Aeschylus' Septem Contra Thebas / Seven Against Thebes

Spy / Scout / Messenger - Seven warriors, impetuous leaders of their companies, shedding a bull’s blood into a black-bound shield, and touching with their hands the victim’s gore, have sworn an oath by Ares, by, Enyo, and by bloodthirsty Rout, that they will bring destruction on the city of the Cadmeans and ravage it by force of arms, or in death imbrue this land of ours with their blood. (42-48)

Eteocles - O Zeus and Earth (Gaia), and ye gods that guard our city, and Curse, the potent spirit of the vengeance of my sire, do not, I entreat ye, extirpate in ruin utter and complete, with ravage by the foe, a city that speaks the speech of Hellas, and our hearths and homes. O may they never constrain in slavery’s yoke a land of freedom and the town of Cadmus! But show yourselves our strength. Methinks it is our common cause I urge. For a State that prospers pays honours to the gods. (69-77)

Cadmus & the Dragon

Eteocles - You, I ask, insufferable creatures that ye are! is this the best course to save the town, does this hearten our beleaguered soldiery – to fling yourselves before the images of the gods that guard the city and shout and shriek and make decent folk detest you? Neither in evil days nor in gladsome prosperity may I have to house with womankind. Has she the upper hand, – ’tis insolence past living with; but, if seized with fear, to home and city she is a still greater bane. So now, by hurrying to and fro in flight, in your clamour ye have spread craven cowardice among the townsfolk. (181-192)

Chorus – Hark! I hear the snorting of steeds!
Eteocles – For all thy hearing, hear not too plainly.
Chorus – The stronghold groans from its base, as if they were girding it about.
Eteocles – Well, it is enough, I hope, that I take thought thereon.
Chorus – I am adread, the battering grows louder at the ports.
Eteocles – Hold thy peace! Say naught of this about the town!
Chorus – O guardian company of gods, abandon not our battlements!
Eteocles – Plague on thee! Wilt thou not hold thy peace and suffer in patience?
Chorus – Gods of our city! Save me from the fate of slavery!
Eteocles – ’Tis thou, thou, that art making a slave of me and of the whole city.
Chorus – O Almighty Zeus, turn thy bolt upon the foe!
Eteocles – O Zeus, what a breed thou hast given us in womankind!
Chorus – A breed beset with miseries, even as men whose city is captured.
Eteocles – What! ill-omened words and thy hands upon the statues of the gods?
Chorus – Aye, for that I am faint of heart, fear runs away with my tongue. (245-259)

Chorus - Tumult reigns through the town, against it advances a towering net of ruin. Man encounters man and is laid low by the spear. For the babes at their breast resound the wailing cries of young mothers, all streaming with blood. Kindred are the prey of scattering bands. Pillager encounters pillager; the empty-handed hails the empty-handed, fain to have a partner, all greedy neither for less nor equal share…Young women, enslaved, suffer a new misery. There it is to expect a captive’s woeful bed, bed as of a happy mate but a triumphant foe’s – the coming of the nightly rite to alleviate her tears and anguish! (345-355 & 363-8)

[The Scout is seen approaching from one side; Eteocles from the other]
Leader of the First Half-Chorus –
My friends, the scout, methinks, is bringing to us some recent tidings of the host, urging in hot haste the joints of his legs that bear him hither.
Leader of the Second Half-Chorus –
And lo! here comes our lord himself, the son of Oedipus, at the fit moment to hear the messenger’s report. He, too, from haste keeps not his even pace.
(369-374)

Messenger – [of Tydeus] …he shakes three overshadowing crests, his helmet’s mane, while from beneath his shield bronze-wrought bells peal forth a fearsome clang. On his shield he beareth this presumptuous device – a sky of cunning workmanship, ablaze with stars, and in the centre of his buckler shines, most revered among the stars, the bright full moon, the eye of night. Raving thus in his vaunting garniture, he shouts upon the river-bank, lusting for the fray, like some charger that panting in fury against the bit, chafes while it awaits the trumpet’s blare. (384-394)

Eteocles – [of Melanippus] Right nobly born is he, and he holds in reverence the throne of Honour and detests boastful speech. Laggard in deeds of shame, yet no dastards, is he wont to be. From the Heroes of the Dragon’s blood whom Ares spared, his stock is sprung, and a true scion of our soil is Melanippus. As for the issue, Ares with his dice will determine that; but Justice, [i.e. Dike] his true kin in blood, sends him forth, charged to ward off the foeman’s spear from the mother that gave him birth. (410-416)

