Nor were we Persians dumb, but sent them back

Shouting for shouting. Little time there was

To range our lines, until the brazen beaks

Crash’d in among us. First, a ship of Greece,

Leading the onset, rent off all the prow

[46]

From a Phœnician. Each then sought a foe;

And first we stemm’d the torrent of their charge,

But soon our multitudes in the narrow seas

Were thronged and hampered, nor could any now

Bear help to other—yea, and many a time

Friend hurtled upon friend, or rent away

With shearing prow her whole array of oars.

Meanwhile the Greeks around us fiercely charged

From every side at once; the lighter barques

Were soon o’erset; the very seas were hid,

So strewn with wreck and slaughter; every strand

And jutting rock-ledge was with corpses piled.

We pressed in ruinous disordered flight,

All that was left of Persia’s mighty fleet;

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