Xerxes Scourges the Hellespont
The Persian King felt that a lord of his majesty should not have to take any nonsense from an overgrown river.
483 BC
The Persian King felt that a lord of his majesty should not have to take any nonsense from an overgrown river.
483 BC
In 483 BC, Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BC) rallied all Persia for a second attempted conquest of Greece, after the failure of Darius I at Marathon seven years earlier. He planned his route meticulously, throwing two bridges across the Hellespont, the narrow stretch of water between the mainland of Asia Minor and the Gallipoli peninsula in what is now Turkey, but it was not a straightforward business.
Translated from the Greek by A. D. Godley
MEANWHILE, his men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down, breaking and scattering everything.
When Xerxes heard of this, he was very angry and commanded that the Hellespont be whipped with three hundred lashes, and a pair of fetters be thrown into the sea. I have even heard that he sent branders with them to brand the Hellespont.
He commanded them while they whipped to utter words outlandish and presumptuous, “Bitter water, our master thus punishes you, because you did him wrong though he had done you none. Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you want it or not; in accordance with justice no one offers you sacrifice, for you are a turbid and briny river.”
He commanded that the sea receive these punishments and that the overseers of the bridge over the Hellespont be beheaded.
Translated from the Greek by A. D. Godley
A map of the Greco-Persian Wars, with the place where Xerxes crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) at Abydos in Mysia shown towards the upper right.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why was Xerxes angry with the waters of the Hellespont?
Because his attempt to bridge it failed.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Xerxes’s army built two bridges. A storm rose. The bridges were destroyed.