Seven Against Thebes
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Eteocles
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Here too gain follows with interest from gain.Tydeus’ insolence (l. 387) was gain to our cause; to it is now added that of Capaneus, which is like money put out at interest (τόκος). The tongue proves in the end to be an unerring accuser of men’s wicked thoughts.
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Capaneus makes his threats, ready to act, irreverent toward the gods, and giving his tongue full exercise in wicked glee, he, though a mere mortal, sends a loud and swollen boast to Zeus in heaven. But I trust that the fire-bearing thunderbolt will justly come to him,
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and when it comes it will not be anything like the sun’s mid-day heat. And against him, even though he is a big talker, a man of fiery spirit, mighty Polyphontes, is stationed, a dependable sentinel
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with the good will of guardian Artemis and the other gods. Now tell me about another one allotted to other gates! Exit Polyphontes.
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Chorus
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Death to him who exults so arrogantly over the city! May the thunderbolt stop him before he leaps into my home
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and plunders me from my maiden chambers with his outrageous spear!
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Scout
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Now I will tell you about the man who next drew station at the gates. The third lot leaped out of the upturned bronze helmet for Eteoclus,
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to hurl his band against the Neistan gates. He whirls his horses as they snort through their bridles, eager to fall against the gate. Their muzzles whistle in a barbarian way, filled with the breath of their haughty nostrils.
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His shield is decorated in great style: an armored man climbs a ladder’s rungs to mount an enemy tower that he wants to destroy. This one, too, shouts in syllables of written letters that even Ares could not hurl him from the battlements.
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Send a dependable opponent against this man, too, to keep the yoke of slavery from our city.
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Eteocles
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I would send this man here, and with good fortune. Exit Megareus. Indeed, he has already been sent, his only boast in his hands, Megareus, Creon’s seed, of the race of the sown- men.
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He will not withdraw from the gate in fear of the thunder of the horses’ furious snorting; but either he will die and pay the earth the full price of his nurture, or will capture two men and the city on the shield, and then adorn his father’s house with the spoils.
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Tell me about another’s boasts and do not begrudge me the full tale!
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Scout
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Last I will tell of the seventh champion, him at the seventh gate,The ominous seventh is substituted for the Highest (Ὕψισται). your own brother, and of what fate he prays for and calls down on the city. His prayer is that after he mounts the battlements and is proclaimed king in the land,
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and shouts the paian in triumph over its capture, he may then meet you in combat, and once he kills you, that he may perish at your side, or, if you survive, make you pay with banishment in the same way as you dishonored him with exile. Mighty Polynices shouts such threats and
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invokes his native gods, the gods of his fatherland, to watch over his prayers in every way. He holds a shield, a perfect circle, newly-made, with a double symbol cleverly fastened on it:
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a woman modestly walking in the fore leads a man in arms made, it appears, of hammered gold. She claims to be Justice, as the lettering indicates, I will bring this man back and he will have his city and move freely in his father’s halls. Such are the inventions fixed to their shields.
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Quickly determine yourself whom you think it best to send. Know that you will find no fault with me in the substance of my report, but you yourself determine on what course to pilot the city. Exit.
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Eteocles
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O my family sired by Oedipus, steeped in tears,
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driven to madness by the gods and by the gods detested! Ah, now indeed our father’s curses are brought to fulfillment. But neither weeping nor wailing is proper for me now, lest a grief even harder to bear is brought to life. As for him whose name is so very fitting, Polynices, we shall know soon enough what the symbol on his shield will accomplish,
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whether the babbling letters shaped in gold on his shield, together with his mind’s wanderings, will bring him back. If Justice, Zeus’s maiden daughter, were attending his actions and his thoughts, this might be so. But as it is, neither when he escaped the darkness of his mother’s womb,
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nor in childhood, nor at any point in his early manhood, nor when the beard first thickened on his cheek, did Justice acknowledge him and consider him worthy. And even now I do not think that she is standing by his side to aid the destruction of his fatherland.
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Indeed, Justice would truly be false to her name, if she should ally herself with a man so utterly audacious in his plans. Trusting in this fact I will go and stand against him—I myself in person. Who else has a more just claim? Commander against commander, brother against brother,
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enemy against enemy, I will take my stand. Quick, bring my greaves to protect against spears and stones!
