This is a play by Aeschylus. It is in GB Volume 5 - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes.
Characters
- Atossa, Queen of Persia, widow of Darius and mother of Xerxes
- Xerxes
- A Messenger
- The Ghost of Darius
- Chorus of Persian Elders, the Ministers
Summary
The Persians (Persae) is unique among surviving Greek tragedies for being based on contemporary history rather than mythology. Set in the Persian capital of Susa shortly after the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), the play opens with a Chorus of Persian Elders expressing deep-seated anxiety over the lack of news from King Xerxes’ massive expedition against Greece. They are joined by the Queen-Dowager Atossa, who recounts a disturbing dream in which Xerxes attempted to yoke two sisters—representing Persia and Hellas—to his chariot; the Greek sister shattered the yoke and threw the king to the ground.
The atmosphere of dread is realized when a messenger arrives with a catastrophic report of the Persian defeat. He provides a meticulous, agonizing account of the naval engagement at Salamis, describing how the smaller Greek fleet maneuvered the Persian armada into the narrows, leading to a “unimagined ruin” where Persian ships fouled one another and men were slaughtered “like tunnies or a draught of fish.” The messenger’s list of fallen commanders underscores the total stripping of Persia’s manhood, leaving the empire “dispossessed” and “empty.”
In their despair, Atossa and the Chorus perform rituals to summon the ghost of Darius the Great, Xerxes’ father. The spirit of the former king appears and provides a detached, godlike perspective on the disaster. He characterizes Xerxes’ actions not merely as a military failure but as a form of “madness” and religious transgression. Darius specifically points to the bridging of the Hellespont as an act of hubris, an attempt by a mortal man to “chain” and “quell” the holy Bosphorus, thereby challenging the lordship of the gods themselves.
The play concludes with the arrival of Xerxes himself, returned in rags and utterly humbled. The final scene is an extended, stylized lamentation between the King and the Chorus, marking the “dark day” that has dawned on the imperial city. Unlike many other tragedies that end with a flicker of hope or restoration, The Persians ends in total humiliation, with the “laws of the Medes broken” and the empire’s power “broken as a reed that is snapped in the wind.”