And so it was, that in my dream methought There was some kind of quarrel ‘twixt the twain, Which, when my dear son was apprised of it, He would compose and make them live as friends.
~ The Persians by Aeschylus (G. M. Cookson translation. p17. line 190)
The play starts with a chorus that says they are the wise men selected by Xerxes to be the guardians of the realm while he is out fighting a war with the Greeks. They are proud of the mighty Persian army and believe that Xerxes would come back victorious, though they lament that it has been a while since they have heard anything from the military. Atossa, Xerxes’s mother, enters and says that she had a bad dream in which her son was trying to control two beautiful women, one dressed as Persian and another as Greek, and falls down in the process. She says she woke up from the dream and went to the altar to make offerings to ward off evil but saw an eagle being attacked by a falcon. The chorus placates her and says that Xerxes’ army is mighty and she doesn’t have to worry. They will get good news soon. As they are talking, a messenger arrives and informs them that the Persian army has lost and the sea is littered with the soldiers’ bodies.
The bodies of men miserably slain Lie heaped upon the shore of Salamis And glut full many a creek and cove thereby.