay, but if the old-time terror on your spirit keeps its hold,
Speak thou, O royal lady who didst couch with me of old!
Stay thy weeping and lamenting and to me reveal the truth —
Speak! for man is born to sorrow; yea, the proverb sayeth sooth!
’Tis the doom of mortal beings, if they live to see old age,
To suffer bale, by land and sea, through war and tempest’s rage.
ATOSSA
O thou whose blissful fate on earth all mortal weal excelled —
Who, while the sunlight touched thine eyes, the lord of all wert
held!
A god to Persian men thou wert, in bliss and pride and fame —
I hold thee blest too in thy death, or e’er the ruin came!
Alas, Darius! one brief word must tell thee all the tale —
The Persian power is in the dust, gone down in blood and bale!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Speak — by what chance? did man rebel, or pestilence descend?
ATOSSA
Neither! by Athens’ fatal shores our army met its end.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Which of my children led our host to Athens? speak and say.
ATOSSA
The froward Xerxes, leaving all our realm to disarray.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Was it with army or with fleet on folly’s quest he went?
ATOSSA
With both alike, a twofold front of double armament.
GHOST OF DARIUS
And how then did so large a host on foot pass o’er the sea?
ATOSSA
He bridged the ford of Helle’s strait by artful carpentry.
GHOST OF DARIUS
How? could his craft avail to span the torrent of that tide?
ATOSSA
’Tis sooth I say — some unknown power did fatal help provide!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Alas, that power in malice came, to his bewilderment!
ATOSSA
Alas, we see the end of all, the ruin on us sent.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Speak, tell me how they fared therein, that thus ye mourn and weep?
ATOSSA
Disaster to the army came, through ruin on the deep!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Is all undone? hath all the folk gone down before the foe?
ATOSSA
Yea, hark to Susa’s mourning cry for warriors laid low!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Alas for all our gallant aids, our Persia’s help and pride!
ATOSSA
Ay! old with young, the Bactrian force hath perished at our side!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Alas, my son! what gallant youths hath he sent down to death!
ATOSSA
Alone, or with a scanty guard — for so the rumour saith —
GHOST OF DARIUS
He came — but how, and to what end? doth aught of hope remain?
ATOSSA
With joy he reached the bridge that spanned the Hellespontine main.
GHOST OF DARIUS
How? is he safe, in Persian land? speak soothly, yea or nay!
ATOSSA
Clear and more clear the rumour comes, for no man to gainsay.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Woe for the oracle fulfilled, the presage of the war
Launched on my son, by will of Zeus! I deemed our doom afar
In lap of time; but, if a king push forward to his fate,
The god himself allures to death that man infatuate!
So now the very fount of woe streams out on those I loved,
And mine own son, unwisely bold, the truth hereof hath proved!
He sought to shackle and control the Hellespontine wave,
That rushes from the Bosphorus, with fetters of a slave! —
To curb and bridge, with welded links, the streaming water-way,
And guide across the passage broad his manifold array!
Ah, folly void of counsel! he deemed that mortal wight
Could thwart the will of Heaven itself and curb Poseidon’s might!
Was it not madness? much I fear lest all my wealth and store
Pass from my treasure-house, to be the snatcher’s prize once more!
ATOSSA
Such is the lesson, ah, too late! to eager Xerxes taught —
Trusting random counsellors and hare-brained men of nought,
Who said Darius mighty wealth and fame to us did bring,
But thou art nought, a blunted spear, a palace-keeping king!
Unto those sorry counsellors a ready ear he lent,
And led away to Hellas’ shore his fated armament.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Therefore through them hath come calamity
Most huge and past forgetting; nor of old
Did ever such extermination fall
Upon the city Susa. Long ago
Zeus in his power this privilege bestowed,
That with a guiding sceptre one sole man
Should rule this Asian land of flock and herd.
Over the folk a Mede, Astyages,
Did grasp the power: then Cyaxares ruled
In his sire’s place, and held the sway aright,
Steering his state with watchful wariness.
Third in succession, Cyrus, blest of Heaven,
Held rule and ‘stablished peace for all his clan:
Lydian and Phrygian won he to his sway,
For the god favoured his discretion sage.
Fourth in the dynasty was Cyrus’ son,
And fifth was Mardus, scandal of his land
And ancient lineage. Him Artaphrenes,
Hardy of heart, within his palace slew,
Aided by loyal plotters, set for this.
And I too gained the lot for which I craved,
And oftentimes led out a goodly host,
Yet never brought disaster such as this
Upon the city. But my son is young
And reckless in his youth, and heedeth not
The warnings of my mouth. Mark this, my friends,
Born with my birth, coeval with mine age —
Not all we kings who held successive rule
Have wrought, combined, such ruin as my son!
CHORUS
How then, O King Darius? whitherward
Dost thou direct thy warning? from this plight
How can we Persians fare towards hope again?
GHOST OF DARIUS
By nevermore assailing Grecian lands,
Even tho’ our Median force be double theirs —
For the land’s self protects its denizens.
CHORUS
How meanest thou? by what defensive power?
GHOST OF DARIUS
She wastes by famine a too countless foe.
CHORUS
But we will bring a host more skilled than huge.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Why, e’en that army, camped in Hellas s
till,
Shall never win again to home and weal!
CHORUS
How say’st thou? will not all the Asian host
Pass back from Europe over Helle’s ford?
GHOST OF DARIUS
Nay — scarce a tithe of all those myriads,
If man may trust the oracles of Heaven
When he beholds the things already wrought,
Not false with true, but true with no word false
If what I trow be truth, my son has left
A chosen rear-guard of our host, in whom
He trusts, now, with a random confidence!
They tarry where Asopus laves the ground
With rills that softly bless Boeotia’s plain —
There is it fated for them to endure
The very crown of misery and doom,
Requital for their god-forgetting pride!
For why? they raided Hellas, had the heart
To wrong the images of holy gods,
And give the shrines and temples to the flame!
Defaced and dashed from sight the altars fell,
And each god’s image, from its pedestal
Thrust and flung down, in dim confusion lies!
Therefore, for outrage vile, a doom as dark
They suffer, and yet more shall undergo —
They touch no bottom in the swamp of doom,
But round them rises, bubbling up, the ooze!
So deep shall lie the gory clotted mass
Of corpses by the Dorian spear transfixed
Upon Plataea’s field! yea, piles of slain
To the third generation shall attest
By silent eloquence to those that see —
Let not a mortal vaunt him overmuch.
For pride grows rankly, and to ripeness brings
The curse of fate, and reaps, for harvest, tears!
Therefore when ye behold, for deeds like these,
Such stern requital paid, remember then
Athens and Hellas. Let no mortal wight,
Holding too lightly of his present weal
And passionate for more, cast down and spill
The mighty cup of his prosperity!
Doubt not that over-proud and haughty souls
Zeus lours in wrath, exacting the account.
Therefore, with wary warning, school my son,
Though he be lessoned by the gods already,
To curb the vaunting that affronts high Heaven!
And thou, O venerable Mother-queen,
Beloved of Xerxes, to the palace pass
And take therefrom such raiment as befits
Thy son, and go to meet him: for his garb
In this extremity of grief hangs rent
Around his body, woefully unstitched,
Mere tattered fragments of once royal robes!
Go thou to him, speak soft and soothing words —
Thee, and none other, will he bear to hear,
As well I know. But I must pass away
From earth above, unto the nether gloom;