Zeus & Typhon

Messenger – [citing Amphiaraus shouting at Tydeus] “murderer, troubler of the State, Argos’ chief teacher in the ways of wrong, summoner of the Avenging Curse, minister of bloodshed, counsellor unto Adrastus in his present evil course.” (572-5)

Chorus – For what art thou so eager, child? Let not mad [margos] lust for battle fill thy soul and carry thee away. Cast from thee the evil passion at its birth….
…Nay resist its impulse. A craven’s name thou shalt not bear if thou hast prospered well in life. Will not the sable-palled Avenging Spirit [Erinyes] quit the house, when the gods receive oblation at thy hands? (686-8 & 698-701)
Messenger – Dead are the men, by hands that slew their own.
Chorus – Were they slain together by hands thus close akin?
[i.e. both by birth and in cruelty.]
Messenger – Thus all too equal was their destiny to them both. Of itself alone, in very truth, it maketh an end of the ill-starred race. Cause have we here for joy and tears – … (810-5)

Antigone – Smitten, thou didst smite.
Ismene – And slaying, thou wast slain.
Antigone – By the spear thou didst slay –
Ismene – By the spear thou wast slain –
Antigone – Unhappy in thy deed.
Ismene – Unhappy in thy sufferings.
Antigone – Let lament be poured forth.
Ismene – Let tears be poured forth.
Antigone – Thou liest prostrate –
Ismene – Thou who didst slay.
Antigone – Ah me!
Ismene – Ah me! (957-962)

Oedipus &

The Sphynx

Select Bibliography:

Brown, A.L. ‘The End of the Seven Against Thebes’, Classical Quarterly, vol. 26 (1976), pp. 206-219.

*Brown, A. L. ‘Eteocles and the Chorus in the Seven Against Thebes’, Phoenix, vol. 31, no. 4 (Winter, 1977), pp. 300-318.*

Burnett, A.P. ‘Curse and Dream in Aeschylus’ Septem,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 14 (1973), pp. 343-68.

Conacher, D. J., Aeschylus: The Earlier Plays and Related Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Dawe, R. ‘The End of the Seven Against Thebes’, Classical Quarterly, NS vol. 17 (1967), pp. 16-28.

*Detienne, Marcel. ‘Being Born Impure in the City of Cadmus and Oedipus,’ Arion, 3^rd. Series, vol. 10, no. 3 (Winter, 2003), pp. 35-47.*

*DeVito, Ann. ‘Amphiaraus, and Necessity in Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes,’ Hermes, vol. 127, No. 2 (2^nd Qtr., 1999), pp. 165-171.*

Flintoff, E. ‘The Ending of the Seven Against Thebes’, Mnemosyne, vol. 33 (1980), pp. 344-71.

*Jackson, E. ‘The Argument of Septem Contra Thebas,’ Phoenix, vol. 42, no. 1 (Winter, 1988), pp. 287-303.*

Kirkwood, G. ‘Eteocles Oiakostrophos,’ Phoenix, vol. 23 (1969), pp. 9-25.

Otis, B. ‘The Unity of the Seven Against Thebes,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 3 (1960), pp. 153-74.

Podlecki, J. ‘The Character of Eteocles in Aeschylus’ Septem’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 95 (1964), pp. 283-99.

Thalmann, William G. Dramatic Art in Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes. Yale: YUP, 1978.

Zeitlin, Froma. 'Thebes: Theatre of the Self and Society in Athenian Drama,' in Peter Euben, ed.Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (Berkeley: U of California P, 1986), pp. 101-41.

Zeitlin, Froma. ‘Patterns of Gender in Aeschylus’ Drama: Seven Against Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy’, Cabinet of the Muses. Mark Griffith & Donald J. Mastronarde, eds. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990; 103-115.

