Chapter IV: Part II: Page (2)

_Xer._ For Ares, he whose might Was in our ships' array, Giving victory to our foes, Has in Ionians, yea, Ionians, found his match, And from the dark sea's plain, And that ill-omened shore, Has a fell harvest reaped.

_Chor._ Yea, wail, search out the whole; Where are our other friends? Where thy companions true, Such as Pharandakes, Susas, Pelagon, Psammis, Dotamas, Agdabatas, Susiskanes, From Ecbatana who started?

ANTISTROPHE II

_Xer._ I left them low in death, Falling from Tyrian ship, On Salaminian shores, Beating now here, now there, On the hard rock-girt coast.

_Chor._ Ah, where Pharnuchos then,
And Ariomardos brave?
And where Sevalkes king,
Lilæos proud of race,
Memphis and Tharybis,
Masistras, and Artembares, 950
Hystæchmas? This I ask.

STROPHE III

_Xer._ Woe! woe is me!
They have looked on at Athens' ancient towers,
Her hated towers, ah me!
All, as by one fell stroke,
Unhappy in their fate
Lie gasping on the shore.

_Chor._ And he, thy faithful Eye,[69] 960
Who told the Persian host,
Myriads on myriads o'er,[70]
Alpistos, son and heir
Of Batanôchos old
· · · · ·
And the son of brave Sesames,
Son himself of Megabates?
Parthos, and the great Œbares,
Did'st thou leave them, did'st thou leave them?
Ah, woe! ah, woe is me,
For those unhappy ones!
Thou to the Persians brave
Tellest of ills on ills.

ANTISTROPHE III

_Xer._ Ah, thou dost wake in me
The memory of the spell of yearning love
For comrades brave and true,
Telling of cursed ills,
Yea, cursed, hateful doom; 970
And lo, within my frame
My heart cries out, cries out.

_Chor._ Yea, another too we long for,
Xanthes, captain of ten thousand
Mardian warriors, and Anchares
Arian born, and great Arsakes
And Diæxis, lords of horsemen,
Kigdagatas and Lythimnas,
Tolmos, longing for the battle: 980
*Much I marvel, much I marvel,[71]
For they come not, as the rear-guard
Of thy tent on chariot mounted.[72]

STROPHE IV

_Xer._ Gone those rulers of the army.

_Chor._ Gone are they in death inglorious.

_Xer._ Ah woe! ah woe! Alas! alas!

_Chor._ Ah! the Gods have sent upon us
Ill we never thought to look on,
Eminent above all others;
Ne'er hath Atè seen its equal.

ANTISTROPHE IV

Smitten we by many sorrows, 990 Such as come on men but seldom.

_Chor._ Smitten we, 'tis all too certain....

_Xer._ Fresh woes! fresh woes! ah me!

_Chor._ Now with adverse turn of fortune, With Ionian seamen meeting, Fails in war the race of Persians.

STROPHE V

_Xer._ Too true. Yea I and that vast host of mine Are smitten down.

_Chor._ Too true—the Persians' majesty and might Have perished utterly.

_Xer._ See'st thou this remnant of my armament?

_Chor._ I see it, yea, I see. 1000

_Xer._ (_pointing to his quiver._) Dost see thou that which arrows wont to hold?...

_Chor._ What speak'st thou of as saved?

_Xer._ This treasure-store for darts.

_Chor._ Few, few of many left!

_Xer._ Thus we all helpers lack.

_Chor._ Ionian soldiers flee not from the spear.

ANTISTROPHE V

_Xer._ Yea, very brave are they, and I have seen Unlooked-for woe.

_Chor._ Wilt tell of squadron of our sea-borne ships Defeated utterly?

_Xer._ I tore my robes at this calamity.

_Chor._ Ah me, ah me, ah me. 1010

_Xer._ Ay, more than all 'ah me's'!

_Chor._ Twofold and threefold ills!

_Xer._ Grievous to us—but joy, Great joy, to all our foes!

_Chor._ Lopped off is all our strength.

_Xer._ Stripped bare of escort I!

_Chor._ Yea, by sore loss at sea
Disastrous to thy friends.

STROPHE VI

_Xer._ Weep for our sorrow, weep,
Yea, go ye to the house.

_Chor._ Woe for our griefs, woe, woe!

_Xer._ Cry out an echoing cry.

_Chor._ Ill gift of ills on ills. 1020

_Xer._ Weep on in wailing chant.

_Chor._ Oh! ah! Oh! ah!

_Xer._ Grievous our bitter woes.

_Chor._ Ah me, I mourn them sore.

ANTISTROPHE VI

_Xer._ Ply, ply your hands and groan;
Yea, for my sake bewail.

_Chor._ I weep in bitter grief.

_Xer._ Cry out an echoing cry.

_Chor._ Yea, we may raise our voice,
O Lord and King, in wail.

_Xer._ Raise now shrill cry of woe.

_Chor._ Ah me! Ah! Woe is me! 1030

_Xer._ Yea, with it mingle dark....

_Chor._ And bitter, grievous blows.

STROPHE VII

_Xer._ Yea, beat thy breast, and cry
After the Mysian type.

_Chor._ Oh, misery! oh, misery!

_Xer._ Yea, tear the white hair off thy flowing beard.

_Chor._ Yea; with clenched hands, with clenchèd hands, I say,
In very piteous guise.

_Xer._ Cry out, cry out aloud.

_Chor._ That also will I do.

ANTISTROPHE VII

_Xer._ And with thy fingers tear
Thy bosom's folded robe.

_Chor._ Oh, misery! oh, misery! 1040

_Xer._ Yea, tear thy hair in wailing for our host.

_Chor._ Yea, with clenched hands, I say, with clenchèd hands,
In very piteous guise.

_Xer._ Be thine eyes wet with tears.

_Chor._ Behold the tears stream down.

EPODE

_Xer._ Raise a re-echoing cry.

_Chor._ Ah woe! ah woe!

_Xer._ Go to thy home with wailing loud and long.

_Chor._ O land of Persia, full of lamentations!

_Xer._ Through the town raise your cries.

_Chor._ We raise them, yea, we raise. 1050

_Xer._ Wail, wail, ye men that walked so daintily.

