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    The Seven Against Thebes
    The Seven Against Thebes
    The Seven Against Thebes
    Ebook54 pages33 minutes

    The Seven Against Thebes

    By Aeschylus

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    When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their kingdom by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives captained by the eponymous Seven to take Thebes by force. This is where Aeschylus' tragedy starts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateOct 19, 2016
    ISBN9781911535751

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      Book preview

      The Seven Against Thebes - Aeschylus

      THEBES

      THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      ETEOCLES, son of Oedipus, King of Thebes

      A SPY

      CHORUS OF THEBAN WOMEN

      ANTIGONE

      ISMENE

      sisters of ETEOCLES

      A HERALD

      SCENE

      Within the Citadel of Thebes. There is an altar with the statues of several gods visible. A crowd of citizens are present as ETEOCLES enters with his attendants.

      ETEOCLES

      Clansmen of Cadmus, at the signal given

      By time and season must the ruler speak

      Who sets the course and steers the ship of State

      With hand upon the tiller, and with eye

      Watchful against the treachery of sleep.

      For if all go aright, thank Heaven, men say,

      But if adversely-which may God forefend!-

      One name on many lips, from street to street,

      Would bear the bruit and rumour of the time,

      Down witk Eteocles!-a clamorous curse,

      A dirge of ruin. May averting Zeus

      Make good his title here, in Cadmus’ hold!

      You it beseems now-boys unripened yet

      To lusty manhood, men gone past the prime

      And increase of the full begetting seed,

      And those whom youth and manhood well combined

      Array for action-all to rise in aid

      Of city, shrines, and altars of all powers

      Who guard our land; that ne’er, to end of time,

      Be blotted out the sacred service due

      To our sweet mother-land and to her brood.

      For she it was who to their guest-right called

      Your waxing youth, was patient of the toil,

      And cherished you on the land’s gracious lap,

      Alike to plant the hearth and bear the shield

      In loyal service, for an hour like this.

      Mark now! until to-day, luck rules our scale;

      For we, though long beleaguered, in the main

      Have with our sallies struck the foemen hard.

      But now the seer, the feeder of the birds

      (Whose art unerring and prophetic skill

      Of ear and mind divines their utterance

      Without the lore of fire interpreted)

      Foretelleth, by the mastery of his art,

      That now an onset of Achaea’s host

      Is by a council of the night designed

      To fall in double strength upon our walls.

      Up and away, then, to the battlements,

      The gates, the bulwarks! don your panoplies,

      Array you at the breast-work, take your stand

      On the floorings of the towers, and with good heart

      Stand firm for sudden sallies at the gates,

      Nor hold too heinous a respect for hordes

      Sent on you from afar: some god will guard!

      I too, for shrewd espial of their camp,

      Have sent forth scouts, and confidence is mine

      They will not fail nor tremble at their task,

      And, with their news, I fear no foeman’s guile.

      A Spy enters.

      THE SPY

      Eteocles, high king of Cadmus’ folk,

      I stand here with news certified and sure

      From Argos’ camp, things by myself descried.

      Seven warriors yonder, doughty chiefs

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