The Persians - by Aeschylus

Eight years after the defeat of Xerxes in The Battle of Salamis (480 BC), Aeschylus writes this tragedy, a masterpiece produced to celebrate the most important Greek victory in the Persian Wars.

After defeating the legendary 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae, the Persians headed south of the Peloponnese and were ready to take the whole Hellenic world: the Greek civilization was sentenced to slavery. Although heavily outnumbered, the Greek Allies brought the Persian fleet to battle again in the Straits of Salamis, which ended in Xerxes's defeat, and his returning home empty-handed.

One year later, Persia completely withdrew his army from Greek land and sea, together with its perished desire to conquer them.

A number of historians believe that a Persian victory would have stilted the development of Ancient Greece, and by extension 'western civilization' per se, and has led them to claim that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history.

Aeschylus's "The Persians" is the Athenians' exultation in the recent ruin of their enemies; Greeks are to delight in the ruin of the Persian empire, and to exult in their anguish.

The Story

It's 480 BC. The news of Xerxes's victorious military campaign in the northern Peloponnese have already reached the Persians' ears. The final battle is taking place (Battle of Salamis) and the Queen of Persia is confidently awaiting the Herald to bring the news of the destruction of the Greeks.

The Herald now appears, but his news are not what she had expected. The announcement leaves the Queen wide-mouth-opened, not able to pronounce a single word: Xerxes, son of great Darius and holy leader of the Persians, was defeated.

My top ranked passages

- (...) What the gods permit is clearly what they command. To suppose otherwise it to hate heaven and therefore deserve death's rough correction (...)

- (...) What Darius made, Xerxes enlarges. (...) The world will be Persian, and all the better for it (...)

The Herald addressing the Queen

- (...) "Persia, cities of Asia, hear me ! My dreadful duty is bringing the news all at once. It is bitter indeed, for the battle is lost. We are defeated" (...)

- (...) "It pains me to say but ours was the stronger force. The Greeks had three hundred ten vessels to Xerxes's' thousand or more. Such an imbalance ought to have made us the victors, but gods or the fates, or the mere whims of the winds redressed the odds and held us off. They counter-attacked and whipped us soundly" (...)

- (...) " They were waiting for us, there at the narrow mouth of the bay, on both our flanks, and when signal trumpets blared, their armada converged on us like dogs on a doe" (...)

Words coming from the Prologue

- (...) "Xerxes at Salamis could have won and would have, if he had only been patient. The Greeks, cut off, would indeed have run in a matter of days. The attack was absurd, a risk that the Persians need never have taken (...) The Persians either way, are losers. The Greeks, by their valor or merely luck, have won. As their prize, they get to pick or even invent what version they like" (...)

- (...) "Asia's moment is over, The world is now Greek (...) We were lords of the world, and now we are slaves !" (...)