Aeschylus' Persae

Chorus – The royal armament, dealing destruction to cities, hath ere now passed to the neighbouring land upon the adverse shore, having crossed the firth of Helle, daughter of Athamas, on a bridge of boats made fast by cables, by casting a stout-clamped roadway as a yoke upon the neck of the deep.
The impetuous lord of populous Asia is driving his wondrous warrior-flock against the whole earth in twofold armament, on foot and by sea, resting his confidence in his stalwart and stern commanders; he himself, the peer of the gods, a hero whose race in sprung from gold. (65-80)

Chorus – …my heart is shrouded in gloom and is racked with fear (woe!) for our Persian armament, lest the State learn that the mighty capital of the Susian land is made desolate of its sons,
And lest, as bands of women cry aloud “woe,” the Cissian stronghold raise a re-echoing shout responsive to the thud of hands on breast, and rending fall upon their vesture of fine linen. (115-125)

[Enter Atossa, gorgeously apparelled, on a chariot and attended by a numerous retinue]
Chorus – But lo! Here comes forth an effulgence like unto the eyes of the gods – the Mother of our King, my Queen. To her I make lowly obeisance. Meet is it also that we all address her in words of salutation.
[The Elders prostrate themselves and then rise to their feet…]
O Queen, most exalted of Persia’s deep-girdled dames, venerable mother of Xerxes, spouse of Darius, all hail! Consort wast thou of the Persians’ god, and mother art thou likewise of a god, unless perchance its ancient fortune hath now forsaken our host. (150-158)

Atossa – I dreamed that two women in fair vesture, one apparelled in Persian garb, the in Dorian attire, appeared before mine eyes; both in stature far more striking than are the women of our time, in beauty flawless, sisters of the self-same race. As for the country wherein they dwelt, to one had been assigned by lot the land of Hellas, to the other that of the barbarians. The twain, to my fancy, seemed to provoke each other to a mutual feud; and my son, made aware of this, strove to restrain and soothe them, and yoked them both to his car and placed the collar-straps upon their necks. The one bore herself proudly in these trappings and kept her mouth obedient to the rein. The other struggled and with her hands rent asunder the harness of the car; then, free of the curb, dragged it violently along with her and snapped the yoke asunder. My son was hurled to the ground and his father Darius stood by his side compassionating him. But Xerxes, when he beheld him, rent his garments about his limbs. (181-209)

Messenger – O ye cities of all the land of Asia, O realm of Persia, and bounteous haven of wealth, how at a single stroke has all your plenteous weal been shattered, and the flower of the Persians fallen and perished! Woe’s me – it is an evil office to be the first to herald ill. And yet, ye Persians, I needs must unfold the whole disaster – the whole barbarian host is lost. (249-255)

Messenger – Full of the bodies of men who perished by a wretched fate are theshores of Salamis and all the neighbouring coasts.
Chorus – Alack, alack! Thou tallest that the bodies of our loved ones, battered by thebrine, are tossing, oft submerged and lifeless, hither and thither in theirmantles. (272-277)

Messenger – …Atembares, commander of ten thousand horse, is dashing now against Silenia’s cruel shore. And Dadaces, leader of a thousand men, leaped, spear-smitten, with nimble bound, from his ship. Tenagon, the Bactrian’s chieftain of the true old stock, is ranging now around the surf-beaten isle ofAjax. Lilaeus and Arsames, and, third, Argestes, kept buffeting against itsrugged strand, whirled round about the isle, the breeding-place of doves. Arcteus, too, who dwelt hard by the waters of the Egyptian Nile, Adeues, and third Pharnuchus of the mighty shield – all these were hurled from out one ship. Matallus of Chrysa, commander of ten thousand, leader of the Black Horse thirty thousand strong, in death dyed red his thick and shaggy beard, changing its colour with a deep purple stain.
Arabus, too, the Magian, perished there, and Bactrian Artabes, a settler now in a rugged land. Amistris, and Amphistreus, wielder of his toilsome spear, and brave Ariomardus, whose death brought grief to Sardis, and Seisames the Mysian, and Tharybis, admiral of five times fifty ships, a Lyrnaean by descent, a comely man, lies dead all wretched in uncomeliness. Syennis, also, the governor of the Cilicians, foremost in courage, he whose single prowess wrought the foe most harm, found there a glorious death. Such were the leaders touching whom I have now made report. Sore as were our losses, yet I announce but few. (302-330)

Messenger – Think’st thou we were outnumbered in this contest? No, it was some power divine that swayed down the scale of fortune with unequal weight and thus destroyed our host. The gods preserve the city of the goddess Pallas. (344-7)