_Chor._ O land of Persia, full of lamentations!
Woe; woe!

_Xer._ Alas for those who in the triremes perished!

_Chor._ With broken cries of woe will I escort thee.

[_Exeunt in procession, wailing, and
rending their robes._

-----

Footnote 3:

“The Faithful,” or “trusty,” seems to have been a special title of
honour given to the veteran councillors of the king (Xenoph. _Anab._
i. 15), just as that of the “Immortals” was chosen for his body-guard
(Herod, vii. 83).

Footnote 4:

Susa was pre-eminently the treasury of the Persian kings (Herod, v.
49; Strabo, xv. p. 731), their favourite residence in spring, as
Ecbatana in Media was in summer and Babylon in winter.

Footnote 5:

Kissia was properly the name of the district in which Susa stood; but
here, and in v. 123, it is treated as if it belonged to a separate
city. Throughout the play there is, indeed, a lavish use of Persian
barbaric names of persons and places, without a very minute regard to
historical accuracy.

Footnote 6:

Here, as in Herodotos and Greek writers generally, the title, “the
King,” or “the great King,” was enough. It could be understood only of
the Persian. The latter name had been borne by the kings of Assyria (2
Kings xviii. 28). A little later it passed into the fuller, more
boastful form of “The King of kings.”

Footnote 7:

The inhabitants of the Delta of the Nile, especially those of the
marshy districts near the Heracleotic mouth, were famed as supplying
the best and bravest soldiers of any part of Egypt.—Comp. Thucyd. i.
110.

Footnote 8:

The epithet was applied probably by Æschylos to the Lydians properly
so called, the barbaric race with whom the Hellenes had little or
nothing in common. They, in dress, diet, mode of life, their distaste
for the contests of the arena, seemed to the Greeks the very type of
effeminacy. The Ionian Greeks, however, were brought under the same
influence, and gradually acquired the same character. The suppression
of the name of the Ionians in the list of the Persian forces may be
noticed as characteristic. The Athenian poet would not bring before an
Athenian audience the shame of their Asiatic kinsmen.

Footnote 9:

Tmôlos, sacred as being the mythical birth-place of Dionysos.

Footnote 10:

“Spear-anvils,” _sc._, meeting the spear of their foes as the anvils
would meet it, turning its point, themselves steadfast and immovable.

Footnote 11:

So Herodotos (vii. 74) in his account of the army of Xerxes describes
the Mysians as using for their weapons those darts or “javelins” made
by hardening the ends in the fire.

Footnote 12:

Helle the daughter of Athamas, from whom the Hellespont took its name.
For the description of the pontoons formed by boats, which were moored
together with cables and finally covered with faggots, comp. Herod,
vii. 36.

Footnote 13:

“Gold-born,” _sc._, descended from Perseus, the child of Danaë.

Footnote 14:

Syrian, either in the vague sense in which it became almost synonymous
with Assyrian, or else showing that Syria, properly so called,
retained the fame for chariots which it had had at a period as early
as the time of the Hebrew Judges (Judg. v. 3). Herodotos (vii. 140)
gives an Oracle of Delphi in which the same epithet appears.

Footnote 15:

The description, though put into the mouth of Persians, is meant to
flatter Hellenic pride. The Persians and their army were for the most
part light-armed troops only, barbarians equipped with javelins or
bows. In the sculptures of Persepolis, as in those of Nineveh and
Khorsabad, this mode of warfare is throughout the most conspicuous.
They, the Hellenes, were the _hoplites_, warriors of the spear and the
shield, the cuirass and the greaves.

Footnote 16:

A touch of Athenian exultation in their life as seamen. To them the
sea was almost a home. They were familiar with it from childhood. To
the Persians it was new and untried. They had a new lesson to learn,
late in the history of the nation, late in the lives of individual
soldiers.

Footnote 17:

The bridge of boats, with the embankment raised upon it, is thought of
as a new headland putting out from the one shore and reaching to the
other.

Footnote 18:

Stress is laid by the Hellenic poet, as in the _Agamemnon_ (v. 895),
and in v. 707 of this play, on the tendency of the East to give to its
kings the names and the signs of homage which were due only to the
Gods. The Hellenes might deify a dead hero, but not a living
sovereign. On different grounds the Jews shrank, as in the stories of
Nebuchadnezzar and Dareios (Dan. iii. 6), from all such acts.

Footnote 19:

In the Greek, as in the translation, there is a change of metre,
intended apparently to represent the transition from the tone of eager
excitement to the ordinary level of discourse.

Footnote 20:

With reference either to the _mythos_ that Asia and Europa were both
daughters of Okeanos, or to the historical fact that the Asiatic
Ionians and the Dorians of Europe were both of the same Hellenic
stock. The contrast between the long flowing robes of the Asiatic
women, and the short, scanty kilt-like dress of those of Sparta must
be borne in mind if we would see the picture in its completeness.

Footnote 21:

Athenian pride is flattered with the thought that they had resisted
while the Ionian Greeks had submitted all too willingly to the yoke of
the Barbarian.

Footnote 22:

Lustrations of this kind, besides their general significance in
cleansing from defilement, had a special force as charms to turn aside
dangers threatened by foreboding dreams. Comp. Aristoph. _Frogs_, v.
1264; Persius, _Sat._ ii. 16.

Footnote 23:

The political bearing of the passage as contrasting this
characteristic of the despotism of Persia with the strict account to
which all Athenian generals were subject, is, of course, unmistakable.

Footnote 24:

The question, which seems to have rankled in the minds of the
Athenians, is recorded as an historical fact, and put into the mouth
of Dareios by Herodotos (v. 101). He had asked it on hearing that
Sardis had been attacked and burnt by them.

Footnote 25:

The words point to the silver mines of Laureion, which had been worked
under Peisistratos, and of which this is the first mention in Greek
literature.

Footnote 26:

Once more the contrast between the Greek _hoplite_ and the light-armed
archers of the invaders is dwelt upon. The next answer of the Chorus
dwells upon the deeper contrast, then prominent in the minds of all
Athenians, between their democratic freedom and the despotism of
Persia. Comp. Herod. v. 78.

Footnote 27:

The system of postal communications by means of couriers which Dareios
had organised had made their speed in running proverbial (Herod. vii.
97).

