XERXES
Alas, the triple banks of oars and those who died thereby!
Alas, the triple banks of oars and those who died thereby!
Aeschylus
ATOSSA
Alas, we see the end of all, the ruin on us sent.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Speak, tell me how they fared therein, that thus ye mourn and weep?
ATOSSA
Disaster to the army came, through ruin on the deep!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Is all undone? hath all the folk gone down before the foe?
ATOSSA
Yea, hark to Susa's mourning cry for warriors laid low!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Alas for all our gallant aids, our Persia's help and pride!
ATOSSA
Ay! old with young, the Bactrian force hath perished at our side!
GHOST OF DARIUS
Alas, my son! what gallant youths hath he sent down to death!
ATOSSA
Alone, or with a scanty guard--for so the rumour saith--
GHOST OF DARIUS
He came--but how, and to what end? doth aught of hope remain?
ATOSSA
With joy he reached the bridge that spanned the Hellespontine main.
GHOST OF DARIUS
How? is he safe, in Persian land? speak soothly, yea or nay!
ATOSSA
Clear and more clear the rumour comes, for no man to gainsay.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Woe for the oracle fulfilled, the presage of the war
Launched on my son, by will of Zeus! I deemed our doom afar
In lap of time; but, if a king push forward to his fate,
The god himself allures to death that man infatuate!
So now the very fount of woe streams out on those I loved,
And mine own son, unwisely bold, the truth hereof hath proved!
He sought to shackle and control the Hellespontine wave,
That rushes from the Bosphorus, with fetters of a slave! --
To curb and bridge, with welded links, the streaming water-way,
And guide across the passage broad his manifold array!
Ah, folly void of counsel! he deemed that mortal wight
Could thwart the will of Heaven itself and curb Poseidon's might!
Was it not madness? much I fear lest all my wealth and store
Pass from my treasure-house, to be the snatcher's prize once more!
ATOSSA
Such is the lesson, ah, too late! to eager Xerxes taught--
Trusting random counsellors and hare-brained men of nought,
Who said _Darius mighty wealth and fame to us did bring,
But thou art nought, a blunted spear, a palace-keeping king_!
Unto those sorry counsellors a ready ear he lent,
And led away to Hellas' shore his fated armament.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Therefore through them hath come calamity
Most huge and past forgetting; nor of old
Did ever such extermination fall
Upon the city Susa. Long ago
Zeus in his power this privilege bestowed,
That with a guiding sceptre one sole man
Should rule this Asian land of flock and herd.
Over the folk a Mede, Astyages,
Did grasp the power: then Cyaxares ruled
In his sire's place, and held the sway aright,
Steering his state with watchful wariness.
Third in succession, Cyrus, blest of Heaven,
Held rule and 'stablished peace for all his clan:
Lydian and Phrygian won he to his sway,
And wide Ionia to his yoke constrained,
For the god favoured his discretion sage.
Fourth in the dynasty was Cyrus' son,
And fifth was Mardus, scandal of his land
And ancient lineage. Him Artaphrenes,
Hardy of heart, within his palace slew,
Aided by loyal plotters, set for this.
And I too gained the lot for which I craved,
And oftentimes led out a goodly host,
Yet never brought disaster such as this
Upon the city. But my son is young
And reckless in his youth, and heedeth not
The warnings of my mouth. Mark this, my friends,
Born with my birth, coeval with mine age--
Not all we kings who held successive rule
Have wrought, combined, such ruin as my son!
CHORUS
How then, O King Darius? whitherward
Dost thou direct thy warning? from this plight
How can we Persians fare towards hope again?
GHOST OF DARIUS
By nevermore assailing Grecian lands,
Even tho' our Median force be double theirs--
For the land's self protects its denizens.
CHORUS
How meanest thou? by what defensive power?
GHOST OF DARIUS
She wastes by famine a too countless foe.
CHORUS
But we will bring a host more skilled than huge.
GHOST OF DARIUS
Why, e'en that army, camped in Hellas still,
Shall never win again to home and weal!
CHORUS
How say'st thou? will not all the Asian host
Pass back from Europe over Helle's ford?
GHOST OF DARIUS
Nay--scarce a tithe of all those myriads,
If man may trust the oracles of Heaven
When he beholds the things already wrought,
Not false with true, but true with no word false
If what I trow be truth, my son has left
A chosen rear-guard of our host, in whom
He trusts, now, with a random confidence!
