Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/123

Rh 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!

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.

Therefore through them hath come calamity

Most huge and past forgetting; nor of old