Footnote 28:

With the characteristic contempt of a Greek for other races, Æschylos
makes the Persians speak of themselves throughout as 'barbarians,'
'barbaric.'

Footnote 29:

Perhaps— “On planks that floated onward,”
or— “On land and sea far spreading.”

Footnote 30:

Possibly Salamis itself, as famed for the doves which were reared
there as sacred to Aphrodite, but possibly also one of the smaller
islands in the Saronic gulf, which the epithet would be enough to
designate for an Athenian audience. The “coasts of the Sileni” in v.
305 are identified by scholiasts with Salamis.

Footnote 31:

Perhaps—“And ten of these selected as reserve.”

Footnote 32:

As regards the number of the Persian ships, 1000 of average, and 207
of special swiftness. Æschylos agrees with Herodotos, who gives the
total of 1207. The latter, however, reckons the Greek ships not at
310, but 378 (vii. 89, viii. 48).

Footnote 33:

The fact that Athens had actually been taken, and its chief buildings
plundered and laid waste, was, of course, not a pleasant one for the
poet to dwell on. It could hardly, however, be entirely passed over,
and this is the one allusion to it. In the truest sense it was still
“unsacked:” it had not lost its most effective defence, its most
precious treasure.

Footnote 34:

As the story is told by Herodotos (vii. 75), this was Sikinnos, the
slave of Themistocles, and the stratagem was the device of that
commander to save the Greeks from the disgrace and ruin of a _sauve
qui peut_ flight in all directions.

Footnote 35:

The Greeks never beheaded their criminals, and the punishment is
mentioned as being specially characteristic of the barbaric Persians.

Footnote 36:

The Æginetans and Megarians, according to the account preserved by
Diodoros (xi. 18), or the Lacedæmonians, according to Herodotos (viii.
65).

Footnote 37:

This may be meant to refer to the achievements of Ameinias of Pallene,
who appears in the traditional life of Œschylos as his youngest
brother.

Footnote 38:

_Sc._, in Herod. viii. 60, the strait between Salamis and the
mainland.

Footnote 39:

Tunny-fishing has always been prominent in the occupations on the
Mediterranean coasts, and the sailors who formed so large a part of
every Athenian audience would be familiar with the process here
described, of striking or harpooning them. Aristophanes (_Wasps_,
1087) coins (or uses) the word “to tunny” (θυννάζω) to express the
act. Comp. Herod. i. 62.

Footnote 40:

_Sc._, Psyttaleia, lying between Salamis and the mainland. Pausanias
(i. 36-82) describes it in his time as having no artistic shrine or
statue, but full everywhere of roughly carved images of Pan, to whom
the island was sacred. It lay just opposite the entrance to the
Peiræos. The connexion of Pan with Salamis and its adjacent islands
seems implied in Sophocles, _Aias_, 695.

Footnote 41:

The manœuvre was, we learn from Herodotos (viii. 95), the work of
Aristeides, the personal friend of Æschylos, and the statesman with
whose policy he had most sympathy.

Footnote 42:

The lines are noted as probably a spurious addition, by a weaker hand,
to the text, as introducing surplusage, as inconsistent with
Herodotos, and as faulty in their metrical structure.

Footnote 43:

So Herodotos (viii. 115) describes them as driven by hunger to eat
even grass and leaves.

Footnote 44:

No trace of this passage over the frozen Strymon appears in Herodotos,
who leaves the reader to imagine that it was crossed, as before, by a
bridge. It is hardly, indeed, consistent with dramatic probability
that the courier should have remained to watch the whole retreat of
the defeated army; and on this and other grounds, the latter part of
the speech has been rejected by some critics as a later addition.

Footnote 45:

The Ionians, not of the Asiatic Ionia, but of Attica.

Footnote 46:

Kychreia, the archaic name of Salamis.

Footnote 47:

The ritual described is Hellenic rather than Persian, and takes its
place (Soph. _Electr._ 836; Eurip. _Iphig. Taur._ 583; Homer, _Il._
xxiii. 219) as showing what offerings were employed to soothe or call
up the spirits of the dead. Comp. Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxx.

Footnote 48:

The description obviously gives the state dress of the Persian kings.
They alone wore the tiara erect. Xen. _Kyrop._ viii. 3, 13.

Footnote 49:

Either that he has felt the measured tread of the mourners round his
tomb, as they went wailing round and round, or that he has heard the
rush of armies, and seen the plain tracked by chariot-wheels, and
comes, not knowing all these things, to learn what it means.

Footnote 50:

The words point to the widespread belief that when the souls of the
dead were permitted to return to the earth, it was with strict
limitations as to the time of their leave of absence.

Footnote 51:

Perhaps—“I dread to speak the truth.”

Footnote 52:

According to Herodotos (vii. 225) two brothers of Xerxes fell at
Thermopylæ.

Footnote 53:

As Herodotos (viii. 117) tells the story, the bridge had been broken
by the tempest before Xerxes reached it.

Footnote 54:

Probably Mardonios and Onomacritos the Athenian soothsayer are
referred to, who, according to Herodotos (vii. 6, viii. 99) were the
chief instigators of the expedition.

Footnote 55:

Astyages, the father-in-law of Kyaxares and grandfather of Kyros. In
this case Æschylos must be supposed to accept Xenophon's statement
that Kyaxares succeeded to Astyages. Possibly, however, the Median may
be Kyaxares I., the father of Astyages, and so the succession here
would harmonise with that of Herodotos. The whole succession must be
looked on as embodying the loose, floating notions of the Athenians as
to the history of their great enemy, rather than as the result of
inquiry.

Footnote 56:

Stress is laid on the violence to which the Asiatic Ionians had
succumbed, and their resistance to which distinguished them from the
Lydians or Phrygians, whose submission had been voluntary.

Footnote 57:

Mardos. Under this name we recognise the Pseudo-Smerdis of Herodotos
(iii. 67), who, by restoring the dominion of the Median Magi, the
caste to which he himself belonged, brought shame upon the Persians.

Footnote 58:

Possibly another form of Intaphernes, who appears in Herodotos (iii.
70) as one of the seven conspirators against the Magian
Pseudo-Smerdis.