They tarry where Asopus laves the ground
With rills that softly bless Boeotia's plain--
There is it fated for them to endure
The very crown of misery and doom,
Requital for their god-forgetting pride!
For why? they raided Hellas, had the heart
To wrong the images of holy gods,
And give the shrines and temples to the flame!
Defaced and dashed from sight the altars fell,
And each god's image, from its pedestal
Thrust and flung down, in dim confusion lies!
Therefore, for outrage vile, a doom as dark
They suffer, and yet more shall undergo--
They touch no bottom in the swamp of doom,
But round them rises, bubbling up, the ooze!
So deep shall lie the gory clotted mass
Of corpses by the Dorian spear transfixed
Upon Plataea's field! yea, piles of slain
To the third generation shall attest
By silent eloquence to those that see--
_Let not a mortal vaunt him overmuch_.
For pride grows rankly, and to ripeness brings
The curse of fate, and reaps, for harvest, tears!
Therefore when ye behold, for deeds like these,
Such stern requital paid, remember then
Athens and Hellas. Let no mortal wight,
Holding too lightly of his present weal
And passionate for more, cast down and spill
The mighty cup of his prosperity!
Doubt not that over-proud and haughty souls
Zeus lours in wrath, exacting the account.
Therefore, with wary warning, school my son,
Though he be lessoned by the gods already,
To curb the vaunting that affronts high Heaven!
And thou, O venerable Mother-queen,
Beloved of Xerxes, to the palace pass
And take therefrom such raiment as befits
Thy son, and go to meet him: for his garb
In this extremity of grief hangs rent
Around his body, woefully unstitched,
Mere tattered fragments of once royal robes!
Go thou to him, speak soft and soothing words--
Thee, and none other, will he bear to hear,
As well I know. But I must pass away
From earth above, unto the nether gloom;
Therefore, old men, take my farewell, and clasp,
Even amid the ruin of this time,
Unto your souls the pleasure of the day,
For dead men have no profit of their gold!
[_The_ GHOST OF DARIUS _sinks_.
CHORUS
Alas, I thrill with pain for Persia's woes--
Many fulfilled, and others hard at hand!
ATOSSA
O spirit of the race, what sorrows crowd
Upon me! and this anguish stings me worst,
That round my royal son's dishonoured form
Hang rags and tatters, degradation deep!
I will away, and, bringing from within
A seemly royal robe, will straightway strive
To meet and greet my son: foul scorn it were
To leave our dearest in his hour of shame.
[_Exit_ ATOSSA.
CHORUS
Ah glorious and goodly they were,
the life and the lot that we gained,
The cities we held in our hand
when the monarch invincible reigned,
The king that was good to his realm,
sufficing, fulfilled of his sway,
A lord that was peer of the gods,
the pride of the bygone day!
Then could we show to the skies
great hosts and a glorious name,
And laws that were stable in might;
as towers they guarded our fame!
There without woe or disaster
we came from the foe and the fight,
In triumph, enriched with the spoil,
to the land and the city's delight.
What towns ere the Halys he passed!
what towns ere he came to the West,
To the main and the isles of the Strymon,
and the Thracian region possess'd!
And those that stand back from the main,
enringed by their fortified wall,
Gave o'er to Darius, the king,
the sceptre and sway over all!
Those too by the channel of Helle,
where southward it broadens and glides,
By the inlets, Propontis! of thee,
and the strait of the Pontic tides,
And the isles that lie fronting our sea-board,
and the Eastland looks on each one,
Lesbo and Chios and Paros,
and Samos with olive-trees grown,
And Naxos, and Myconos' rock,
and Tenos with Andros hard by,
And isles that in midmost Aegean,
aloof from the continent, lie--
And Lemnos and Icaros' hold--
all these to his sceptre were bowed,
And Cnidos and neighbouring Rhodes,
and Soli, and Paphos the proud,
And Cyprian Salamis, name-child of her
who hath wrought us this wrong!
Yea, and all the Ionian tract,
where the Greek-born inhabitants throng,
And the cities are teeming with gold--
Darius was lord of them all,
And, great by his wisdom, he ruled,
and ever there came to his call,
In stalwart array and unfailing,
the warrior chiefs of our land,
And mingled allies from the tribes
who bowed to his conquering hand!
