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had only been adopted by him being
childless. But coming to misdoubt his parentage, Oedipus journeyed to Delphi to
seek the truth; and when the god declared that he should slay his own father
and marry his own mother, he sought to flee such a fate and betake himself far
from the land wherein he thought his father and his mother dwelt. But it befell
as the god had said: on the way he met and slew, unbeknown to himself, his
father Laïus: he came to Thebes, destroyed the monster Sphinx that mad havoc on
the land, married the Queen, even his mother, and begat two sons, Eteocles and
Polynices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. But when the truth stood
revealed, his mother-wife hung herself, and Oedipus stabbed his eyes that they
might not look on the misery he had wrought. And it came to pass that his sons,
who ruled in his stead alternately, each the space of a year, treated him sore
ill, so he cursed them and declared they should divide their inheritance by the
sword. Eteocles would not suffer his brother to have his time to rule; and to
enforce his right Polynices, who had fled to Adrastus, King of Argos, and
married the daughter of that prince, mustered a host and sought to take his
native town.
    At this point the
action of the play begins. Warned by the seer Teiresias that the Argives are
bent on a supreme assault, Eteocles heartens the burghers, quells the outcries
of the daughters of Thebes,
frantic at their impending danger, and receives the tidings from a scout that
the enemy is advancing against the seven gates. To each of the opposing
chieftains as they are described by the scout Eteocles opposes a worthy
antagonist, nor will he himself hold back from encountering his brother when he
learns that he is to attack the seventh gate. The curse of his father must not
stand before a soldier’s honour. And so the brothers fell, each by the other’s
hand, and the curse of Oedipus and the warning of Apollo to Laïus were
fulfilled.

SEVEN AGAINST THEBE S
    [ A large
gathering of citizens of Thebes.
Enter Eteocles with attendants. ]
    ETEOCLES
[1] Men of
Cadmus’s city, he who guards from the stern the concerns of the State and
guides its helm with eyes untouched by sleep must speak to the point. For if we
succeed, the responsibility is heaven’s; but if — may it not happen — disaster
is our lot, Eteocles would be the one name shouted many times throughout the
city in the citizens’ resounding uproars and laments. From these evils may Zeus
the Defender, upholding his name, shield the city of the Cadmeans!
    [10]  But now you
— both he who is still short of his youthful prime, and he who, though past his
prime, still strengthens the abundant growth of his body, and every man still
in his prime, as is fitting — you must aid the State and the altars of your
homeland’s gods so that their honors may never be obliterated. You must aid,
too, your children, and Mother Earth, your beloved nurse. For welcoming all the
distress of your childhood, when you were young and crept upon her kind soil,
she raised you to inhabit her and bear the shield, and to prove yourselves
faithful in this time of need. And so, until today, God has been favorably
inclined, for though we have long been under siege, the war has gone well for
the most part through the gods’ will. But now, as the seer, the herdsman of
birds, informs us, using his ears and his mind to understand with unerring
skill the prophetic birds unaided by sacrificial fire — he, master of such
prophecy, declares that the greatest Argive attack is being planned in night
assembly and that they will make plans to capture our city. Hurry each of you
to the battlements and the gates of our towered walls! Rush with all your
armor! Fill the parapets and take your positions on the platforms of the
towers. Stand your ground bravely where the gates open out, and do not be
afraid of this crowd of foreigners. God will bring it to a good end.
    [36] I myself have
dispatched scouts and