Footnote 59:

The force of 300,000 men left in Greece under Mardonios (Herod. viii.
113), afterwards defeated at Platæa.

Footnote 60:

Comp. the speech of Mardonios urging his plan on Xerxes (Herod. viii.
100).

Footnote 61:

This was of course a popular topic with the Athenians, whose own
temples had been outraged. But other sanctuaries also, the temples at
Delphi and Abæ, had shared the same fate, and these sins against the
Gods of Hellas were naturally connected in the thoughts of the Greeks
with the subsequent disasters of the Persians. In Egypt these outrages
had an iconoclastic character. In Athens they were a retaliation for
the destruction of the temple at Sardis (Herod. v. 102).

Footnote 62:

The reference to the prominent part taken by the Peloponnesian forces
in the battle of Platæa is probably due to the political sympathies of
the dramatist.

Footnote 63:

The speech of Atossa is rejected by Paley, on internal grounds, as
spurious.

Footnote 64:

Apparently an allusion to the oracle given to Crœsos, that he, if he
crossed the Halys, should destroy a great kingdom.

Footnote 65:

The name originally given to the Echinades, a group of islands at the
mouth of the Acheloös, was applied generically to all islands lying
near the mouth of all great rivers, and here, probably, includes
Imbros, Thasos, and Samothrakè.

Footnote 66:

The geography is somewhat obscure, but the words seem to refer to the
portion of the islands that are named as opposite (in a southerly
direction) to the promontory of the Troad.

Footnote 67:

Salamis in Kypros had been colonised by Teukros, the son of Aias, and
had received its name in remembrance of the island in the Saronic
Gulf.

Footnote 68:

The Mariandynoi, a Paphlagonian tribe, conspicuous for their orgiastic
worship of Adonis, had become proverbial for the wildness of their
plaintive dirges.

Footnote 69:

The name seems to have been an official title for some
Inspector-General of the Army. Comp. Aristoph. _Acharn._ v. 92.

Footnote 70:

As in the account which Herodotos gives (vii. 60) of the way in which
the army of Xerxes was numbered, _sc._, by enclosing 10,000 men in a
given space, and then filling it again and again till the whole army
had passed through.

Footnote 71:

Another reading gives—

“They are buried, they are buried.”

Footnote 72:

Perhaps referring to the waggon-chariots in which the rider reclines
at ease, either protected by a canopy, or, as in the Assyrian
sculptures and perhaps in the East generally, overshadowed by a large
umbrella which an eunuch holds over him.

THE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THEBES

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

ETEOCLES
_Scout_
_Herald_
ISMENE
ANTIGONE
_Chorus of Theban Maidens_

ARGUMENT.—_When Œdipus king of Thebes discovered that he had unknowingly been the murderer of his father, and had lived in incest with his mother, he blinded himself. And his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneikes, wishing to banish the remembrance of these horrors from the eyes of men, at first kept him in confinement. And he, being wroth with them, prayed that they might divide their inheritance with the sword. And they, in fear lest the prayer should be accomplished, agreed to reign in turn, each for a year, and Eteocles, as the elder of the two, took the first turn. But when at the end of the year Polyneikes came to ask for the kingdom, Eteocles refused to give way, and sent him away empty. So Polyneikes went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastos the king of that country, and gathered together a great army under six great captains, himself going as the seventh, and led it against Thebes. And so they compassed it about, and at each of the seven gates of the city was stationed one of the divisions of the army._

_Note._—_The Seven against Thebes_ appears to have been produced B.C. 472, the year after _The Persians_.

THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

SCENE.—THEBES _in front of the Acropolis_

_Enter_ ETEOCLES, _and crowd of_ Theban Citizens.

_Eteoc._ Ye citizens of Cadmos, it behoves That one who standeth at the stern of State Guiding the helm, with eyes unclosed in sleep, Should speak the things that meet occasion's need. For should we prosper, God gets all the praise: But if (which God forbid!) disaster falls, Eteocles, much blame on one head falling, Would find his name the by-word of the State,[73] Sung in the slanderous ballads of the town; Yes, and with groanings, which may Zeus the Averter, True to his name, from us Cadmeians turn! But now 'tis meet for all, both him who fails 10 Of full-grown age, and him advanced in years, Yet boasting still a stalwart strength of frame, And each in life's full prime, as it is fit, The State to succour and the altars here Of these our country's Gods, that never more Their votive honours cease,—to help our sons, And Earth, our dearest mother and kind nurse; For she, when young ye crept her kindly plain, Bearing the whole charge of your nourishment, Reared you as denizens that bear the shield, That ye should trusty prove in this her need. 20 And now thus far God turns the scale for us; For unto us, beleaguered these long days, War doth in most things with God's help speed well, But now, as saith the seer, the augur skilled,[74] Watching with ear and mind, apart from fire, The birds oracular with mind unerring, He, lord and master of these prophet-arts, Says that the great attack of the Achæans This very night is talked of, and their plots Devised against the town. But ye, haste all Unto the walls and gateways of the forts; 30 Rush ye full-armed, and fill the outer space, And stand upon the platforms of the towers, And at the entrance of the gates abiding Be of good cheer, nor fear ye overmuch The host of aliens. Well will God work all. And I have sent my scouts and watchers forth, And trust their errand is no fruitless one. I shall not, hearing them, be caught with guile.

[_Exeunt_ Citizens.

_Enter one of the_ Scouts.

_Mess._ King of Cadmeians, great Eteocles, I from the army come with tidings clear, 40 And am myself eye-witness of its acts; For seven brave warriors, leading armèd bands, Cutting a bull's throat o'er a black-rimmed shield, And dipping in the bull's blood with their hands, Swore before Ares, Enyo,[75] murderous Fear, That they would bring destruction on our town, And trample under foot the tower of Cadmos, Or dying, with their own blood stain our soil; And they memorials for their sires at home Placed with their hands upon Adrastos' car,[76] 50 Weeping, but no wail uttering with their lips, For courage iron-hearted breathed out fire In manliness unconquered, as when lions Flash battle from their eyeballs. And report Of these things does not linger on the way. I left them casting lots, that each might take, As the lot fell, his station at the gate. Wherefore do thou our city's chosen ones Array with speed at entrance of the gates; For near already is the Argive host, Marching through clouds of dust, and whitening foam 60 Spots all the plain with drops from horses' mouths. And thou, as prudent helmsman of the ship, Guard thou our fortress ere the blasts of Ares Swoop on it wildly; for there comes the roar Of the land-wave of armies. And do thou Seize for these things the swiftest tide and time; And I, in all that comes, will keep my eye As faithful sentry; so through speech full clear, Thou, knowing all things yonder, shalt be safe.

