Contents
Chapter Page I [At the Hot Gates] 1 II [“Remember the Athenians”] 10 III [The Defense on the Acropolis] 17 IV [The Miracle of Salamis] 28 V [The Traitor of Thermopylæ] 40 VI [Athena Speaks Through the Olive-Branch] 46 VII [The Banquet of Attaginus] 51 VIII [Masistius’ Message to Zopyrus] 60 IX [The Rescue of Ladice] 70 X [A Venture at the Eve of Battle] 80 XI [A Hero of Platæa] 86 XII [The Prophet at Delphi] 93 XIII [The House of Pasicles] 101 XIV [Beyond the Dipylon Gate] 111 XV [What Happened at the Theatre of Dionysus] 121 XVI [The Celebration of the Mysteries] 128 XVII [Persephone] 136 XVIII [Agne’s Advice] 142 XIX [Ephialtes’ Plot] 147 XX [The Ward of Themistosles] 155 XXI [In the Shadow of the Acropolis] 162 XXII [A Letter from Sicily] 167 XXIII [The Festivities at Naxos] 174 XXIV [Dionysus and Ariadne] 180 XXV [A Revelation] 187 XXVI [The Home of Aeschylus] 194 XXVII [The Allied Fleet Sails] 201 XXVIII [The Hand of Fate] 209 XXIX [After Twenty Years] 216
“What have I to do with the heroes or the monuments of ancient times? With times which never can return, and heroes, whose form of life was different from all that the present condition of mankind requires or allows?... At least we compare our own with former times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the first motion towards good, discover our defects.” Samuel Johnson in “Rasselas”
CHAPTER I.
At the Hot Gates.
“In gay hostility and barbarous pride,
With half mankind embattled at his side,
Great Xerxes comes to seize the certain prey,
And starves exhausted regions in his way.”
Samuel Johnson.
The reddening glow of an evening sun was shed upon the little town of Anthela in Locris as Zopyrus, a young Persian officer in the army of Xerxes passed quickly from the shadows of the temple to Demeter into the narrow street. In his general bearing and physique he was truly a Persian; large of frame, broad of shoulders, with a proportionally small but well poised head. But the tight clusters of blond curls, clear blue eyes and sensitiveness of mouth were not distinguishing traits of Persian parentage. There was a seriousness in his expression far in advance of his years which may have numbered four and twenty.