Messenger – Xerxes groaned aloud when he beheld the depth of the disaster; for he occupied a seat commanding a clear view of all the armament – a lofty eminence hard by the open sea. Rending his robes and uttering a loud wail, he forthwith gave orders to his force on land and dismissed them in disorderly flight. (465-470)

Atossa – This lesson impetuous Xerxes learned by converse with the vile. For they kept ever telling him that, whereas thou by thy spear didst win plenteous treasure for thy children, he, on his part, through lack of spirit, played the warrior at home and made no enlargement of his father’s wealth. Hearing such taunts many a time and oft from evil counsellors he planned this expedition and armament against Hellas. (753-8)

Darius – They are now tarrying where the plain is watered by the stream of Asopus that gives kindly enrichment to Boeotia’s fields. Here it awaits them to suffer their crowning disaster in requital for their presumptuous [hubreus] pride and impious thoughts. For, on reaching the land of Hellas, restrained by no religious awe, they ravaged the images of the gods and gave their temples to the flames. Altars have been destroyed, statues of the gods have been overthrown from their bases in utter ruin and confusion. Wherefore having evil wrought, evil they suffer in no less measure; and other evils are still in store: not yet has their woe reached its bottom, but it still wells forth. For so great shall be the mass of clotted gore spilled by the Dorian lance upon Plataean soil that heaps of dead shall make known, even to the third generation, a voiceless record for the eyes of men that mortal man needs must not vaunt him overmuch. For presumptuous [hubris] pride, when it has burgeoned, bears as its fruit a crop of calamity, whence it reaps a plenteous harvest of tears. (805-822)

Chorus – For now in truth the whole land of Asia, dispeopled, maketh moan: Xerxes led forth (woe!), Xerxes laid low (woe!), Xerxes disposed all things imprudently with his sea-faring barques. Why then was Darius in his time, leader beloved to the men of Susa, so scatheless a lord of the bow unto his people?
For landsmen and seamen both, the ships, dark-eyed and linen-winged, led forth (woe!), the ships laid low (woe!), the ships, under the deadly impact of the foe and by the hands of Ionians. The King himself, as we learn, hath barely made his escape over the wintry ways that traverse the plains of Thrace.
And they who were first to meet their doom (alas!), left behind perforce (alas!), are swept along about the Cychrean strand (woe!). Groan and gnash your teeth; in grievous strain shout forth our woes till they reach the heavens (alas!), raise high your wailing clamour in cries of misery.
Lacerated by the swirling waters (alas!) they are gnawed (alas!) by the voiceless children of the stainless sea (alas!). The home, bereaved of his presence, lamenteth its head; and parents, reft of their children, in their old age bewail their heaven-sent woes (alas!), now that they learn the full measure of their afflictions. (548-583)

Xerxes – Beat thy breast too, and raise the Mysian wail.
Chorus – [hayii! hayiia!] Anguish, anguish!
Xerxes – And tear, I pray thee, the white hair from out thy beard.
Chorus – With clenched nails, with clenched nails, with loud wailing.
Xerxes – And utter shrill cries.
Chorus – This too I will do.
Xerxes – And with thy fingers rend the robe that drapes thee.
Chorus – [hayii! hayiia!] Anguish, anguish!
Xerxes – And pluck out thy locks and lament our host.
Chorus – With clenched nails, with clenched nails, with loud wailing.
Xerxes – Let tears moisten thine eyes.
Chorus – I am steeped in tears.
Xerxes – Cry now aloud in response to me.
Chorus – [Oioi! Oioi!] Alas, alas!
Xerxes – With sounds of wailing wend ye to your homes.
Chorus – [Ieow! Ieow!] Alas, alas!
Xerxes – Alas! Through the city.
Chorus – Alas, indeed! Yea, yea.
Xerxes – Pour forth your wail as ye move on with dainty steps.
Chorus – Alas, alas, O Persian land, grievous now to tread!
Xerxes – Ah me! Those that perished in three-tiered galleys, ah me!
Chorus – I will escort thee with dismal sounds of woe. (1054-1076)

Some notable critical positions on the play...

“The purpose of the play was the gratification of the natural pride of the Athenians in their achievement, and the presentation of the victory of Salamis as the focal moment in the defeat of Persia and the establishment of Greek liberty. That victory was undoubtedly of first importance and made everything else possible; and it was due almost entirely to the united courage and resolution of the Athenian people.” [Philip Vellacott, intro., Prometheus Bound and Other Plays, Aeschylus, Penguin Classics (London: Penguin, 1961) 17.]