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Chorus
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No, son of Oedipus, most dear of our men, do not be like in temperament to him who is called by such an evil name. It is enough that Cadmeans
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are advancing to close combat with Argives. That bloodshed can be expiated. But when men of the same blood kill each other as you desire, the pollution from this act never grows old.
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Eteocles
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If indeed a man should suffer evil, let it be without dishonor, since that is the only benefit for the dead.
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But you cannot speak of any glory for happenings that are at once evil and held in dishonor.
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Chorus
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For what are you so eager, child? Do not let mad lust for battle fill your soul and carry you away. Reject this evil passion while it is still young.
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Eteocles
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Since God hastens the deed so urgently,
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let the whole race of Laius, hated by Phoebus, be swept on the wind to Cocytus’ destined flood!
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Chorus
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A savage desire eats away at you, drives you to murder, blood-sacrifice proscribed by divine law, whose only fruit is bitterness.
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Eteocles
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True, my own beloved father’s hateful, ruinous curse hovers before my dry, unweeping eyes, and informs me of benefit preceding subsequent death.Literally gain coming before death that comes later. The curse whispers slay him, then be slain yourself.
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Chorus
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Obey us women, although you do not like to.
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Eteocles
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Recommend something that can be accomplished; your request need not be lengthy.
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Chorus
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Do not yourself take the road to the seventh gate!
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Eteocles
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Let me assure you, you will not blunt my sharpened purpose with words.
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Chorus
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And yet any victory, even a cowardly one, is nonetheless held in honor by God.
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Eteocles
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A soldier must not embrace that maxim.
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Chorus
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But are you willing to harvest the blood of your own brother?
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Eteocles
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When it is the gods who give you evils, you cannot flee them. Exit.
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Chorus
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I shudder in terror at the goddess who lays ruin to homes, a goddess unlike other divinities, who is an unerring omen of evil to come. I shudder that the Erinys invoked by the father’s prayer will fulfil the over-wrathful
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curses that Oedipus spoke in madness. This strife that will destroy his sons drives the Erinys to fulfillment.
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Chorus
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A stranger distributes their inheritance, a Chalybian immigrant from Scythia, a bitter divider of wealth,
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savage-hearted iron that apportions land for them to dwell in, as much as they can occupy in death when they have lost their share in these wide plains.
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Messenger
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Take heart, you daughters who were nurtured by your mother. Our city has escaped the yoke of slavery; the boasts of the powerful men have fallen to the ground.
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The city enjoys fair weather and has taken on no water even though it has been buffeted by many waves. The walls hold, and we have fortified the gates with champions fully capable in single-handed combat. For the most part all is well, at six of the gates.
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But lord Apollo, the reverend leader of the seventh,An obscure designation of Apollo, often referred to the tradition that he was born on the seventh day. The adjective looks like a military title, but divisions of seven were unknown. took for himself the seventh gate, accomplishing upon the children of Oedipus the ancient follies of Laius.
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Chorus
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What novel happening will further affect the city?
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Messenger
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The city is saved, but the kings born of the same seed—
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Chorus
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Who? What did you say? I am out of my mind with fear of your report.
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Messenger
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Control yourself now and listen. The sons of Oedipus—
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Chorus
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Ah, miserable me, I am prophet of these evils.
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Messenger
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In truth, beyond all question, struck down in the dust—
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Chorus
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Are they lying out there? This is hard to bear, but say it just the same.
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Messenger
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The men are dead, murdered by their very own hands.
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Chorus
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Then with hands so fraternal did they each kill the other together?
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Messenger
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Yes, so all too equal was their destiny to them both. All alone, in truth, it consumes the ill-fated family. We have cause in this for joy and tears—
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the one because the city fares well, the other because the leaders, the two generals, have divided the whole of their property with hammered Scythian steel. They will possess only that land they take in burial, swept away as they were in accordance with their father’s curses.
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The city is saved, but through their mutual murder the earth has drunk the blood of the two kings born of the same seed. Exit.
