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 of might, Into the crimsoned concave of a shield Have shed a bull's blood, and, with hands immersed Into the gore of sacrifice, have sworn By Ares, lord of fight, and by thy name, Blood-lapping Terror, Let our oath be heard-Either to raze the walls, make void the hold Of Cadmus-strive his children as they may-Or, dying here, to make the foemen's land With blood impasted.Then, as memory's gift Unto their parents at the far-off home, Chaplets they hung upon Adrastus' car, With eyes tear-dropping, but no word of moan.
For their steeled spirit glowed with high resolve, As lions pant, with battle in their eyes.
For them, no weak alarm delays the clear Issues of death or life! I parted thence Even as they cast the lots, how each should lead, Against which gate, his serried company.
Rank then thy bravest, with what speed thou may'st, Hard by the gates, to dash on them, for now, Full-armed, the onward ranks of Argos come!
The dust whirls up, and from their panting steeds White foamy flakes like snow bedew the plain.
Thou therefore, chieftain! like a steersman skilled, Enshield the city's bulwarks, ere the blast Of war comes darting on them! hark, the roar Of the great landstorm with its waves of men Take Fortune by the forelock! for the rest, By yonder dawn-light will I scan the field Clear and aright, and surety of my word Shall keep thee scatheless of the coming storm.
ETEOCLES
O Zeus and Earth and city-guarding gods, And thou, my father's Curse, of baneful might, Spare ye at least this town, nor root it up, By violence of the foemen, stock and stem!
For here, from home and hearth, rings Hellas' tongue.
Forbid that e'er the yoke of slavery Should bow this land of freedom, Cadmus' hold!
Be ye her help! your cause I plead with mine-A city saved doth honour to her gods!
(ETEOCLES, his attendants and most of the crowd go out.The CHORUS OF THEBAN WOMEN enters.They appear terror-stricken.)CHORUS (singing)
I wail in the stress of my terror, and shrill is my cry of despair.
The foemen roll forth from their camp as a billow, and onward they bear!
Their horsemen are swift in the forefront, the dust rises up to the sky, A signal, though speechless, of doom, a herald more clear than a cry!
Hoof-trampled, the land of my love bears onward the din to mine ears.
As a torrent descending a mountain, it thunders and echoes and nears!
The doom is unloosened and cometh! O kings and O queens of high Heaven, Prevail that it fall not upon us! the sign for their onset is given-They stream to the walls from without, white-shielded and keen for the fray.
The rush of their feet? to what shrine shall I bow me in terror and pray?
(They rush to pray to the gods.)
O gods high-throned in bliss, we must crouch at the shrines in your home!
Not here must we tarry and wail: shield clashes on shield as they come And now, even now is the hour for the robes and the chaplets of prayer!
Mine eyes feel the flash of the sword, the clang is instinct with the spear!
Is thy hand set against us, O Ares, in ruin and wrath to o'erwhelm Thine own immemorial land, O god of the golden helm?
Look down upon us, we beseech thee, on the land that thou lovest of old.
strophe 1
And ye, O protecting gods, in pity your people behold!