"If we ask ourselves the right questions about the form of the play we shall be led, I think, straight to the conclusion that he did not set out to compose, for the stage, a piece in celebration of Salamis and Platea - a theme which might have made good epic - but to create drama, and nothing but drama, on the theme of [hubris] and its inevitable punishment. What patriotic celebration there is - and there is obviously some - is incidental." [H. D. F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy(London: Metheun, 1939, 1978) 36.]

“The deliverance from Persia was felt … to be something miraculous, superhuman; a thing to make a man kneel and pray rather than boast. [He quotes Herodotus] ‘It is not we who have done this,’ exclaimed Themistocles, the chief engineer of the victory, after his crowning success. It was the gods and heroes striking down the pride and impiety of man. (Herodotus VIII. 109.)” [Gilbert Murray, pref., The Persians, Aeschylus (London: Allen & Unwin, 1939) 7.]

Some useful journal articles

R. P. Winnington-Ingram, 'Zeus in the Persae,' The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 93 (1973), 210-219.

Attilio Favorini, 'History, Collective Memory, and Aeschylus' The Persians,' Theatre Journal, vol. 55, no. 1 (Mar., 2003), 99-111.

Laura McClure, 'Maternal Authority and Heroic Disgrace in Aeschylus's Persae,' Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 136 (Spring 2006), 71-97.

Ippokratis Kantzios, 'The Politics of Fear in Aeschylus' Persians,' The Classical World, vol. 98, No. 1 (Autumn, 2004), 3-19.

Herodotus, VIII, 1-16 (The Battle of Salamis)

