Chapter 13Act IV, Scene 1

Act IV Scene 1 The countryside, high ground near the city of Cepheus. A crowd of Syrians, men and women, running in terror, among them Chabrias, Megas, Baltis, Pasithea, Morus, Gardas, Syrax. BALTIS (stopping and sinking down on her knees) Ah, whither can we run where the offended Poseidon shall not reach us? CHABRIAS Stop, countrymen; Let’s all die here together. OTHERS Let’s stop and die. MEGAS Run, run! Poseidon’s monsters howl behind. PASITHEA O day of horror and of punishment! SYRAX Let us stay here; it is high ground, perhaps The monster will not reach us. Damoetes enters. DAMOETES I have seen the terror near, and yet I live.

Perseus the Deliverer It vomits fire for half a league. SYRAX It is As long as a sea-jutting promontory. DAMOETES It has six monstrous legs. SYRAX Eight, eight; I saw it. MEGAS Chabrias, it caught thy strong son by the foot, And dashed his head against a stone, that all The brains were scattered. CHABRIAS Alas, my son! I will Go back and join you in the monster’s jaws. He is stopped by the others. DAMOETES It seized thy daughter, O Pasithea, And tore her limbs apart, which it devoured While yet the trunk lay screaming under its foot. PASITHEA Oh God! She swoons. ALL Lift her up, lift her up. Alas! MEGAS These sorrows may be ours.

Act IV, Scene 1 BALTIS Ah Heaven, my son! I did not wake him when this news of horror Plucked me from sleep. GARDAS My wife and little daughter Are in my cottage where perhaps the monster Vomits his fiery breath against the door. I will go back. MORUS Let us go back, Damoetes. DAMOETES I’ll not go back for twenty thousand wives And children. Life is sweet. MANY VOICES Let us not go. They stop Gardas. MEGAS What noise is that? BALTIS Run, run, ’tis some new horror. All are beginning to run. Therops enters. THEROPS Where will you run? Poseidon’s wrath is near you And over you and behind you and before you. His monsters from the ooze ravage howling Along our shores, and the indignant sea Swelled to unnatural tumultuous mountains Is climbing up the cliffs with spume and turmoil.

Perseus the Deliverer DAMOETES O let us run a hundred leagues and live. THEROPS Before you is another death. Last night The Assyrians at three points came breaking in Across the border and the frontier forces Are slain. They torture, burn and violate: Young girls and matrons, men and boys are butchered. Salvation is not in your front and flight Casts you from angry gods to men more ruthless. I wonder not that you are silent, stunned With fear: but will you listen, countrymen, And I will show you a cure for these fierce evils. VOICES Oh tell us, tell us, you shall be our king. MEGAS We’ll set thy image by the great Poseidon’s And worship it. THEROPS What is the unexampled cause of wrath Which whelms you with these horrors? Is’t not the bold Presumptuous line of Cepheus? Is’t not your kings Whose pride, swollen by your love and homage, Syrians, Insults the gods, rescues Poseidon’s victims And with a sacrilegious levity Exposes all your lives to death and woe? There is the fount of all your misery, Syrians, For this the horror eats you up, — your kings. CRIES Away with them! throw them into the sea — let Poseidon swal- low them!

Act IV, Scene 1 THEROPS But most I blame the fell Chaldean woman Who rules you. What is this Cepheus but a puppet Dressed up in royal seemings, pushed forth and danced At her caprice? Unhappy is the land That women rule, that country more unhappy That is to heartless foreigners a prey. But thou, O ill-starred Syria, two worst evils Hast harboured in a single wickedness. What cares the light Chaldean for your gods, Your lives, your sons, your daughters? She lives at ease Upon the revenues of your hard toil, Depending on favourites, yes, on paramours, — For why have women favourites but to ease Their sensual longings? — and insults your deities. Do you not think she rescued the Chaldeans Because they were her countrymen, and used Her daughter, young Andromeda, for tool That her fair childish beauty might disarm Wrath and suspicion? then, the crime unearthed, Braved all and set her fierce Chaldeans’ swords Against the good priest Polydaon’s heart, — You did not hear that? — the good Polydaon Who serves Poseidon with such zeal! Therefore The god is angry: your wives, sisters, daughters Must suffer for Chaldean Cassiopea. CRIES Let us seize her and kill, kill, kill, kill her! DAMOETES Burn her! MORUS Roast her!

