- Apr 2022
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XERXES. Alas, the triple banks of oars and those who died thereby! CHORUS. Pass! I will lead you, bring you home, with many a broken sigh!
Xerxes sees the impact of his hubris, religion and fate are used as aids to feel better about mortal actions.
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- Mar 2022
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Nay, thy friends are whelmed beneath the tide!
Highlights Athenian might
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Ah woe to us, ah joy to them who stood against our pride!
Fate as a tool to describe hubris' consequences
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Right resolute they are! I saw disaster unforeseen. CHORUS. Ah, speakest thou of wreck, of flight, of carnage that hath been?
Highlights the impact of Xerxes' hubris.
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Alas, ye heavenly powers! Ye wrought a sorrow past belief, A woe, of woes the chief!
Demonstrating huge losses of empire to great Athenians
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Defaced and dashed from sight the altars fell, And each god’s image, from its pedestal Thrust and flung down, in dim confusion lies! Therefore, for outrage vile, a doom as dark They suffer, and yet more shall undergo—
The Persians deserve it for violating Athenian principles.
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O Earth, and Hermes, and the king Of Hades, our Darius bring!
Greek gods used by Persians?
Also, gods seem to represent ideas rather than play a central role in the story. In EoG, the supernatural is directly addressed, such as when Gilgamesh crosses the lake of death to save Enkidu.
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Once let the gloom of night have gathered in, The Greeks will tarry not, but swiftly spring Each to his galley-bench, in furtive flight, Softly contriving safety for their life. Thy son believed the word and missed the craft Of that Greek foeman, and the spite of Heaven, And straight to all his captains gave this charge— As soon as sunlight warms the ground no more, And gloom enwraps the sanctuary of sky, Range we our fleet in triple serried lines To bar the passage from the seething strait, This way and that: let other ships surround The isle of Ajax, with this warning word— That if the Greeks their jeopardy should scape By wary craft, and win their ships a road. Each Persian captain shall his failure pay By forfeit of his head. So spake the king,
The Athenians tricked Xerxes; similar to Ishtar in EoG trying to fool Gilgamesh into sleeping with her, but here it seems to have been meant more to display Athenian cleverness instead of a power grab. Here, Aeschylus describes the Athenians as really winning through intellectual superiority instead of general good.
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There Magian Arabus and Artames Of Bactra perished—taking up, alike, In yonder stony land their long sojourn. Amistris too, and he whose strenuous spear Was foremost in the fight, Amphistreus fell, And gallant Ariomardus, by whose death Broods sorrow upon Sardis: Mysia mourns For Seisames
Greek names for Persian people; although this may have been done make the story more relatable to an Athenian audience, the Persian royals also reference Greek gods rather than Persian ones.
Like Aeschylus, EoG may have also made the names of characters like Humbaba more culturally digestive to its readers, but the belief system never really seems to have been intentionally changed by the storytellers.
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Thou, Athens, art our murderess
Depicts Athens as 'murdering' the Persian empire.
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To no man do they bow as slaves, nor own a master’s hand.
Superiority of individuals and democracy versus absolute rule.
Doesn't necessarily cast Persians in a negative light, but suggests that an army with strongminded individuals will outperform one without.
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Yet one more word—say, in what realm do the Athenians dwell?
"Are Athenians just better than us?"
Questioning general superiority of this group
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And one, the Ionian, proud in this array, Paced in high quietude, and lent her mouth, Obedient, to the guidance of the rein.
Attitude of Athenians might be one of quiet superiority in knowing that their intellectual superiority outwitted Persians in defeat (EoG-doesn't necessarily highlight superiority as much as thriving and survival of a kingdom).
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As in the night now passed.—Attend my tale!— A dream I had: two women nobly clad Came to my sight, one robed in Persian dress, The other vested in the Dorian garb, And both right stately and more tall by far Than women of to-day, and beautiful
Used to glorify Athenians in their appearance and the way they act and dress.
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How fareth he, Darius’ child,
Absolute rulers backed Persian soldiers, but no single great Athenian ruler is really depicted in defeating them (highlighted by individual descriptions of how Aeschylus saw soldiers and superiority of the Greek gods
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From Babylon enriched with gold— Captains of ships and archers skilled To speed the shaft, and those who wield The scimitar;—the eastern band Who, by the great king’s high command, Swept to subdue the western land!
Shows an already existing land trying to expand its power, in contrast with smaller kingdoms of ancient Persia defending land as a means of protagonism (eg: Humbaba). The story highlights human greed and hubris, rather than simply good and evil
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