I. The Greeks appointed to serve in the fleet were these: the Athenians furnished a hundred and twenty-seven ships; the Plataeans manned these ships with the Athenians, not that they had any knowledge of seamanship, but because of mere valor and zeal. The Corinthians furnished forty ships and the Megarians twenty; the Chalcidians manned twenty, the Athenians furnishing the ships; the Aeginetans eighteen, the Sicyonians twelve, the Lacedaemonians ten, the Epidaurians eight, the Eretrians seven, the Troezenians five, the Styrians two, and the Ceans two, and two fifty-oared barks; the Opuntian Locrians brought seven fifty-oared barks to their aid.
II. These are the forces which came to Artemisium for battle, and I have now shown how they individually furnished the whole sum. The number of ships mustered at Artemisium was two hundred and seventy-one, besides the fifty-oared barks. The Spartans, however, provided the admiral who had the chief command, Eurybiades, son of Euryclides, for the allies said that if the Laconian were not their leader, they would rather make an end of the fleet that was assembling than be led by the Athenians.
III. In the first days, before the sending to Sicily for alliance, there had been talk of entrusting the command at sea to the Athenians. However, when the allies resisted, the Athenians waived their claim, considering the safety of Hellas of prime importance and seeing that if they quarrelled over the leadership, Hellas must perish. In this they judged rightly, for civil strife is as much worse than united war as war is worse than peace. Knowing that, they gave ground and waived their claim, but only so long as they had great need of the others. This is clear, for when they had driven the Persian back and the battle was no longer for their territory but for his, they made a pretext of Pausanias' highhandedness and took the command away from the Lacedaemonians. All that, however, took place later.
IV. But now, the Greeks who had at last come to Artemisium saw a multitude of ships launched at Aphetae and forces everywhere, and contrary to all expectation, the barbarian was shown to be in much different shape than they had supposed. They accordingly lost heart and began to deliberate about flight from Artemisium homewards into Hellas. Then the Euboeans, noticing that they were making such plans, entreated Eurybiades to wait a little while, till they themselves had removed their children and households. When they could not prevail with him, they tried another way and gave Themistocles, the Athenian admiral, a bribe of thirty talents on the condition that the Greek fleet should remain there and fight, when they fought, to defend Euboea.
V. This was the way in which Themistocles made the Greeks stay where they were: he gave Eurybiades for his share five talents of that money, as though he were making the present of his own money. When Eurybiades had been won over in this way, none of the rest was inclined to resist save Adimantus, son of Ocytus, the Corinthian admiral, who said that he would not remain but sail away from Artemisium; to him Themistocles, adding an oath, said: “No, you of all men will not desert us, for I will give you a greater gift than the king of the Medes would send you for deserting your allies.” With that he sent three talents of silver to Adimantus ship. These two, then, were won over by gifts, the Euboeans got what they wanted, and Themistocles himself was the gainer. No one knew that he had kept the rest of the money, and those who had received a part of it supposed that it had been sent for that purpose by the Athenians.
VI. So the Greeks remained in Euboea and fought there; this came about as I will now reveal. Having arrived at Aphetae in the early part of the afternoon, the barbarians saw for themselves the few Greek ships that they had already heard were stationed off Artemisium, and they were eager to attack so that they might take them. They were not prepared to make a head-on attack since they feared that the Greeks would see them coming and turn to flee with night close upon them as they fled; it was their belief that the Greeks would save themselves by flight, and they did not want even so much as a firebearer to be saved.
VII. Taking these things into consideration, they devised the following plan; separating two hundred ships from the whole number, they sent them to cruise outside Sciathus so that the enemies might not see them sailing round Euboea and by way of Caphereus round Geraestus to the Euripus so that they might catch the Greeks between them, the one part holding that course and barring the retreat, and they themselves attacking in front. Upon making these plans they sent the appointed ships on their way, intending not to make an attack upon the Greeks either on that day or before the signal should be seen, whereby the ships that sailed round were to declare their coming. So they sent those ships to sail round, and set about counting the rest at Aphetae.
VIII. Now when they were engaged in this count, there was in the fleet one Scyllias, a man of Scione; he was the best diver of the time, and in the shipwreck at Pelion he had saved for the Persians much of their possessions and gotten much for himself in addition; this Scyllias had before now, it would seem, intended to desert to the Greeks, but he never had had so fair an occasion as now. By what means he did at last make his way to the Greeks, I cannot with exactness say. If the story is true, it is marvellous indeed, for it is said that he dove into the sea at Aphetae and never rose to the surface till he came to Artemisium, thus passing underneath the sea for about eighty furlongs. There are many tales about this man, some similar to lies and some true, but as regards the present business it is my opinion that he came to Artemisium in a boat. After arriving, he straightway told the admirals the story of the shipwreck, and of the ships that had been sent round Euboea.
IX. Hearing that, the Greeks took counsel together; there was much talk, but the opinion prevailed that they should remain and encamp where they were for that day, and then, after midnight, to put to sea and meet the ships which were sailing around. Presently, however, meeting with no opposition, they waited for the late afternoon of the day and themselves advanced their ships against the barbarian, desiring to put to the proof his fashion of fighting and the art of breaking the line.
X. When Xerxes' men and their generals saw the Greeks bearing down on them with but a few ships, they thought that they were definitely mad and put out to sea themselves, thinking that they would win an easy victory; this expectation was very reasonable, since they saw that the Greek ships so few while their own were many times more numerous and more seaworthy. With this assurance, they hemmed in the Greeks in their midst. Now all the Ionians who were friendly to the Greeks came unwillingly to the war and were distressed to see the Greeks surrounded. They supposed that not one of them would return home, so powerless did the Greeks seem to them to be. Those who were glad about the business, however, vied each with each that he might be the first to take an Attic ship and receive gifts from the king, for it was the Athenians of whom there was most talk in the fleet.
XI. But the Greeks, when the signal was given them, first drew the sterns of their ships together, their prows turned towards the foreigners; then at the second signal they put their hands to the work, despite the fact that they were hemmed in within a narrow space and were fighting face-to-face. There they took thirty of the foreigners ships as well as the brother of Gorgus king of Salamis, Philaon son of Chersis, a man of note in the fleet. The first Greek to take an enemy ship was an Athenian, Lycomedes, son of Aeschraeus, and he it was who received the prize for valor. They fought that sea-fight with doubtful issue, and nightfall ended the battle; the Greeks sailed back to Artemisium, and the barbarians to Aphetae, after faring far below their hopes in the fight. In that battle Antidorus of Lemnos, the only one of the Greeks siding with the Persian, deserted to the Greeks, and for that the Athenians gave him land in Salamis.
XII. When darkness came on, the season being then midsummer, there was abundance of rain all through the night and violent thunderings from Pelion. The dead and the wrecks were driven towards Aphetae, where they were entangled with the ships' prows and jumbled the blades of the oars. The ships crews who were there were dismayed by the noise of this, and considering their present bad state, expected utter destruction; for before they had recovered from the shipwreck and the storm off Pelion, they next endured a stubborn sea-fight, and after the sea-fight, rushing rain and mighty torrents pouring seaward and violent thunderings.
XIII. This is how the night dealt with them. To those who were appointed to sail round Euboea, however, that same night was still more cruel since it caught them on the open sea. Their end was a terrible one, for when the storm and the rain came on them in their course off the Hollows of Euboea, they were driven by the wind in an unknown direction and were driven onto the rocks. All this was done by the god so that the Persian power might be more equally matched with the Greek, and not much greater than it.
XIV. These men, then, perished at the Hollows of Euboea. As for the barbarians at Aphetae, when to their great comfort the day dawned, they kept their ships unmoved, being in their evil plight well content to do nothing for the moment. Now fifty-three Attic ships came to aid the Greeks, who were encouraged both by the ships coming and by the news that the barbarians sailing round Euboea had all perished in the recent storm. They waited then for the same hour as before, and fell upon certain Cilician ships when they put to sea. After destroying these when night fell, they sailed back to Artemisium.
XV. On the third day, however, the barbarian admirals, finding it hard to bear that so few ships should do them hurt and fearing Xerxes' anger, waited no longer for the Greeks to begin the fight, but gave the word and put out to sea about midday. So it came to pass that these sea-battles were fought on the same days as the land-battles at Thermopylae; the seamen's whole endeavor was to hold the Euripus while Leonidas' men strove to guard the passage; the Greeks were ordered to give the barbarian no entry into Hellas, and the Persians to destroy the Greek host and win the strait.
XVI. So when Xerxes' men ordered their battle and advanced, the Greeks remained in their station off Artemisium, and the barbarians made a half circle of their ships striving to encircle and enclose them. At that the Greeks charged and joined battle. In that sea-fight both had equal success. Xerxes' fleet did itself harm by its numbers and size. The ships were thrown into confusion and ran foul of each other; nevertheless they held fast and did not yield, for they could not bear to be put to flight by a few ships. Many were the Greek ships and men that perished there, and far more yet of the foreigners' ships and men; this is how they fought until they drew off and parted from each other.