[_Exit._

_Eteoc._ O Zeus and Earth, and all ye guardian Gods! Thou Curse and strong Erinnys of my sire! 70 Destroy ye not my city root and branch, With sore destruction smitten, one whose voice Is that of Hellas, nor our hearths and homes;[77] Grant that they never hold in yoke of bondage Our country free, and town of Cadmos named; But be ye our defence. I deem I speak Of what concerns us both; for still 'tis true, A prosperous city honours well the Gods. [_Exit._

_Enter Chorus of_ Theban Maidens _in solemn procession
as suppliants_

_Chor._ I in wild terror utter cries of woe; An army leaves its camp and is let loose: Hither the vanguard of the horsemen flows, 80 And the thick cloud of dust, That suddenly is seen, Dumb herald, yet full clear, Constrains me to believe; And smitten with the horses' hoofs, the plain Of this my country rings with noise of war; It floats and echoes round, Like voice of mountain torrent dashing down Resistless in its might. Ah Gods! Ah Goddesses! Ward off the coming woe. With battle-shout that rises o'er the walls, The host whose shields are white[78] 90 Marches in full array against our city. Who then, of all the Gods Or Goddesses, will come to help and save? Say, shall I fall before the shrines of Gods? O blessed Ones firm fixed! 'Tis time to clasp your sacred images. Why linger we in wailing overmuch? Hear ye, or hear ye not, the din of shields? When, if not now, shall we Engage in prayer with peplos and with boughs?[79] I hear a mighty sound; it is the din 100 Not of a single spear. O Ares! ancient guardian of our land! What wilt thou do? Wilt thou betray thy land? O God of golden casque, Look on our city, yea, with favour look, The city thou did'st love. And ye, ye Gods who o'er the city rule, Come all of you, come all. Behold the band of maidens suppliant, In fear of bondage foul; For now around the town The wave of warriors bearing slopèd crests, With blasts of Ares rushing, hoarsely sounds: 110 But thou, O Zeus! true father of us all, Ward off, ward off our capture by the foe.

STROPHE I

For Argives now surround the town of Cadmos, And dread of Ares' weapons falls on us; And, bound to horses' mouths, The bits and curbs ring music as of death; And seven chief rulers of the mighty host, With warriors' arms, at each of seven tall gates, Spear-armed and harnessed all, Stand, having cast their lots. · · · · ·

MESODE

And thou, O Zeus-born power in war delighting, 120 O Pallas! be our city's saviour now; And Thou who curb'st the steed, Great King of Ocean's waves, Poseidon, with thy trident fish-spear armed,[80] Give respite from our troubles, respite give! And Thou, O Ares, guard the town that takes Its name from Cadmos old,[81] Watch o'er it visibly.

ANTISTROPHE I

And thou, O Kypris, of our race the mother, Ward off these ills, for we are thine by blood: To thee in many a prayer, 130 With voice that calls upon the Gods we cry, And unto thee draw near as suppliants: And Thou, Lykeian king, Lykeian be,[82] Foe of our hated foes, For this our wailing cry; And Thou, O child of Leto, Artemis, Make ready now thy bow.

STROPHE II

Ah! ah! I hear a din of chariot wheels
Around the city walls;
O Hera great and dread!
The heavy axles of the chariots groan, 140
O Artemis beloved!
And the air maddens with the clash of spears;
What must our city bear?
What now shall come on us?
When will God give the end?

ANTISTROPHE II

Ah! ah! a voice of stones is falling fast
On battlements attacked;[83]
O Lord, Apollo loved,
A din of bronze-bound shields is in the gates;
And oh! that Zeus may give 150
A faultless issue of this war we wage!
And Thou, O blessed queen,
As Guardian Onca known,[84]
Save thy seven-gated seat.

STROPHE III

And ye, all-working Gods, Of either sex divine, Protectors of our towers, Give not our city, captured by the spear, To host of alien speech.[85] Hear ye our maidens; hear, 160 As is most meet, our prayers with outstretched hands.

ANTISTROPHE III

O all ye loving Powers, Compass our State to save; Show how that State ye love; Think on our public votive offerings, And as ye think, oh, help: Be mindful ye, I pray, Of all our city's rites of sacrifice.

_Re-enter_ ETEOCLES

_Eteoc._ (_to the Chorus_) I ask you, O ye brood intolerable, Is this course best and safest for our city? 170 Will it give heart to our beleaguered host, That ye before the forms of guardian Gods Should wail and howl, ye loathèd of the wise;[86] Ne'er be it mine, in ill estate or good, To dwell together with the race of women; For when they rule, their daring bars approach, And when they fear, alike to house and State Comes greater ill; and now with these your rushings Hither and thither, ye have troubled sore Our subjects with a coward want of heart; And do your best for those our foes without; 180 And we are harassed by ourselves within. This comes to one who dwells with womankind. And if there be that will not own my sway, Or man or woman in their prime, or those Who can be classed with neither, they shall take Their trial for their life, nor shall they 'scape The fate of stoning. Things outdoors are still The man's to look to: let not woman counsel. Stay thou within, and do no mischief more. Hear'st thou, or no? or speak I to the deaf?

STROPHE I

_Chor._ Dear son of Œdipus, 190 I shuddered as I heard the din, the din Of many a chariot's noise, When on the axles creaked the whirling wheels, *And when I heard the sound *Of fire-wrought curbs within the horses' mouths.

_Eteoc._ What then? Did ever yet the sailor flee From stern to stem, and find deliverance so, While his ship laboured in the ocean's wave?[87]

ANTISTROPHE I

_Chor._ Nay, to the ancient forms Of mighty Powers I rushed, as trusting Gods; And when behind the gates Was heard the crash of fierce and pelting storm, 200 Then was it, in my fear, I prayed the Blessed Ones to guard our city.

