Language Flashcards
Youth
“flower of all your youth has fallen”
- > call back to parados
- ill-fated youth and flower representative of innocence (young men had no chance to ‘blossom’ into maturity like a flower) ->sadness, melancholy tone
“flower of Persian chivalry” - cut down
“and parents, childless now, lament”
->back to the beginning of speech (loop)
Monarchy
“Queen Atossa” name not said in Greek (eastern idea that name = power)
“what has a house more precious than its living lord?”
-> rhetorical question -> Atossa being appropriate, motherly <3 (worried)
“yoked them to his chariot” -metaphor for Xerxes power, gov., control, empire
“dread” compliment, respect
“godlike king” deep respect for Darius (made to sound perfect)
“son Darius, the invincible”
-tone of loss contrasts Xerxes to his great dad -> failure
“reverance forbids us”
- > religious respect prevents the chorus from talking to Darius (v dramatic)
- > Greeks ; monarchy is stupid if you can’t even talk to them)
list of all the places Darius took = great (like him)
“ruled like a god over Persia”
Despair of Persia
“Persians, our country’s fleet and army are no more”
-> hyperbole - exaggeration makes it more dramatic (& bigs up messenger for escaping)
“why have we lived so long?” dramatic
“runner nor rider brings us word of them” dramatic tension (audience know something chorus don’t)
“went forth our army strong in arrows, sabres, spears”
-> list exaggerates loss faced (none of this helped)
“our land bewails the men she bore”
-personification
“deadly shame” Xerxes = dramatic
“reversed our fortune”
-dramatic, untrue
Similes
“from Babylon the golden, like spate of mingled waters”
->armies like water flow into one river (whole of Persia came together to fight)
“from the darkness of his glance glares a gory dragon’s eye”
-> metaphor: Xerxes = a dragon (unusual, sneaky, snake like)
“like a vast flood leap and roar”
-> army = flood, overpowering, enormous
“finest thread. Gone like a swarm of bees” - contrast of luxury vs loss (forebode)
“then from the Hellene ships rose like a song of joy the piercing battle-cry”
-> Greeks sound joyous about it (A bigs up Greeks - like a chant, v organised)
“as fishermen kill tunnies”
-ratio of Persia:Greece (opp. of fishermen to fish but still they lost)
“while anguish eats like hunger at the heart”
-> simile: vivid
Contrast
“firm control” “brave” “hardness” opening of parados positive -> “now grieves” - sad tone changes parados through contrast
“shaggy yellow beard was dyed blood-red”
-> colour contrast (rep. speed and disaster of death/war)
“his handsome face met an unhandsome end”
-contrast of before and after war = v sudden and stark (troops led by him - great - and now he is dead)
“300” vs “1000” size
contrast between winners and losers “ships” 1 = Persia
“ships” 2 = Greece
“to end grief their life’s long span”
-> contrast to parados where they grieved for them to come back (never coming back now)
Pro-Greece
“he is the master of Hellas”
->Athenocentric view
“frothy oars” “beating”
-> management, organisation, powerful, vivid
“set free” “set” “fight”
-> imperative (action vs passive Persians)
“we watched a nation sink and die”
-> v dramatic, Greeks being obsessed with themselves and showing how dramatic/emotional the chorus are
“granite rock” (Greece = jagged and tough)
-> contrast to Persia
“carved their limbs like butchers” skilled, effective
Noise
“din”
“trumpet” “Paean” “bo’sans chant” “beating”
Imagery
“dipped my hands in the clear flowing spring”
-> image from nature that audience = familiar with
“still see the light” alive
“flamed” - fire, powerful
Imagery
“dipped my hands in the clear flowing spring”
-> image from nature that audience = familiar with
“still see the light” alive
“flamed” - fire, powerful
“ripening kernel”
-analogy = grain, agriculture (simple lifestyles Darius is preaching)
Metaphors
“make this town his prey”
->expedition = hunt (predator/prey metaphor flowing through play - falcon vs eagle)
“trap” “net”
“carpeted with wrecks”
- > scale of Persian army (imaginative for audience of were there)
- like previous mention in messengers speech
Repetition
“your” repeated
“lament and weep” “weep and lament”
- > rhythm, musical
- > amplifies sadness and total despair of chorus
“charge followed charge” “ship into ship”
-> same pattern repetition
“our fleet” “our ships”
-rept. Persian togetherness (contrast of prev. Greeks and Persians now)
“dead” “dead” atmosphere of death
“we” “us” repeated showing messenger was there
“but Xerxes?” - repetition shows they blame him (“accusing groan” personification)
Call and response
Call and response nature if messengers speech (Chorus repeat what messenger says despite not actually being there themselves) exaggerates loss and repeats itself e.g.
“the shores of Salamis […] are strewn with bodies all miserably done to death” vs “ their folded cloaks spread wide over the drowning tide”
->amplifies atmosphere pf death that covers the messenger speech (relevant to audience as well who will recognise/relate to the scenes the chorus talk about due to how recent the battle was -> will also have lost sons etc.)
Epic
Persian catalogue of dead (links 294-316) => v epic (like Iliad where people die in diff. ways)
-> literary traditions (also “Ajax”)
Epic
Persian catalogue of dead (links 294-316) => v epic (like Iliad where people die in diff. ways)
-> literary traditions (also “Ajax”)
“do you say that we entered battle with too weak a force? No.”
-engage audience -> sharp sudden sentence (v short)
Persia and luxury
“lustral water” “virgin springs” “fragrant oil from the pale” “perpetual leaf” “garlands twinned with flowers” “fields”
-> sense of Persia being lovely and pure and feminine (Greeks thought Persia to be a v fertile land)
“countless women […] tearing their veils in two”
-> extreme reaction = extreme emotion
“silken” “tender”