Aeschylus' Supplices

Hermes Killing Argos. Io looking on.

Parados

Chorus - May Zeus, who guardeth suppliants, of his grace look upon our company that took ship and put to sea from the outmost land of fine sand at the outlets of the Nile. For we have fled the land of Zeus whose pastures border upon Syria, and are fugitives, not indeed by public ban of outlawry pronounced for deed of blood, but by our own act to escape the suit of man, since we abhor, as impious, all wedlock with the sons of Aegyptus. It was Danaus, our sire, author of our counsels and leader of our band, who, weighing well our course, decided, as best for our good report in a choice of evils, that we flee with all speed over the billows of the main and find a haven on Argos’ shore. For thence, indeed, hath grown our race that claims to have sprung from the caressing of the gnat-tormented heifer at the hands of Zeus, and from the on-breathing of his love.

Nay, to what land more delightsome than this could we come with these wool-wreathed branches in our hands, sole weapons of the suppliant? O realm, O land, and clear water; ye gods on high and ye nether powers, grievous in your vengeance, that inhabit the tomb; and thou, Zeus the Saviour, who art invoked third, the guardian of the habitations of righteous men: receive as suppliants this band of women with the compassionate spirit of the land; but the thronging swarm of wanton men born of Aegyptus, ere they set foot upon this marshy land, do ye drive seaward – them and with them their swift barque – and there may they encounter a cruel sea with thunder, lightning, and rain-charged winds, and perish by the tempest’s buffeting blasts, ere ever they lay their hands on us, their cousins, and mount unwilling beds from which Right holds them aloof. (ll. 1-40)

Chorus - Such piteous strains of woe I utter in my plaint, now shrill, now deep, blended with falling tears – strains meet (alas, alas!) for funeral wails; while yet I live, I chant my own dirge.

I invoke the grace of Apia’s land of hills (for well, O land, thou canst understand my barbarous speech), and oft I lay my hands upon my Sidonian veil and rend its linen into shreds. (ll. 112-122)

Chorus - Yet, if she will not, we, a swart, sun-smitten race, with suppliant boughs will fare unto the nether Zeus, Zeus the great hospitaler of the dead; for if the gods of Olympus hearken not unto us, we will perish by the noose.