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Chorus
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O great Zeus and the divine powers that guard our city, you who indeed protect these walls of Cadmus,
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should I rejoice and shout in triumph for the unharmed safety of the city, or should I lament our leaders in war,
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now wretched, ill-fated and childless? Indeed, in exact accordance with their name and as men of much strife, they have perished through their impious intent.
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Chorus
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O black curse on the family, Oedipus’ curse, now brought to fulfillment! A chill of horror falls about my heart.
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In frenzy like a maenad I make my song for the grave as I hear of their corpses dripping with blood, how they died through the workings of cruel fate. This song of the spear, sung to the flute, is indeed born of an ill omen.This passage has also been taken to deprecate as inauspicious the previous ode (720 ff.) because it was sung during the combat of the brothers: It was for a tomb I framed my song when, inspired by frenzy, I heard (prophetically) . . . Ill-omened, indeed, the contest of the spear to such an accompaniment.
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Chorus
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The curseful utterance of their father has done its work and not fallen short. Laius’ plans, made in disobedience, have kept their force. I am anxious for our city; divine decrees do not lose their edge. The funeral procession with the bodies of the brothers comes into view.
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Chorus
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O bringers of immense grief, you have done in this a deed beyond belief, yet lamentable troubles have indeed come.
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The events are self-evident; the messenger’s report is plain to see. Twofold is our distress—double disaster
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of kindred murder, this double suffering has come to fulfillment. What shall I say? What else indeed than that sorrow born of sorrows surround this house’s hearth? But sail upon the wind of lamentation, my friends,
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and about your head row with your hands’ rapid stroke in conveyance of the dead,As the souls of the brothers are now being conveyed across Acheron in Charon’s boat, the Chorus in imagination aid their passage by the ritual of mourning. Their song of lamentation stands for the wind, the beating of their heads by their hands are the strokes of the oars. Contrasted with the grim vessel that transports all spirits to the sunless land of Hades, is the ship that goes to the festival at Delos, the clearly-seen island, the land of Apollo, god of light and health. that stroke which always causes the sacred slack-sailed, black-clothed ship to pass over Acheron to the unseen land where Apollo does not walk,
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the sunless land that receives all men. But here come Antigone and Ismene to do their bitter duty, the dirge over their brothers both. With all sincerity, I think, will they
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pour forth their fitting grief from their lovely, deep-bosomed breasts. But it is right for us, before their singing, to cry out the awful hymn of the Erinys and thereafter
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sing the hated victory song of Hades. Ah, sisters most unfortunate in your kin of all women who clasp their girdle about their robes, I weep, I groan, and there is no feigning in the shrill cries that come straight from my heart.
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Chorus
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Ah, pity you senseless men, whom friends could not persuade and evils could not wear down! To your misery you have captured your father’s house with the spear.
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Chorus
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To their misery, indeed,
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they found a miserable death in the outrage done their house.
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Ah, you brothers who were poised to cast over the walls of your home and looked—to your sorrow—for sole rule, now you have been
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reconciled by the iron sword. The great Erinys of your father Oedipus has fulfilled it all truly.
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Antigone
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You were struck as you struck.
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Antigone
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By the spear you killed—
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Ismene
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By the spear you died—
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Antigone
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Your deed made you wretched.
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Ismene
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You suffering made you wretched.
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Antigone
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Let the lament come.
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Ismene
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Let the tears come.
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Antigone
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You are laid out for mourning—
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Ismene
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Though you did the killing.
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Antigone
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Ah me!
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Ismene
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Ah me!
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Antigone
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My heart is mad with wailing.
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Ismene
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My heart groans within me.
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Antigone
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Ah, the grief, brother all-lamentable.
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Ismene
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And you also, brother all-wretched.
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Antigone
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You perished at the hands of your nearest and dearest.
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Ismene
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And you killed your nearest and dearest.
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Antigone
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Twofold to tell of—
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Ismene
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Twofold to look upon—
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Antigone
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Are these sorrows so close to those.
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Ismene
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Fraternal sorrows stand close by fraternal sorrows.
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Chorus
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O Fate, giver of grievous troubles, and awful shade of Oedipus, black Erinys, you are indeed a mighty force.