CHAPTER 13: Xerxes' Lament
At the opposite shore, high atop his golden throne on a knoll overlooking the strait, Xerxes watched the sea battle unfold, a golden umbrella shading him from the sun. Great was the power of his Persian ships entering the narrows, greater still Xerxes' pride that he'd conquer Greece where even his father, Darius the Great, had failed. But the fleet's advantage became its doom. The great number of ships quickly clogged the channel, oars fouling one another. They were unable to maneuver when Greek war vessels bore down. Xerxes heard the thud and grind of bronze beaks as the rams of Greek triremes sunk deep into Persian hulls. His front line panicked and tried to turn tail, only to run afoul of those astern pressing forward to show their valor. Oarless hulls capsized, corpses floated, and soon reef and beach were strewn with dead.
The first blow to Xerxes' own confidence arrived with the body of his brother. He remembered how their father had doted upon Ariabignes, and now heard his father's great booming voice cry from the grave. "Your hot youth hath unleashed a spring of evils upon Persia, my son." Xerxes watched in quiet disbelief as even those flung into the waters drowned, while Greeks who ended up in the drink swam ashore.
When a group of Phoenician commanders docked and came to him making excuses, Xerxes could no longer restrain his anger. "Cowards!" he cried, then called forth the hooded messenger of death, and ordered the commanders' heads laid upon the chopping block.
Having turned on his own men, Xerxes felt cut off and alone in Europe and felt anxiety over his supply lines being spread across a continent. He'd just lost control of the seas. The Greeks had now but to cut the cables of his bridges across the Hellespont to trap him in a hostile land where the gods were against him.
The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis Page 26