Atossa

Then tell me of the fight at Salamis.

Who first began the onslaught—was’t the Greeks?

Or made his swollen fleet my son too bold?

Messenger

Began? Some Power malign began it all!

Some God that hated Persia. First, there came

A Greek deserter from the Athenian host.

“Keep watch,” he said, “for at the dead of night

[44]

Our benches shall be manned, our fleet dispersed;

They will escape you in the narrow seas.”

This Xerxes heard, O Queen, and never saw

The Greek man’s guile, nor knew the Gods his foe.

To all the captains of the fleet he sent

This order: “When the sun his fiery beams

Hath hidden from the earth, and night holds all

The empire of the air, then set your ships,

Some ranged in threefold line to guard the friths

And close up all the roaring waterways,

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