“how terrible is time! his solemn years,

the tombs of all our hopes and all our fears,

in silent horror roll! the gorgeous throne,

the pillared arch, the monumental stone,

melt in swift ruin; and of mighty climes,

where fame told tales of virtues and of crimes,

where wisdom taught, and valor woke to strife,

and art’s creations breathed their mimic life,

and the young poet when the stars shone high

drank the deep rapture of the quiet sky,

naught now remains but nature’s placid scene,

heaven’s deathless blue and earth’s eternal green.”

winthrop mackworth præd.

to themistocles in magnesia, greetings from zopyrus at gela in sicily:—

after a silence of many years i write you again of affairs of state and even of many personal things which i know will be of interest to you. i want to assure you, my friend that i have never doubted your true loyalty to athens, and i write you freely knowing that greece is dearer to you than persia. your memory is and always will be in the hearts of the majority, for who can forget the glories of salamis and the hero to whom we owe that victory!

217

would that you could once more behold athens—our athens—and yet not as she was in the years that you, my dear friend, walked her streets, stood in her buzzing mart, or ascended her divine hill. the crystalline air, the song of the nightingale in the olive groves, the shaggy peak of hymettus, the blue of the bay, and the familiar rose-tinted rock of the acropolis—these the persian has been unable to destroy.

your once hated rival aristides is dead. i know that though bitter enmity once filled your heart, you will regret to hear that he died so poor that he was buried at the public expense. after his death cimon became undisputed leader, and greatly has athens been benefitted by the rule of this brilliant man whom we knew well as a youth. but alas, for the brevity of popular favor! but a few years ago he was ostracized by the most talked of man in all athens today, pericles, son of xanthippus. on the eve of the battle of tanagra, cimon left his place of banishment and fought bravely with the athenians against the spartans. this so pleased pericles that he proposed a measure recalling cimon from exile and it was passed by the assembly. cimon has succeeded in putting down many revolts, and you know of his great victory over the persians in asia. from the proceeds from the spoils of this battle he had planned to build a temple to athena, but this work is being carried on by pericles. it is plain that cimon, however sincerely he had the welfare of his city at heart, was too fond of personal praise and worship. he failed in his attempt to unite athens and sparta. pericles stands for the independence of athens and for pure democracy.

218

during the thasian revolt about ten years ago, mimnermus distinguished himself by bravery, but he confided to us that he did not relish the task of overseeing the thacians tear down their walls at the command of the athenians, for his brother-in-law, polygnotus, was a native of thasos. mimnermus is now at aegina helping to suppress a similar revolt.

and now i will tell you of polygnotus. he and other artists adorned the interior of the painted porch with mural pictures of great beauty representing scenes from the myths and from recent history. polygnotus married eumetis, the daughter of pasicles, and to this union were born three daughters, corinna, cleodice and neobule. pasicles resides with his daughter and her husband, but his wife, cleodice, whose health failed rapidly after the death of her daughter, corinna, died within a few years after that tragic event.

i know it will interest you to hear of ladice and lysimachus, both of whom spoke of you affectionately whenever we met while in athens. their son, aristides, in whom they feel the usual pride common to parents of an only child, gives promise of exceptional ability along the lines of his grandfather, and if i may say so, his foster-grandparent.

219

yesterday i stood at a newly made grave on the banks of a river which pours its waters into the african sea. in the distance to the north stretched the wheat-bearing land of gela. before i could give my thoughts wholly to the honored dead, i gazed with pride and happiness upon the family with which i have been blessed. my eldest son phales, stood by my side, stalwart of body and thoughtful of mind, not unlike his grandfather, aeschylus. persephone, our eldest daughter is very like her mother was at her age, so it is needless to mention here the pride i feel in her. my second son masistius, at times reminds me of my father, artaphernes, but the loving guidance of his mother has softened the severity that was his grandfather’s. the youngest child, a daughter, protomache, stood upon this occasion with tears in her usually laughing eyes. she clung tightly to the hand of her mother whose eyes rested lovingly upon each member of the little group in turn.

then in low tones and with head bent in a reverent attitude, persephone my dear wife, read this epitaph which was engraved upon the tomb:

“this tomb the dust of aeschylus doth hide—

euphorion’s son and fruitful gela’s pride;

how famed his valor marathon may tell,

and long-haired medes, who knew it all too well.”

as the last word trembled into a silence that seemed to permeate nature all about us, a few lines that had been composed by aeschylus on the subject of death, came to my mind, and i could not but repeat them upon this occasion:

“smitten by him, from towering hopes degraded,

mortals lie low and still;

tireless and effortless works forth its will

the arm divine!

god from his holy seat, in calm of unarmed power,

brings forth the deed at its appointed hour!”