_Eteoc._ Pray that our towns hold out 'gainst spear of foes.[88]

_Chor._ Do not the Gods grant these things?

_Eteoc._ Nay the Gods, So say they, leave the captured city's walls.[89]

STROPHE II

_Chor._ Ah! never in my life May all this goodly company of Gods Depart; nor may I see This city scene of rushings to and fro, 210 *And hostile army burning it with fire!

_Eteoc._ Nay, call not on the Gods with counsel base; Obedience is the mother of success, Child strong to save. 'Tis thus the saying runs.

ANTISTROPHE II

_Chor._ True is it; but the Gods Have yet a mightier power, and oftentimes, In pressure of sore ill, It raises one perplexed from direst woe, When dark clouds gather thickly o'er his eyes.

_Eteoc._ 'Tis work of men to offer sacrifice And victims to the Gods, when foes press hard; 220 Thine to be dumb and keep within the house.

STROPHE III

_Chor._ 'Tis through the Gods we live In city unsubdued, and that our towers Ward off the multitude of jealous foes. What Power will grudge us this?

_Eteoc._ I grudge not your devotion to the Gods; But lest you make my citizens faint-hearted Be tranquil, nor to fear's excess give way.

ANTISTROPHE III

_Chor._ Hearing but now a din Strange, wildly mingled, I with shrinking fear Here to our city's high Acropolis, Time-hallowed spot, have come. 230

_Eteoc._ Nay, if ye hear of wounded men or dying, Bear them not swiftly off with wailing loud; *For blood of men is Ares' chosen food.[90]

_Chor._ Hark! now I hear the panting of the steeds.

_Eteoc._ Clear though thou hear, yet hear not overmuch.

_Chor._ Lo! from its depths the fortress groans, beleaguered.

_Eteoc._ It is enough that I provide for this.

_Chor._ I fear: the din increases at the gates.

_Eteoc._ Be still, say nought of these things in the city.

_Chor._ O holy Band![91] desert ye not our towers. 240

_Eteoc._ A curse fall on thee! wilt thou not be still?

_Chor._ Gods of my city, from the slave's lot save me!

_Eteoc._ 'Tis thou enslav'st thyself and all thy city.

_Chor._ Oh, turn thy darts, great Zeus, against our foes!

_Eteoc._ Oh, Zeus, what race of women thou hast given us!

_Chor._ A sorry race, like men whose city falls.

_Eteoc._ What? Cling to these statues, yet speak words of ill?

_Chor._ Fear hurries on my tongue in want of courage.

_Eteoc._ Could'st thou but grant one small boon at my prayer!250

_Chor._ Speak it out quickly, and I soon shall know.

_Eteoc._ Be still, poor fool, and frighten not thy friends.

_Chor._ Still am I, and with others bear our fate.

_Eteoc._ These words of thine I much prefer to those: And further, though no longer at the shrines, Pray thou for victory, that the Gods fight with us. And when my prayers thou hearest, then do thou Raise a loud, welcome, holy pæan-shout, The Hellenes' wonted cry at sacrifice; So cheer thy friends, and check their fear of foes; And I unto our country's guardian Gods, 260 Who hold the plain or watch the agora, The springs of Dirkè, and Ismenos' stream;— If things go well, and this our city's saved,— I vow that staining with the blood of sheep The altar-hearths of Gods, or slaying bulls, We'll fix our trophies, and our foemen's robes On the spear's point on consecrated walls, Before the shrines I'll hang.[92] Pray thou this prayer, Not weakly wailing, nor with vain wild sobs, For no whit more thou'lt 'scape thy destined lot: 270 And I six warriors, with myself as seventh, Against our foes in full state like their own, Will station at the seven gates' entrances, Ere hurrying heralds and swift-rushing words Come and inflame them in the stress of need. [_Exit_

STROPHE I

_Chor._ My heart is full of care and knows not sleep,
By panic fear o'ercome;
And troubles throng my soul,
And set a-glow my dread
Of the great host encamped around our walls,
As when a trembling dove
Fears, for her callow brood, 280
The snakes that come, ill mates for her soft nest;
For some upon our towers
March in full strength of mingled multitude;
And what will me befall?
And others on our men on either hand
Hurl rugged blocks of stone.
In every way, ye Zeus-born Gods, defend 290
The city and the host
That Cadmos claim as sire.

ANTISTROPHE I

What better land will ye receive for this,
If ye to foes resign
This rich and fertile clime,
And that Dirkæan stream,
Goodliest of founts by great Poseidon sent,
Who circleth earth, or those
Who Tethys parent call?[93] 300
And therefore, O ye Gods that guard our city,
Sending on those without
Our towers a woe that robs men of their life,
And makes them lose their shield,
Gain glory for these countrymen of mine;
And take your standing-ground,
As saviours of the city, firm and true,
In answer to our cry
Of wailing and of prayer.

STROPHE II

For sad it were to hurl to Hades dark
A city of old fame, 310
The spoil and prey of war,
With foulest shame in dust and ashes laid,
By an Achæan foe at God's decree;
And that our women, old and young alike,
Be dragged away, ah me!
Like horses, by their hair
Their robes torn off from them.
And lo, the city wails, made desolate,
While with confusèd cry 320
The wretched prisoners meet doom worse than death.
Ah, at this grievous fate
I shudder ere it comes.

ANTISTROPHE II

And piteous 'tis for those whose youth is fresh
Before the rites that cull
Their fair and first-ripe fruit,
To take a hateful journey from their homes.
Nay, but I say the dead far better fare
Than these, for when a city is subdued
It bears full many an ill.
This man takes prisoner that, 330
Or slays, or burns with fire;
And all the city is defiled with smoke,
And Ares fans the flame
In wildest rage, and laying many low,
Tramples with foot unclean
On all men sacred hold.

STROPHE III

And hollow din is heard throughout the town,
Hemmed in by net of towers;
And man by man is slaughtered with the spear,
And cries of bleeding babes,
Of children at the breast, 340
Are heard in piteous wail,
And rapine, sister of the plunderer's rush,
Spoiler with spoiler meets,
And empty-handed empty-handed calls,
Wishing for share of gain,
Both eager for a portion no whit less,
For more than equal lot
With what they deem the others' hands have found.

