Aeschylus: ‘The Persians’

 H.D.F. Kitto’s account of this strange play makes sense. Eight years before the play was produced, the Persian army had invaded Greece, intent of subduing the troublesome small states on the edge of their empire. But the play is not a celebration of the Greek victory, with long lists of heroes and tales of their deeds. It’s a tragedy, and it’s a tragic story only from the Persian point of view.

It would be pathetic from the point of view of the Persian military camp, where soldiers were mourning their comrades. It’s tragic only from the point of view of the inner circle of the empire, where Queen Atossa, Xerxes’ mother, and the chorus of old counselors, slowly realize that the hubris of one man had led to the disaster.

This is Old Tragedy, long before the days when battles were enacted in stage fights. But the disaster is not simply reported. The queen grills the herald. He tells the story only in response to her questions, and with each reply she absorbs the news of horrific events as if she’s absorbing the blows of a beating.

It might be more satisfying if Xerxes had come to a realization of what he’d done. But he’s a shell in this play. He sings a duet with the chorus — the scholars call such a song a kommos — that is all woe and lamentation, rather than insight.

As Kitto points out, the queen feels the enormity of the disaster. As he puts it, she is 

 

political enough to understand what her son has done, woman enough to sympathize with the bereaved, sensible enough to ask the right questions of the Messenger, prudent enough to think of invoking the aid of Darius’ ghost, mother enough to find excuses for her son’s folly.

 

The play has some wonderful moments. My favorite is when the queen asks the chorus to summon the ghost of Darius, her husband and Xerxes’ father, hoping for counsel and consolation. Darius arrives, out of sorts, complaining that a trip from Hades is not easy and wanting the chorus of counselors to get to the point so that won’t get in trouble for dawdling. It’s my kind of ghost story.

• Sources: H.D.F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1954, p. 46.

“The Persians,” translated by Seth G. Benardete, is in Aeschylus II in The Complete Greek Tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore; Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1956, pp. 43-86.