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Xerxes Scourges the Hellespont The Persian King felt that a lord of his majesty should not have to take any nonsense from an overgrown river.
483 BC
Music: Frank Bridge

© Jorge Láscar, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

This jetty pokes out into the Hellespont, looking east towards the Gallipoli peninsula on the left (in Europe) and the mainland of Turkey on the right (in Asia). It was at that narrow point in the distance that Xerxes attempted to build his pontoon bridges. The King’s petulancy before insubordinate waters contrasts sharply with the behaviour of King Canute of England, faced with the North Sea: see Turning the Tide.

Xerxes Scourges the Hellespont
In 483 BC, Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BC) rallied all Persia for a second attempted conquest of Greece, after the failure of Darius I at Marathon seven years earlier. He planned his route meticulously, throwing two bridges across the Hellespont, the narrow stretch of water between the mainland of Asia Minor and the Gallipoli peninsula in what is now Turkey, but it was not a straightforward business.
Translated from the Greek by A. D. Godley

MEANWHILE, his men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down, breaking and scattering everything.

When Xerxes heard of this, he was very angry and commanded that the Hellespont be whipped with three hundred lashes, and a pair of fetters be thrown into the sea. I have even heard that he sent branders with them to brand the Hellespont.

He commanded them while they whipped to utter words outlandish and presumptuous, “Bitter water, our master thus punishes you, because you did him wrong though he had done you none. Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you want it or not; in accordance with justice no one offers you sacrifice, for you are a turbid and briny river.”

He commanded that the sea receive these punishments and that the overseers of the bridge over the Hellespont be beheaded.

A map of the Greco-Persian Wars, with the place where Xerxes crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) at Abydos in Mysia shown towards the upper right.

Précis

Early in the fifth century BC, Xerxes, King of Persia, prepared for the invasion of Greece by building bridges across the Hellespont. When a storm destroyed them, he was so beside himself that he had the waters whipped, branded with hot irons, and verbally abused by his men. The architects who designed the bridges were also beheaded. (57 / 60 words)

Source

From ‘The Histories’ Book VII.33.1 by Herodotus, translated by A. D. Godley.

Suggested Music

The Sea

Seascape: Allegro ben moderato

Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

Performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Britten.

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