- Mar 2022
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www.gutenberg.org www.gutenberg.org
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For all have perished, all!
Truth bending
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Yea verily—in mighty wreck hath sunk the Persian world!
Truth bending
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Woe falls on Persia’s race, yea, woe again, again!
Truth bending
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Alas, the woe and cost!
Truth bending
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Cry out, and learn the tale of woe! Where are thy comrades? where the band Who stood beside thee, hand in hand, A little while ago? Where now hath Pharandákes gone, Where Psammis, and where Pelagon? Where now is brave Agdabatas, And Susas too, and Datamas? Hath Susiscanes past away, The chieftain of Ecbatana?
Using personal narratives to strengthen story, some truth bending
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With plashing tears our sorrow’s tale, Lamenting for the loved and lost!
truth bending, expanding on fate
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O king and lord! thine Asian land Down, down upon its knee is bent!
Truth bending
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For Persia’s honour, pass’d away, For glory and heroic sway Mown down by Fortune’s hand to-day! Hark, how the kingdom makes its moan,
Bending the truth, fate as a tool
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On Persia’s land what power of Fate Descends, what louring gloom of hate?
Political consequences, using fate as a tool instead an end in itself.
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But now there are none to gainsay that the gods are against us; we lie Subdued in the havoc of wreck, and whelmed by the wrath of the sky!
Punished by gods because of political reasons
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The land is wasted of its men, And down to death are rolled Wreckage of sail and oar, Ships that are ships no more, And bodies of the slain!
Visual depiction of Persian defeat, like a war movie.
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Of Persia’s fallen power, that none can lift nor save!
Bending the truth to make point.
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My son went forth to wreak his great revenge On famous Athens! all too few they seemed, Our men who died upon the Fennel-field!
Changing history to fit point
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Woe on us, woe! disaster’s mighty sea Hath burst on us and all the Persian realm!
False description of total devastation of Persia
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Thou, Athens, art our murderess
Depicts Athens as 'murdering' the Persian empire.
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Yet must I all the tale of death unroll! Hark to me, Persians! Persia’s host lies low.
Although the Persian empire actually flourished in other ways after the attempted invasion of Athens, Aeschylus bends the truth in order to strengthen his point and make the play more 'marketable', like a modern day war movie. EoG, on the other hand, is based more in general historical beliefs at the time that were commonly accepted (eg: the flood).
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Marshals who serve the great king’s word Chieftains of all the mighty horde! Horsemen and bowmen streamed away, Grim in their aspect, fixed to slay, And resolute to face the fray! With troops of horse, careering fast, Masistes, Artembáres passed: Imaeus too, the bowman brave, Sosthánes, Pharandákes, drave— And others the all-nursing wave Of Nilus to the battle gave; Came Susiskánes, warrior wild, And Pegastágon, Egypt’s child: Thee, brave Arsámes! from afar
More realist description than EoG; great army, uses individual names of soldiers and paints mortals against mortals, such as a large army returning in defeat, compared to EoG (deity consequences for godlike actions)
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