But now there are none to gainsay
that the gods are against us; we lie
Subdued in the havoc of wreck,
and whelmed by the wrath of the sky!
[_Enter_ XERXES _in disarray_.
XERXES
Alas the day, that I should fall
Into this grimmest fate of all,
This ruin doubly unforeseen!
On Persia's land what power of Fate
Descends, what louring gloom of hate?
How shall I bear my teen?
My limbs are loosened where they stand,
When I behold this aged band--
Oh God! I would that I too, I,
Among the men who went to die,
Were whelmed in earth by Fate's command!
CHORUS
Ah welladay, my King! ah woe
For all our heroes' overthrow--
For all the gallant host's array,
For Persia's honour, pass'd away,
For glory and heroic sway
Mown down by Fortune's hand to-day!
Hark, how the kingdom makes its moan,
For youthful valour lost and gone,
By Xerxes shattered and undone!
He, he hath crammed the maw of hell
With bowmen brave, who nobly fell,
Their country's mighty armament,
Ten thousand heroes deathward sent!
Alas, for all the valiant band,
O king and lord! thine Asian land
Down, down upon its knee is bent!
XERXES
Alas, a lamentable sound,
A cry of ruth! for I am found
A curse to land and lineage,
With none my sorrow to assuage!
CHORUS
Alas, a death-song desolate
I send forth, for thy home-coming!
A scream, a dirge for woe and fate,
Such as the Asian mourners sing,
A sorry and ill-omened tale
Of tears and shrieks and Eastern wail!
XERXES
Ay, launch the woeful sorrow's cry,
The harsh, discordant melody,
For lo, the power, we held for sure,
Hath turned to my discomfiture!
CHORUS
Yea, dirges, dirges manifold
Will I send forth, for warriors bold,
For the sea-sorrow of our host!
The city mourns, and I must wail
With plashing tears our sorrow's tale,
Lamenting for the loved and lost!
XERXES
Alas, the god of war, who sways
The scales of fight in diverse ways,
Gives glory to Ionia!
Ionian ships, in fenced array,
Have reaped their harvest in the bay,
A darkling harvest-field of Fate,
A sea, a shore, of doom and hate!
CHORUS
Cry out, and learn the tale of woe!
Where are thy comrades? where the band
Who stood beside thee, hand in hand,
A little while ago?
Where now hath Pharandakes gone,
Where Psammis, and where Pelagon?
Where now is brave Agdabatas,
And Susas too, and Datamas?
Hath Susiscanes past away,
The chieftain of Ecbatana?
XERXES
I left them, mangled castaways,
Flung from their Tyrian deck, and tossed
On Salaminian water-ways,
From surging tides to rocky coast!
CHORUS
Alack, and is Pharnuchus slain,
And Ariomardus, brave in vain?
Where is Seualces' heart of fire?
Lilaeus, child of noble sire?
Are Tharubis and Memphis sped?
Hystaechmas, Artembares dead?
And where is brave Masistes, where?
Sum up death's count, that I may hear!
XERXES
Alas, alas, they came, their eyes surveyed
Ancestral Athens on that fatal day.
Then with a rending struggle were they laid
Upon the land, and gasped their life away!
CHORUS
And Batanochus' child, Alpistus great,
Surnamed the Eye of State--
Saw you and left you him who once of old
Ten thousand thousand fighting-men enrolled?
His sire was child of Sesamas, and he
From Megabates sprang. Ah, woe is me,
Thou king of evil fate!
Hast thou lost Parthus, lost Oebares great?
Alas, the sorrow! blow succeedeth blow
On Persia's pride; thou tellest woe on woe!
XERXES
Bitter indeed the pang for comrades slain,
The brave and bold! thou strikest to my soul
Pain, pain beyond forgetting, hateful pain.
My inner spirit sobs and sighs with dole!
CHORUS
Another yet we yearn to see,
And see not! ah, thy chivalry,
Xanthis, thou chief of Mardian men
Countless! and thou, Anchares bright,
And ye, whose cars controlled the fight,
Arsaces and Diaixis wight,
Kegdadatas, Lythimnas dear,
And Tolmus, greedy of the spear!
I stand bereft! not in thy train
Come they, as erst! ah, ne'er again
Shall they return unto our eyes,
Car-borne, 'neath silken canopies!
