Is the reputed reckoning. Accuse us not
That in this fight we failed to play the man:
A God it was who broke our power, weighed down
The judgment scale with no impartial hand.
There are divinities that keep the realm
Of divine Pallas safe.
Queen.
Is Athens safe?
Is not the city sacked?
Messenger.
Ay, but her men!
They live, and therefore her defence is sure.
Queen.
Tell me how first the fleets encountered; who
Began the attack, the Hellenes or my son
Exulting in the number of his ships?
Messenger.
Princess, the first beginner of all the woes
That afterwards ensued, though whence he came
None knoweth, was some genius of wrath,
Some wicked spirit such as lures men on
To their destruction. There came a man,
A Hellene, from the Athenian host, and he
On this wise spake unto Xerxes, thy son—
'If there shall come a dusk and darksome night
The Hellenes will not tarry; leaping down
Upon their rowers' benches they will pull
For safety, hither, thither scattering
In secret flight.' And when thy son heard that
He instantly—perceiving not the guile
Of the Hellene nor the spite of jealous Gods,—