Perseus the Deliverer MEGAS Tear her into a million fragments. CHABRIAS But are they not our kings? We must obey them. THEROPS Wherefore must we obey them? Kings are men, And they are set above their fellow-mortals To serve us, friends, — not, surely, for our hurt! Why should our sons and daughters bleed for them, Syrians? Is not our blood as dear, as precious, As human? Why should these kings, these men, go clad In purple and in velvet while you toil For little and are hungry and are naked? CRIES True, true, true! GARDAS This is a wonderful man, this Therops. He has a brain, country- men. DAMOETES A brain! He is no cleverer than you or I, Morus. MORUS I should think not, Damoetes! DAMOETES We knew these things long ago and did not need wind-bag Therops to tell us! MORUS We have talked them over often, Damoetes.

Act IV, Scene 1 MEGAS We’ll have no more kings, countrymen. CRIES No kings, no kings! GARDAS Or Therops shall be king. CRIES Yes, Therops king! Therops king! DAMOETES Good king Lungs! Oh, let us make him king, Morus, — he will not pass wind in the market-place so often. THEROPS Poseidon is our king; we are his people. Gods we must worship; why should we worship men And set a heavenly crown on mortal weakness? They have offended against great Poseidon, They are guilty of a fearful sacrilege. Let them perish. CRIES Kill them! let us appease Poseidon. CHABRIAS Worship Heaven’s power but bow before the king. THEROPS What need have we of kings? What are these kings? CHABRIAS They are the seed of gods.

Perseus the Deliverer THEROPS Then, let them settle Themselves their quarrel with their Olympian kindred. Why should we suffer? Let Andromeda Be exposed and Iolaus sacrificed: Then shall Poseidon’s wrath retire again Into the continent of his vast billows. CHABRIAS If it must be so, let it come by award Of quiet justice. THEROPS Justice! They are the judges Who did the crime. Wherefore dost thou defend them? Thou favourest then Poseidon’s enemies? CRIES Kill him too, kill Chabrias. Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon’s people. DAMOETES Let him join his son and by the same road. MORUS Beat his brains out — to see if he has any. Ho! ho! ho! THEROPS Let him alone: he is a fool. Here comes Our zealous good kind priest, our Polydaon. Polydaon enters. CRIES Polydaon! Polydaon! the good Polydaon! Save us, Polydaon! POLYDAON Ah, do you call me now to save you? Last night

Act IV, Scene 1 You did not save me when the foreign swords Were near my heart. MEGAS Forgive us and protect. DAMOETES You, lead us to the palace, be our chief. MORUS We’ll have no kings: lead, you: on to the palace! MEGAS Poseidon shall be king, thou his vicegerent. GARDAS Therops at thy right hand! CRIES Yes, Therops! Therops! POLYDAON Oh, you are sane now, being let blood by scourgings! Unhurt had been much better. But Poseidon Pardons and I will save. CRIES Polydaon for ever, the good Polydaon, Poseidon’s Viceroy! POLYDAON Swear then to do Poseidon’s will. CRIES We swear! DAMOETES Command and watch the effect!

Perseus the Deliverer POLYDAON Will not the tongue Of Cassiopea once more change you, people? DAMOETES We’ll cut it out and feed her dogs with it. POLYDAON Shall Iolaus bleed? Andromeda Be trailed through the city and upon the rocks, As the god wills, flung naked to his monsters? Cepheus and Cassiopea die? CRIES They shall! MEGAS Not one of them shall live. POLYDAON Then come, my children. DAMOETES But the beast! Will it not tear us on the road? POLYDAON It will not hurt you who do Poseidon’s will. I am your safeguard; I will march in front. CRIES To the palace, to the palace! We’ll kill the Chaldeans, strangle Cepheus, tear the Queen to pieces. POLYDAON In order, in good order, my sweet children. The mob surges out following Polydaon and Therops: only Damoetes, Chabrias, Baltis and Pasithea are left.

Act IV, Scene 1 DAMOETES Come, Chabrias, we’ll have sport. CHABRIAS My dead son calls me. He goes out in another direction. BALTIS Pasithea, rise and come: you’ll see her killed Who is the murderess of your daughter. PASITHEA Let me Stay here and die. DAMOETES Lift her up. Come, fool. They go out, leading Pasithea.