Messenger.
There was no help in arrow or in bow!
Our whole fleet foundered when their warships rammed.
Chorus.
Howl! Cry aloud! Call down upon the foe
Ages of anguish and inexorable woe!
All evil that their hearts devised they wrought!
Mourn for the mighty host that they have brought to nought!
Messenger.
Salamis! thou execrable name!
Athens! My spirit mourns remembering thee!
Chorus.
Athens! for ever hateful to thy foes!
Written in memory's book for thee the record glows,
The long, long roll, past count, of them that mourn
In every Persian home husbandless and forlorn!
Queen.
I have kept silence long; calamity
Hath struck me dumb: for this surpassing grief
May not be told and stops the mouth of question.
But men must bear the troubles Heaven sends.
Compose thyself then; and this dire disaster,
Much as thou mournest it, fully unfold.
Who hath not fallen? And whom must we lament
Among the leaders of the people? Who
Of titled and of sceptred rank hath left
A gap among our noblest by his death?
Messenger.
Xerxes himself is among the living; he
Beholds the light of day.
