The Persians

Perhaps the most important symbol in The Persians is Queen Atossa’s prophetic dream of Xerxes attempting to yoke to his chariot two massive women, one Asian (or an inhabitant of lands to the east of Greece), and one Greek. Xerxes successfully subdues the Asian woman, but the Greek woman breaks her bonds and knocks Xerxes to the ground. Some scholars note that this is among the earliest literary depictions of a dream, demonstrating the developing psychological depth both of Aeschylus’s writing in particular and of Greek tragedy in general.

The chorus opens the play by setting a tone of great anxiety for the residents of Susa, now that Xerxes and his armies have left the capital city unmanned. In this atmosphere of dread, Atossa describes her dream of two women: “one arrayed in Persian, the other in Doric robes, outstandingly superior in stature to the women of real life, of flawless beauty and sisters of the same stock: one, by the fall of the lot, was a native and inhabitant of Greece, the other of the Orient” (Lines 183-87).

The first woman symbolizes the Greek city states, while the second represents the Persian Empire. Interestingly, Aeschylus casts them, at first, as equals—coming from the “same stock,” they indicate the closeness of cultures in the Mediterranean world. Xerxes’ attempt to “yoke” these women to his chariot represents his attempt to annex Greece. However, Xerxes cannot subdue the Hellenic city-states: in the dream, the Greek woman “tore the harness from the chariot with her hands, dragged it violently along without bridle or / bit, and smashed the yoke in half” (Lines 195-97). Atossa’s dream warns her of her son’s failure before she actually learns of it.