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Persian Messenger
In Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods and also the god of thunder, the ruler of the sky, and the father of many other central deities, including Ares and Pallas Athena. In the play, the Chorus prays to Zeus after learning of the Persians’ defeat at the Battle of Salamis. Historically, however, most Persians probably would not have worshipped Zeus (or any of the gods in the Greek pantheon), since most Persians of this era subscribed to an entirely different, culturally specific cosmology. The fact that the play shows the Persian Chorus venerating Zeus, then demonstrates Aeschylus’s own biases—and inaccuracies—as a Greek writer.
Zeus Quotes in The Persians
The The Persians quotes below are all either spoken by Zeus or refer to Zeus . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Persians Quotes
CHORUS (chanting): O! Zeus, king, you destroyed
the multitudinous, proud
host of the Persian men;
and the cities of Sousa
and of Agbatana
concealed in the darkness of grief.
[…] The ladies of Persia
softly are weeping,
desiring each
him to behold
wedded but lately;
forsaking their couches,
soft with their coverlets,
the joy of their youth,
now they lament their sorrows,
insatiate, full of woe.
And I recite the mourning song,
doom of the gone,
woe upon woe.
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DARIUS: So now a fountain of troubles has been found
for all those that I care for; and my son
is the one who discovered it, in ignorance.
He hoped, in youthful confidence, to check
he sacred waters of the Hellespont
by chains, as if it were a slave. […] Mortal though he was,
in folly he thought to master all the gods,
including Poseidon. Wasn’t his mind diseased?
So now I fear the wealth I labored so
to acquire will fall prey to the conquerors.
[…] So his deed is done, great and unforgettable!
Never had anyone before made this city
Sousa so empty and so desolate,
since Zeus, our lord, bestowed that honor:
one man to wield the scepter of authority
over all of Asia, rich in flocks.
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DARIUS: And corpses, piled up like sand, shall witness
mute, even to generations to come,
before the eyes of men, that never, being
mortal, ought we to cast our thoughts too high.
Insolence, once blossoming, will bear
its fruit, a tasseled field of doom, from which
a deadly harvest must be reaped, all tears.
Behold the punishment of these! Remember
Greece and Athens! Lest anyone disdain
his present fortune, lusting after more,
and end up squandering great prosperity.
Zeus is the chastener of overboastful
minds, a grievous corrector. Therefore advise
my son, admonished by reason, to be wise
and cease his overboastful temper from
sinning against the gods. And you, aged
mother of Xerxes, go to the palace;
gather up rich and brilliant clothes, and go
to meet your son; for he, in grief, has rent
his embroidered robes to shreds.
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Zeus Character Timeline in The Persians
The timeline below shows where the character Zeus appears in The Persians. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Persians
The Queen exits, and the Chorus chants to the god Zeus, asking the deity to consider the suffering of the Persians left alive. Though his father...
(full context)
...and that he is currently on his way back to Persia. Sighing, Darius reflects that Zeus had prophesized ruin for his sons, though he did not expect it to come so...
(full context)