XERXES
Yea, gone are they who mustered once the host!
CHORUS
Yea, yea, forgotten, lost!
XERXES
Alas, the woe and cost!
CHORUS
Alas, ye heavenly powers!
Ye wrought a sorrow past belief,
A woe, of woes the chief!
With aspect stern, upon us Ate looms!
XERXES
Smitten are we--time tells no heavier blow!
CHORUS
Smitten! the doom is plain!
XERXES
Curse upon curse and pang on pang we know!
CHORUS
With the Ionian power
We clashed, in evil hour!
Woe falls on Persia's race, yea, woe again, again!
XERXES
Yea, smitten am I, and my host is all to ruin hurled!
CHORUS
Yea verily--in mighty wreck hath sunk the Persian world!
XERXES (_holding up a torn robe and a quiver_)
See you this tattered rag of pride?
CHORUS
I see it, welladay!
XERXES
See you this quiver?
CHORUS
Say, hath aught survived and 'scaped the fray?
XERXES
A store for darts it was, erewhile!
CHORUS
Remain but two or three!
XERXES
No aid is left!
CHORUS
Ionian folk such darts, unfearing, see!
XERXES
Right resolute they are! I saw disaster unforeseen.
CHORUS
Ah, speakest thou of wreck, of flight, of carnage that hath been?
XERXES
Yea, and my royal robe I rent, in terror at their fall!
CHORUS
Alas, alas!
XERXES
Yea, thrice alas!
CHORUS
For all have perished, all!
XERXES
Ah woe to us, ah joy to them who stood against our pride!
CHORUS
And all our strength is minished and sundered from our side!
XERXES
No escort have I!
CHORUS
Nay, thy friends are whelmed beneath the tide!
XERXES
Wail, wail the miserable doom, and to the palace hie!
CHORUS
Alas, alas, and woe again!
XERXES
Shriek, smite the breast, as I!
CHORUS
An evil gift, a sad exchange, of tears poured out in vain!
XERXES
Shrill out your simultaneous wail!
CHORUS
Alas the woe and pain!
XERXES
O, bitter is this adverse fate!
CHORUS
I voice the moan with thee!
XERXES
Smite, smite thy bosom, groan aloud for my calamity!
CHORUS
I mourn and am dissolved in tears!
XERXES
Cry, beat thy breast amain!
CHORUS
O king, my heart is in thy woe!
XERXES
Shriek, wail, and shriek again!
CHORUS
O agony!
XERXES
A blackening blow--
CHORUS
A grievous stripe shall fall!
XERXES
Yea, beat anew thy breast, ring out the doleful Mysian call!
CHORUS
An agony, an agony!
XERXES
Pluck out thy whitening beard!
CHORUS
By handfuls, ay, by handfuls, with dismal tear-drops smeared!
XERXES
Sob out thine aching sorrow!
CHORUS
I will thine best obey.
XERXES
With thine hands rend thy mantle's fold--
CHORUS
Alas, woe worth the day!
XERXES
With thine own fingers tear thy locks, bewail the army's weird!
CHORUS
By handfuls, yea, by handfuls, with tears of dole besmeared!
XERXES
Now let thine eyes find overflow--
CHORUS
I wend in wail and pain!
XERXES
Cry out for me an answering moan--
CHORUS
Alas, alas again!
XERXES
Shriek with a cry of agony, and lead the doleful train!
CHORUS
Alas, alas, the Persian land is woeful now to tread!
XERXES
Cry out and mourn! the city now doth wail above the dead!
CHORUS
I sob and moan!
XERXES
I bid ye now be delicate in grief!
CHORUS
Alas, the Persian land is sad and knoweth not relief!
XERXES
Alas, the triple banks of oars and those who died thereby!
CHORUS
Pass! I will lead you, bring you home, with many a broken sigh!
[_Exeunt_
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ETEOCLES.
A SPY.
CHORUS OF CADMEAN MAIDENS.
ANTIGONE.
ISMENE.
A HERALD.
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 with 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 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.
[_Enter_ A SPY.
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!
[_Exit_ ETEOCLES, _etc. Enter the_ CHORUS OF MAIDENS.
CHORUS
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.
They storm to the citadel gates--
what god or what goddess can stay
The rush of their feet? to what shrine
shall I bow me in terror and pray?
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,
And ye, O protecting gods,
in pity your people behold!
