The Persians.
209
Antistrophe II.
And none of valour proven against the mighty stream 90
May stand, a living bulwark, and that fierce billow stem;
For Persia's host resistless is, and her stout-hearted men.
Mesode.
But ah! what mortal baffle may[1]
A god's deep-plotted snare,—
Who may o'erleap with foot so light?
†Até at first, with semblance fair, 100
Into her toils allures her prey,
Whence no mere mortal wight
May break away.
Strophe III.
In olden time by Heaven's decree
Fixed was the Persians' destiny;—
Tower-battering war was theirs by Fate,
The turmoil when steed-mounted foes
In shock of battle fiercely close,
And cities to make desolate. 110
- ↑ The sudden transition of the Chorus from unbounded confidence to gloomy foreboding is characteristic of the religious conception common alike to Greek and Persian in the Æschylean age, namely, that the gods cherished a jealous enmity towards vast power and overweening aspirations in men.