ANTISTROPHE III

And all earth's fruits cast wildly on the ground, 350
Meeting the cheerless eye
Of frugal housewives, give them pain of heart;
And many a gift of earth
In formless heaps is whirled
In waves of nothingness;
And the young maidens know a sorrow new;
For now the foe prevails,
And gains rich prize of wretched captive's bed; 360
And now their only hope
Is that the night of death will come at last,
Their truest, best ally,
To rescue them from sorrow fraught with tears.

_Enter_ ETEOCLES, _followed by his_ Chief Captains,
_and by the_ Scout

_Semi-Chor. A._ The army scout, so deem I, brings to us, Dear friends, some tidings new, with quickest speed Plying the nimble axles of his feet.

_Semi-Chor. B._ Yea, the king's self, the son of Œdipus, Is nigh to hear the scout's exact report; And haste denies him too an even step.

_Mess._ I knowing well, will our foes' state report, 370 How each his lot hath stationed at the gates. At those of Prœtos, Tydeus thunders loud, And him the prophet suffers not to cross Ismenos' fords, the victims boding ill.[94] And Tydeus, raging eager for the fight, Shouts like a serpent in its noontide scream, And on the prophet, Œcleus' son, heaps shame, That he, in coward fear, doth crouch and fawn Before the doom and peril of the fight. And with such speech he shakes his triple crest, O'ershadowing all his helm, and 'neath his shield 380 Bells wrought in bronze ring out their chimes of fear; And on his shield he bears this proud device,— A firmament enchased, all bright with stars;[95] And in the midst the full moon's glittering orb, Sovran of stars and eye of Night, shines forth. And thus exulting in o'er boastful arms, By the stream's bank he shouts in lust of war, [E'en as a war-horse panting in his strength Against the curb that galls him, who at sound Of trumpet's clang chafes hotly.] Whom wilt thou Set against him? Who is there strong enough When the bolts yield, to guard the Prœtan gates? 390

_Eteoc._ No fear have I of any man's array; Devices have no power to pierce or wound, And crest and bells bite not without a spear; And for this picture of the heavens at night, Of which thou tellest, glittering on his shield, *Perchance his madness may a prophet prove; For if night fall upon his dying eyes, Then for the man who bears that boastful sign It may right well be all too truly named, 400 And his own pride shall prophet be of ill. And against Tydeus, to defend the gates, I'll set this valiant son of Astacos; Noble is he, and honouring well the throne Of Reverence, and hating vaunting speech, Slow to all baseness, unattuned to ill: And of the dragon-race that Ares spared[96] He as a scion grows, a native true, E'en Melanippos; Ares soon will test His valour in the hazard of the die: And kindred Justice sends him forth to war, For her that bore him foeman's spear to check. 410

STROPHE I

_Chor._ May the Gods grant my champion good success!
For justly he goes forth
For this our State to fight;
But yet I quake with fear
To see the deaths of those who die for friends.

_Mess._ Yea, may the Gods give good success to him! The Electran gates have fallen to Capaneus, A second giant, taller far than he Just named, with boast above a mortal's bounds; And dread his threats against our towers (O Fortune, 420 Turn them aside!)—for whether God doth will, Or willeth not, he says that he will sack[97] The city, nor shall e'en the wrath of Zeus, On the plain swooping, turn him from his will; And the dread lightnings and hot thunderbolts He likens to the heat of noon-day sun. And his device, the naked form of one Who bears a torch; and bright the blaze shines forth And in gold characters he speaks the words, “THE CITY I WILL BURN.” Against this man Send forth ... but who will meet him in the fight? 430 Who, without fear, await this warrior proud?

_Eteoc._ Herein, too, profit upon profit comes; And 'gainst the vain and boastful thoughts of men, Their tongue itself is found accuser true. Threatening, equipped for work is Capaneus, Scorning the Gods: and giving speech full play, And in wild joy, though mortal, vents at Zeus, High in the heavens, loud-spoken foaming words. And well I trust on him shall rightly come Fire-bearing thunder, nothing likened then To heat of noon-day sun. And so 'gainst him, 440 Though very bold of speech, a man is set Of fiery temper, Polyphontes strong, A trusty bulwark, by the loving grace Of guardian Artemis[98] and other Gods. Describe another, placed at other gates.

ANTISTROPHE I

_Chor._ A curse on him who 'gainst our city boasts!
May thunder smite him down 450
Before he force his way
Into my home, and drive
Me from my maiden bower with haughty spear?

_Mess._ And now I'll tell of him who by the gates Stands next; for to Eteocles, as third, To march his cohort to Neïstian gates, Leaped the third lot from upturned brazen helm: And he his mares, in head-gear snorting, whirls, Full eager at the gates to fall and die; Their whistling nozzles of barbaric mode, Are filled with loud blast of the panting nostrils.[99] In no poor fashion is his shield devised; 460 A full-armed warrior climbs a ladder's rungs, And mounts his foeman's towers as bent to sack; And he too cries, in words of written speech, That “NOT E'EN ARES FROM THE TOWERS SHALL DRIVE HIM.” Send thou against him some defender true, To ward the yoke of bondage from our State.

_Eteoc._ Such would I send now; by good luck indeed He has been sent, his vaunting in his deeds, Megareus, Creon's son, who claims descent From those as Sparti known, and not by noise Of neighings loud of warlike steeds dismayed, 470 Will he the gates abandon, but in death Will pay our land his nurture's debt in full,[100] Or taking two men, and a town to boot, (That on the shield,) will deck his father's house With those his trophies. Of another tell The bragging tale, nor grudge thy words to me.

STROPHE II

_Chor._ Him I wish good success, O guardian of my home, and for his foes All ill success I pray; And since against our land their haughty words With maddened soul they speak, May Zeus, the sovran judge, With fiery, hot displeasure look on them! 480

_Mess._ Another stands as fourth at gates hard by, Onca-Athenà's, with a shout of war, Hippomedon's great form and massive limbs; And as he whirled his orb, his vast shield's disk, I shuddered; yea, no idle words I speak. No cheap and common draughtsman sure was he Who wrought this cunning ensign on his shield: Typhon emitting from his lips hot blast Of darkling smoke, the flickering twin of fire: And round the belly of the hollow shield A rim was made with wreaths of twisted snakes. 490 And he too shouts his war-cry, and in frenzy, As man possessed by Ares, hastes to battle, Like Thyiad, darting terror from his eyes.[101] 'Gainst such a hero's might we well may guard; Already at the gates men brag of rout.

