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Like a hunter who at last looms over a cornered boar,
only for the desperate beast to turn and gore him,
Xerxes was stunned by the Greek victory.
Themistocles seized this advantage — he tricked the Great King once again,
sending word that the Greeks would sail to the Hellespont
and destroy the Persians’ bridge back to Asia.
Having seen quite enough of Greece already,
Xerxes fled as fast as his palanquin-bearers could carry him.
The Greeks, who usually love nothing more than fighting each other,
had seen what could be achieved through unity.
Headed by Pausanias, regent king of Sparta, they formed a grand alliance.
Its goal was not simply to defend Greece, but to carry the war across the Aegean,
into the Great King’s domain.
Their first target was an audacious one: Cyprus, deep within Persian waters.
Only the Phoenicians and Egyptians supplied more ships to Xerxes
than the many kingdoms of Cyprus.
And so a Greek armada sailed eastwards,
the likes of which none had seen since the days of Agamemnon:
an endless tapestry of sails, bearing the proud symbols of cities large and small.
Across the wine-dark sea they came, heading straight for the heart of the Persian realm.