Episode 05: The Messenger

Finally news arrives from the west,
confirming the worst fears of the chorus and the Queen.

PERSIANS | The Podcast
Europe’s oldest play - in Europe’s oldest language.
As part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2020, PERSIANS | The Podcast
explores a project with an ancient future.

Supported by The Arts Council - An Comhairle Ealaoin.

The Messenger:

 Now Artembares, the commander of ten thousand horsemen,
is being pounded against the rugged shores of Sileniae.
Dadakes, commander of a thousand,
was struck by a spear and so his body leapt out of his ship:
noble Tenagon,the Bactrian, now haunts the wave-battered island of Ajax.
Lilaios, Arsames and Argestes, vanquished all three,
now beat their heads against the tough rocks of the dove-breeding island.
Pharnouchos died, that son of the Egyptian Nile,
and three more fell from a single ship: Arkteus, Adeues and Peresseues.
Matallos of Chrysa, commander of ten-thousand, perished:
his full auburn beard was soaked,
and changed colour when it sank into the purple dye of the sea.
We lost Magus the Arab and Artabes the Bactrian,
leader or thirty-thousand dark-skinned horsemen:
he moved to a cruel land, and was killed there, too.  
And Amistris, and Amphistreus,
who wielded a spear tempered with woe,
and brave Ariomardos, who dispensed grief with his arrows,
and Seisames the Mysian;
and Tharybis, admiral of five times fifty ships;
a handsome Lyrnaean man he was.
There he lies, the poor man, having met his miserable fate.
And Syennesis, the bravest of them, leader of the Cilicians,
who brought more trouble to the enemy than any other one of us, met a glorious end.
This is what I can remember about the commanders,
but it’s only a small part of our great suffering.