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The Messenger — Salamis
Scene 3
The Catastrophe

The Messenger — Salamis

A courier arrives with the news the elders feared: the fleet is destroyed. In the greatest battle narrative of Greek drama — spoken by an eyewitness playwright who fought there — the messenger tells how a Greek trick lured a thousand Persian ships into the narrow strait of Salamis, where they crushed one another as the enemy closed in like fishermen spearing tunnies.
Invoking the sacred fire...