Yea, save us, the maidenly troop,
from the doom and despair of the slave,
For the crests of the foemen come onward,
their rush is the rush of a wave
Rolled on by the war-god's breath!
almighty one, hear us and save
From the grasp of the Argives' might!
to the ramparts of Cadmus they crowd,
And, clenched in the teeth of the steeds,
the bits clink horror aloud!
And seven high chieftains of war,
with spear and with panoply bold,
Are set, by the law of the lot,
to storm the seven gates of our hold!
Be near and befriend us, O Pallas,
the Zeus-born maiden of might!
O lord of the steed and the sea,
be thy trident uplifted to smite
In eager desire of the fray, Poseidon!
and Ares come down,
In fatherly presence revealed,
to rescue Harmonia's town!
Thine too, Aphrodite, we are!
thou art mother and queen of our race,
To thee we cry out in our need,
from thee let thy children have grace!
Ye too, to scare back the foe,
be your cry as a wolf's howl wild,
Thou, O the wolf-lord, and thou,
of she-wolf Leto the child!
Woe and alack for the sound,
for the rattle of cars to the wall,
And the creak of the grinding axles!
O Hera, to thee is our call!
Artemis, maiden beloved!
the air is distraught with the spears,
And whither doth destiny drive us,
and where is the goal of our fears?
The blast of the terrible stones
on the ridge of our wall is not stayed,
At the gates is the brazen clash
of the bucklers--Apollo to aid!
Thou too, O daughter of Zeus,
who guidest the wavering fray
To the holy decision of fate,
Athena! be with us to-day!
Come down to the sevenfold gates
and harry the foemen away!
O gods and O sisters of gods,
our bulwark and guard! we beseech
That ye give not our war-worn hold
to a rabble of alien speech!
List to the call of the maidens,
the hands held up for the right,
Be near us, protect us, and show
that the city is dear in your sight!
Have heed for her sacrifice holy,
and thought of her offerings take,
Forget not her love and her worship,
be near her and smite for her sake!
[_Re-enter_ ETEOCLES.
ETEOCLES
Hark to my question, things detestable!
Is this aright and for the city's weal,
And helpful to our army thus beset,
That ye before the statues of our gods
Should fling yourselves, and scream and shriek your fears?
Immodest, uncontrolled! Be this my lot--
Never in troublous nor in peaceful days
To dwell with aught that wears a female form!
Where womankind has power, no man can house,
Where womankind feeds panic, ruin rules
Alike in house and city! Look you now--
Your flying feet, and rumour of your fears,
Have spread a soulless panic on our walls,
And they without do go from strength to strength,
And we within make breach upon ourselves!
Such fate it brings, to house with womankind.
Therefore if any shall resist my rule--
Or man, or woman, or some sexless thing--
The vote of sentence shall decide their doom,
And stones of execution, past escape,
Shall finish all. Let not a woman's voice
Be loud in council! for the things without,
A man must care; let women keep within--
Even then is mischief all too probable!
Hear ye? or speak I to unheeding ears?
CHORUS
Ah, but I shudder, child of Oedipus!
I heard the clash and clang!
The axles rolled and rumbled; woe to us
Fire-welded bridles rang!
ETEOCLES
Say--when a ship is strained and deep in brine,
Did e'er a seaman mend his chance, who left
The helm, t'invoke the image at the prow?
CHORUS
Ah, but I fled to the shrines, I called to our helpers on high,
When the stone-shower roared at the portals!
I sped to the temples aloft, and loud was my call and my cry,
_Look down and deliver. Immortals_!
ETEOCLES
Ay, pray amain that stone may vanquish steel!
Were not that grace of gods? ay, ay--methinks,
When cities fall, the gods go forth from them!
CHORUS
Ah, let me die, or ever I behold
The gods go forth, in conflagration dire!
The foemen's rush and raid, and all our hold
Wrapt in the burning fire!
ETEOCLES
Cry not: on Heaven, in impotent debate!
What saith the saw? --_Good saving Strength, in verity,
Out of Obedience breeds the babe Prosperity_.
CHORUS
'Tis true: yet stronger is the power divine,
And oft, when man's estate is overbowed
With bitter pangs, disperses from his eyne
The heavy, hanging cloud!
ETEOCLES
Let men with sacrifice and augury
Approach the gods, when comes the tug of war;
Maids must be silent and abide within.
