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Persians (623-710)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg002.perseus-eng2:623-710
Refs {'start': {'reference': '623', 'human_reference': 'Line 623'}, 'end': {'reference': '710', 'human_reference': 'Line 710'}}
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Royal lady, august queen of the Persians, pour these libations down to the chambers of the earth,
while we, in solemn chant, beseech the guides of the dead beneath the earth to be gracious to our prayers. O holy divinities of the nether world, Earth and Hermes, and you, Lord of the dead,
send up to the light the spirit from below; for if, beyond our prayers, he knows any further remedy for our distress, he alone of mortals can declare how to bring it to accomplishment.
633
Chorus
Does our sainted and godlike king hear me as I utter,
in obscure barbaric speech, my dismal and dolorous cries? Or must I shout aloud the utter misery of my anguish so that it pierces the earth? Does he hear me from below?
640
Chorus
O Earth, and you other rulers of those who dwell in the nether world, ensure, I implore, that the glorious spirit, the god of the Persians, whom Susa bore, may quit his abode.
Send to the upper world him the likes of whom the Persian earth has never entombed.
647
Chorus
Beloved indeed was the hero, beloved is his burial mound; beloved are the qualities that lie buried there. O Aidoneus,
Aidoneus, who convey shades to the upper air, permit our divine lord Darius to come forth!
652
Chorus
For since he did not ever cause the destruction of his people by senseless and ruinous wars, he bore the name of divine counsellor
to the Persians; and a divine counsellor he was, since he guided his people well.
657
Chorus
King, our king of old, come forth, draw near! Rise to the barrow’s topmost point,
lift your saffron-dyed sandal, display the crest of your royal tiara! Come forth, O blameless father Darius.
664
Chorus
That you may hear
pitiable and unheard-of sorrows, O Lord of our lord, appear! For a gloom, like that of Styx, hovers over us, since all the youth of the land
is now utterly destroyed. Come forth, O blameless father Darius!
673
Chorus
Alas, alas! You whose death your friends bewailed with bitter tears,
why, my king, my king, why is it that our land has lost all its three-tiered galleys,
ships that are no more, no more?
681
The ghost of Darius rises from his tomb
Ghost of Darius
O most faithful of the faithful, comrades of my youth, aged Persians, what is it that is troubling the state? The earth groans and is furrowed by the stamp of men. As I behold my wife by my tomb,
I feel alarm, and I accept her libations in kindly mood; while you, standing near my tomb, make lament, and with shrill cries that summon the spirits of the dead, invoke me piteously. Not easy is the path out of the tomb, for this reason above all, that the gods beneath the earth
are readier to seize than to release. Nevertheless, since I have obtained dominion among them, I have come. But make haste, so that I may not incur blame regarding the time of my sojourn. What is this unexpected ill that weighs the Persians down?
694
Chorus
I shrink in awe from gazing upon you.
I shrink in awe from speaking in your presence by reason of my former dread of you.
697
Darius
Since, in compliance with your moanings, I have come from the world below, lay aside your awe of me; make your tale not long, but brief; speak out and deliver your story in its entirety.
700
Chorus
I fear to do your bidding; I fear to speak in your presence and deliver to those I love news hard to utter.
703
Darius
Since dread long ingrained in your mind restrains you,
cease, noble woman, venerable partner of my bed, from your tears and laments, speak to me with all frankness. Afflictions ordained for human life must, we know, befall mankind. For many calamities from the sea, many from the land, arise to mortal men if their span of life is extended far.
Atossa
O you who in prosperity surpassed all mortal men by your happy destiny,
since, so long as you gazed upon the beams of the sun, you lived a life of felicity, envied of all, in Persian eyes a god, so now too I consider you fortunate in that you died before you beheld the depth of our calamities. The whole tale, O Darius, you will hear in brief space of time: the power of Persia is ruined almost utterly.

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