Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/106

76

Know, if mere count of ships could win the day,

The Persians had prevailed. The Greeks, in sooth,

Had but three hundred galleys at the most,

And other ten, select and separate.

But—I am witness—Xerxes held command

Of full a thousand keels, and, those apart,

Two hundred more, and seven, for speed renowned!—

So stands the reckoning, and who shall dare

To say we Persians had the lesser host?

Nay, we were worsted by an unseen power

Who swayed the balance downward to our doom!

In ward of heaven doth Pallas' city stand.

How then? is Athens yet inviolate?

While her men live, her bulwark standeth firm!

Say, how began the struggle of the ships?

Who first joined issue? did the Greeks attack,

Or Xerxes, in his numbers confident?