Nay, more-that pageant of which thou tellest-The nightly sky displayed, ablaze with stars, Upon his shield, palters with double sense One headstrong fool will find its truth anon!
For, if night fall upon his eyes in death, Yon vaunting blazon will its own truth prove, And he is prophet of his folly's fall.
Mine shall it be, to pit against his power The loyal son of Astacus, as guard To hold the gateways-a right valiant soul, Who has in heed the throne of Modesty And loathes the speech of Pride, and evermore Shrinks from the base, but knows no other fear.
He springs by stock from those whom Ares spared, The men called Sown, a right son of the soil, And Melanippus styled.Now, what his arm To-day shall do, rests with the dice of war, And Ares shall ordain it; but his cause Hath the true badge of Right, to urge him on To guard, as son, his motherland from wrong.
(MELANIPPUS goes out.)
CHORUS (chanting)
Then may the gods give fortune fair Unto our chief, sent forth to dare War's terrible arbitrament!
But ah! when champions wend away, I shudder, lest, from out the fray, Only their blood-stained wrecks be sent!
THE SPY
Nay, let him pass, and the gods' help be his!
Next, Capaneus comes on, by lot to lead The onset at the gates Electran styled:
A giant be, more huge than Tydeus' self, And more than human in his arrogance-May fate forefend his threat against our walls!
God willing, or unwilling-such his vaunt-I will lay waste this city; Pallas' self, Zeus's warrior maid, although she swoop to earth And plant her in my path, shall stay me not.
And, for the flashes of the levin-bolt, He holds them harmless as the noontide rays.
Mark, too, the symbol on his shield-a man Scornfully weaponless but torch in hand, And the flame glows witbin his grasp, prepared For ravin: lo, the legend, wrought in words, Fire for the city bring I, flares in gold!
Against such wight, send forth-yet whom? what man Will front that vaunting figure and not fear?
ETEOCLES
Aha, this profits also, gain on gain!
In sooth, for mortals, the tongue's utterance Bewrays unerringly a foolish pride!
Hither stalks Capaneus, with vaunt and threat Defying god-like powers, equipt to act, And, mortal though he be, he strains his tongue In folly's ecstasy, and casts aloft High swelling words against the ears of Zeus.
Right well I trust-if justice grants the word-That, by the might of Zeus, a bolt of flame In more than semblance shall descend on him.
Against his vaunts, though reckless, I have set, To make assurance sure, a warrior stern-Strong Polyphontes, fervid for the fray;-A sturdy bulwark, he, by grace of Heaven And favour of his champion Artemis!
Say on, who holdeth the next gate in ward?
(POLYPHONTES goes out.)
CHORUS (chanting)
Perish the wretch whose vaunt affronts our home!
On him the red bolt come, Ere to the maiden bowers his way he cleave, To ravage and bereave!
THE SPY
I will say on.Eteoclus is third-
To him it fell, what time the third lot sprang O'er the inverted helmet's brazen rim, To dash his stormers on Neistae gate.
He wheels his mares, who at their frontlets chafe And yearn to charge upon the gates amain.
They snort the breath of pride, and, filled therewith, Their nozzles whistle with barbaric sound.
High too and haughty is his shield's device-An armed man who climbs, from rung to rung, A scaling ladder, up a hostile wall, Afire to sack and slay; and he too cries (By letters, full of sound, upon the shield)Not Ares' self shall cast me from the wall.
Look to it, send, against this man, a man Strong to debar the slave's yoke from our town.
ETEOCLES (pointing to MEGAREUS)
Send will I-even this man, with luck to aid-(MEGAREUS departs as soon as he has been marked out.)By his worth sent already, not by pride And vain pretence, is he.'Tis Megareus, The child of Creon, of the Earth-sprung born!
He will not shrink from guarding of the gates, Nor fear the maddened charger's frenzied neigh, But, if he dies, will nobly quit the score For nurture to the land that gave him birth, Or from the shield-side hew two warriors down-Eteoclus and the figure that he lifts-
Ay, and the city pictured, all in one, And deck with spoils the temple of his sire!
Announce the next pair, stint not of thy tongue!
CHORUS (chanting)
O thou, the warder of my home, Grant, unto us, Fate's favouring tide, Send on the foemen doom!
They fling forth taunts of frenzied pride, On them may Zeus with glare of vengeance come THE SPYLo, next him stands a fourth and shouts amain, By Pallas Onca's portal, and displays A different challenge; 'tis Hippomedon!
Huge the device that starts up from his targe In high relief; and, I deny it not, I shuddered, seeing how, upon the rim, It made a mighty circle round the shield-No sorry craftsman he, who wrought that work And clamped it all around the buckler's edge!
The form was Typhon: from his glowing throat Rolled lurid smoke, spark-litten, kin of fire!
The flattened edge-work, circling round the whole, Made strong support for coiling snakes that grew Erect above the concave of the shield:
Loud rang the warrior's voice; inspired for war, He raves to slay, as doth a Bacchanal, His very glance a terror! of such wight Beware the onset! closing on the gates, He peals his vaunting and appalling cry!
ETEOCLES
Yet first our Pallas Onca-wardress she, Planting her foot hard by her gate-shall stand, The Maid against the ruffian, and repel His force, as from her brood the mother-bird Beats back the wintered serpent's venom'd fang.
And next, by her, is Oenops' gallant son, Hyperbius, chosen to confront this foe, Ready to seek his fate at Fortune's shrine!
In form, in valour, and in skill of arms, None shall gainsay him.See how wisely well Hermes hath set the brave against the strong!
Confronted shall they stand, the shield of each Bearing the image of opposing gods:
One holds aloft his Typhon breathing fire, But, on the other's shield, in symbol sits Zeus, calm and strong, and fans his bolt to flame-Zeus, seen of all, yet seen of none to fail!
