The mother of Xerxes, my queen.
Let us fall down before her with humble prostration,[n7]
And greet her to-day with a fair salutation,
The mother of Xerxes, my queen.
[To Atossa, entering.] Mistress of the low-zoned women, queen of Persia’s daughters, hail!
Aged mother of King Xerxes, wife of great Darius, hail!
Spouse of him who was a god, and of a present god the mother,
If the ancient bliss that crowned it hath not left the Persian host.
Enter Atossa, drawn with royal pomp in a chariot.
Atossa.