Ah Zeus, ’tis through poisonous hate of Io that vengeance from the gods pursueth us. I ken thy consort’s spite that subdueth all heaven; for upon a stubborn wind followeth a stormy sea.

And shall not Zeus then be liable to the charge of injustice that he contemned the child of the heifer, the child whom he himself begat of yore, his very own, now that he holdeth his face averted from our prayers? Nay may he from on high hearken to our call! (ll.154-175)

Chorus – Not to be made bondswomen to Aegyptus’ race.

King – By reason of hatred? Or dost thou speak of unlawfulness?

Chorus – Who would purchase their lords from among their kin?

King – ’Tis thus that families have their power enhanced.

Chorus – Aye, ’tis easy then, if things go ill, to put away a wife.

King – How then am I to deal with you in accordance with my righteous duty?

Chorus – By not surrendering us at the demand of Aegyptus’ sons.

King – A serious request in sooth – to take upon myself a dangerous war.

Chorus – Aye, but Justice protects her champions.

King – True, if she had a part therein from the first.

Chorus – Do you show reverence for the helm of the State thus engarlanded.

King – I shrink as I gaze upon these shrines shaded o’er with leafage.

Chorus – Aye yet heavy in truth is the wrath of Zeus, god of the suppliants.

(335-347)

Chorus – Hear now the end of my manifold appeals for compassion.

King – I hear; say on. It shall not escape me.

Chorus – I have breast-bands and girdles wherewith to gather up my robes.

King – Such things are proper, no doubt, to womenfolk.

Chorus – In these then, be sure, I have a rare contrivance –

King – Tell me what speech thou hast in mind to utter.

Chorus – If thou wilt not engage thyself to give some pledge unto our company –

King – What is the contrivance of the sashes to effect for thee?

Chorus – To adorn these images with tablets of strange sort.

King – Thy words are riddling; come, explain in simple speech.

Chorus – To hang ourselves forthwith from the statues of yon gods.

King – I mark a threat that is a lash unto my heart.

Chorus – Thou hast grasped my intent, for I have cleared thy vision. (455-467)

Chorus – Never may pestilence empty this city of its men nor strife stain the soil of the land with the blood of native slain. But may the flower of its youth be unculled, and may Ares, the partner of Aphrodite’s bed, he who maketh havoc of men, not shear off their bloom. (661-666)

Danaus – …in addition to the many other sage injunctions of your sire recorded in your memory, do ye inscribe this withal – that an unknown company is proved by time. For in an alien’s case, all the world bears an evil tongue in readiness, and it is easy lightly to utter slander that defiles. Wherefore I would have ye bring no shame upon me, now when your youthful loveliness attracts men’s gaze. The tender ripeness of summer fruit is in no wise easy to protect; beasts despoil it – and men, why not? – and brutes that fly and those that walk the earth. Love’s goddess makes bruit abroad of fruit bursting ripe….So all men, as they pass, mastered by desire, shoot an alluring arrow of the eye at the delicate beauty of virgins. See to it, therefore, that we suffer not that in fear whereof we have endured great toil and ploughed the great waters with our barque; and that we bring no shame to ourselves and exultation to our enemies. Habitation of double sort is at our disposition – the one Pelasgus offers, the other, the city – and to occupy free of cost. These terms are easy. Only pay heed to these behests of your father, and count your chastity more precious than your life. (991-1013)

Aphrodite – …Longs the pure sky to blend with Earth, and Love

Doth Earth impel to yield to his embrace;

The rain shower, falling from the slumberous heaven,

Kisses the Earth; and Earth brings forth for mortals

Pasture for sheep-flocks and Demeter's grain.

The woods in spring their dewy nuptials hold;

And of all these I am in part the cause.

(Fragment 125, presumed to be from Aeschylus’ lost play The Danaids)

Some recommended journal articles:

Lynette G. Mitchell, 'Greeks, Barbarians and Aeschylus' Suppliants,' Greece & Rome, vol. 53, No. 2, (2006) 205-223.

Scott Scullion, '"Nothing to Do with Dionysus": Tragedy Misconceived as Ritual,' The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2002) 102-137.

Chad Turner, 'Perverted Supplication and Other Inversions in Aeschylus' Danaid Trilody,' The Classical Journal, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 2001) 27-50.

P. E. Easterling, 'Anachronism in Greek Tragedy,' The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 105 (1985) 1-10.

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