Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/86

74 Is the reputed reckoning. Accuse us not

That in this fight we failed to play the man:

A God it was who broke our power, weighed down

The judgment scale with no impartial hand.

There are divinities that keep the realm

Of divine Pallas safe.

Is Athens safe?

Is not the city sacked?

Ay, but her men!

They live, and therefore her defence is sure.

Tell me how first the fleets encountered; who

Began the attack, the Hellenes or my son

Exulting in the number of his ships?

Princess, the first beginner of all the woes

That afterwards ensued, though whence he came

None knoweth, was some genius of wrath,

Some wicked spirit such as lures men on

To their destruction. There came a man,

A Hellene, from the Athenian host, and he

On this wise spake unto Xerxes, thy son—

'If there shall come a dusk and darksome night

The Hellenes will not tarry; leaping down

Upon their rowers' benches they will pull

For safety, hither, thither scattering

In secret flight.' And when thy son heard that

He instantly—perceiving not the guile

Of the Hellene nor the spite of jealous Gods,—