_Eteoc._ First, the great Onca-Pallas, dwelling nigh Our city's gates, and hating man's bold pride, Shall ward him from her nestlings like a snake Of venom dread; and next Hyperbios, The stalwart son of Œnops, has been chosen, 500 A hero 'gainst this hero, willing found To try his destiny at Fortune's hest. No fault has he in form, or heart, or arms; And Hermes with good reason pairs them off; For man with man will fight as enemy, And on their shields they'll bring opposing Gods; For this man beareth Typhon, breathing fire, And on Hyperbios' shield sits father Zeus, Full firm, with burning thunderbolt in hand; And never yet has man seen Zeus, I trow, O'ercome. Such then the favour of the Gods, 510 We with the winners, they with losers are:[102] Good reason then the rivals so should fare, If Zeus than Typhon stronger be in fight, And to Hyperbios Zeus will saviour prove, As that device upon his shield presents him.

ANTISTROPHE II

_Chor._ Now do I trust that he Who bears upon his shield the hated form Of Power whom Earth doth shroud, Antagonist to Zeus, unloved by men And by the ageless Gods, Before those gates of ours To his own hurt may dash his haughty head. 520

_Mess._ So may it be! And now the fifth I tell, Who the fifth gates, the Northern, occupies, Hard by Amphion's tomb, the son of Zeus; And by his spear he swears, (which he is bold To honour more than God or his own eyes,) That he will sack the fort of the Cadmeians With that spear's might. So speaks the offspring fair Of mother mountain-bred, a stripling hero; And the soft down is creeping o'er his cheeks, 530 Youth's growth, and hair that floweth full and thick; And he with soul, not maiden's like his name,[103] But stern, with flashing eye, is standing there. Nor stands he at the gate without a vaunt; For on his brass-wrought buckler, strong defence, Full-orbed, his body guarding, he the shame Of this our city bears, the ravenous Sphinx, With rivets fixed, all burnished and embossed;[104] And under her she holdeth a Cadmeian, That so on him most arrows might be shot. No chance that he will fight a peddling fight, 540 Nor shame the long, long journey he hath come, Parthenopæos, in Arcadia born: This man did Argos welcome as a guest, And now he pays her for her goodly rearing, And threatens these our towers with ... God avert it!

_Eteoc._ Should the Gods give them what they plan 'gainst us, Then they, with those their godless boastings high, Would perish shamefully and utterly. And for this man of Arcady thou tell'st of, We have a man who boasts not, but his hand Sees the right thing to do;—Actôr, of him 550 I named but now the brother,—who no tongue Divorced from deeds will ever let within Our gates, to spread and multiply our ills, Nor him who bears upon his foeman's shield The image of the hateful venomed beast; But she without shall blame him as he tries To take her in, when she beneath our walls Gets sorely bruised and battered.[105] And herein, If the Gods will, I prophet true shall prove.

STROPHE III

_Chor._ Thy words thrill through my breast;
My hair stands all on end,
To hear the boastings great
Of those who speak great things 560
Unholy. May the Gods
Destroy them in our land!

_Mess._ A sixth I tell of, one of noblest mood, Amphiaraos, seer and warrior famed; He, stationed at the Homolôian gates, Reproves the mighty Tydeus with sharp words As 'murderer,' and 'troubler of the State,'[106] 'To Argos teacher of all direst ills, Erinnys' sumpnour,'[107] 'murder's minister,' 570 Whose counsels led Adrastos to these ills. *And at thy brother Polyneikes glancing With eyes uplifted for his father's fate, And ending, twice he syllabled his name,[108] And called him, and thus speaketh with his lips:— “A goodly deed, and pleasant to the Gods, Noble for after age to hear and tell, Thy father's city and thy country's Gods To waste through might of mercenary host! And how shall Justice stay thy mother's tears?[109] 580 And how, when conquered, shall thy fatherland, Laid waste, become a true ally to thee? As for myself, I shall that land make rich,[110] A prophet buried in a foeman's soil: To arms! I look for no inglorious death.” So spake the prophet, bearing full-orbed shield Wrought all of bronze, no ensign on that orb. He wishes to be just, and not to seem,[111] Reaping full harvest from his soul's deep furrows, Whence ever new and noble counsels spring. 590 I bid thee send defenders wise and brave Against him. Dread is he who fears the Gods.

_Eteoc._ Fie on the chance that brings the righteous man Close-mated with the ungodly! In all deeds Nought is there worse than evil fellowship, A crop men should not reap. Death still is found The harvest of the field of frenzied pride; For either hath the godly man embarked With sailors hot in insolence and guile,[112] And perished with the race the Gods did loathe; 600 Or just himself, with citizens who wrong The stranger and are heedless of the Gods, Falling most justly in the self-same snare, By God's scourge smitten, shares the common doom. And thus this seer I speak of, Œcleus' son, Righteous, and wise, and good, and reverent, A mighty prophet, mingling with the godless *And men full bold of speech in reason's spite, Who take long march to reach a far-off city,[113] If Zeus so will, shall be hurled down with them. 610 And he, I trow, shall not draw nigh the gates, Not through faint-heart or any vice of mood, But well he knows this war shall bring his death, If any fruit is found in Loxias' words; And He or holds his speech or speaks in season. Yet against him the hero Lasthenes, A foe of strangers, at the gates we'll set; Old in his mind, his body in its prime, His eye swift-footed, and his hand not slow To grasp the spear from 'neath the shield laid bare:[114] 620 Yet 'tis by God's gift men must win success.

ANTISTROPHE III

_Chor._ Hear, O ye Gods! our prayers,
Our just entreaties grant,
That so our State be blest.
Turn ye the toils of war
Upon the invading host.
Outside the walls may Zeus
With thunder smite them low!