CHORUS
By grace of the gods we hold it,
a city untamed of the spear,
And the battlement wards from the wall
the foe and his aspect of fear!
What need of displeasure herein?
ETEOCLES
Ay, pay thy vows to Heaven; I grudge them not,
But--so thou strike no fear into our men--
Have calm at heart, nor be too much afraid.
CHORUS
Alack, it is fresh in mine ears,
the clamour and crash of the fray,
And up to our holiest height
I sped on my timorous way,
Bewildered, beset by the din!
ETEOCLES
Now, if ye hear the bruit of death or wounds,
Give not yourselves o'ermuch to shriek and scream,
For Ares ravens upon human flesh.
CHORUS
Ah, but the snorting of the steeds I hear!
ETEOCLES
Then, if thou hearts, hear them not too well!
CHORUS
Hark, the earth rumbles, as they close us round!
ETEOCLES
Enough if I am here, with plans prepared.
CHORUS
Alack, the battering at the gates is loud!
ETEOCLES
Peace! stay your tongue, or else the town may hear!
CHORUS
O warders of the walls, betray them not!
ETEOCLES
Bestrew your cries! in silence face your fate.
CHORUS
Gods of our city, see me not enslaved!
ETEOCLES
On me, on all, thy cries bring slavery.
CHORUS
Zeus, strong to smite, turn upon foes thy blow!
ETEOCLES
Zeus, what a curse are women, wrought by thee!
CHORUS
Weak wretches, even as men, when cities fall.
ETEOCLES
What! clasping gods, yet voicing thy despair?
CHORUS
In the sick heart, fear machete prey of speech.
ETEOCLES
Light is the thing I ask thee--do my will!
CHORUS
Ask swiftly: swiftly shall I know my power.
ETEOCLES
Silence, weak wretch! nor put thy friends in fear.
CHORUS
I speak no more: the general fate be mine!
ETEOCLES
I take that word as wiser than the rest.
Nay, more: these images possess thy will--
Pray, in their strength, that Heaven be on our side!
Then hear my prayers withal, and then ring out
The female triumph-note, thy privilege--
Yea, utter forth the usage Hellas knows,
The cry beside the altars, sounding clear
Encouragement to friends, alarm to foes.
But I unto all gods that guard our walls,
Lords of the plain or warders of the mart
And to Isthmus' stream and Dirge's rills,
I swear, if Fortune smiles and saves our town,
That we will make our altars reek with blood
Of sheep and kine, shed forth unto the gods,
And with victorious tokens front our fannies--
Corsets and cases that once our foemen wore,
Spear-shattered now--to deck these holy homes!
Be such thy vows to Heaven--away with sighs,
Away with outcry vain and barbarous,
That shall avail not, in a general doom!
But I will back, and, with six chosen men
Myself the seventh, to confront the foe
In this great aspect of a poised war,
Return and plant them at the sevenfold gates,
Or e'er the prompt and clamorous battle-scouts
Haste to inflame our counsel with the need.
[_Exit_ ETEOCLES.
CHORUS
I mark his words, yet, dark and deep,
My heart's alarm forbiddeth sleep!
Close-clinging cares around my soul
Enkindle fears beyond control,
Presageful of what doom may fall
From the great leaguer of the wall!
So a poor dove is faint with fear
For her weak nestlings, while anew
Glides on the snaky ravisher!
In troop and squadron, hand on hand,
They climb and throng, and hemmed we stand,
While on the warders of our town
The flinty shower comes hurtling down!
Gods born of Zeus! put forth your might
For Cadmus' city, realm, and right!
What nobler land shall e'er be yours,
If once ye give to hostile powers
The deep rich soil, and Dirce's wave,
The nursing stream, Poseidon gave
And Tethys' children? Up and save!
Cast on the ranks that hem us round
A deadly panic, make them fling
Their arms in terror on the ground,
And die in carnage! thence shall spring
High honour for our clan and king!
Come at our wailing cry, and stand
As throned sentries of our land!
For pity and sorrow it were
that this immemorial town
Should sink to be slave of the spear,
to dust and to ashes gone down,
By the gods of Achaean worship
and arms of Achaean might
Sacked and defiled and dishonoured,
its women the prize of the fight--
That, haled by the hair as a steed,
their mantles dishevelled and torn,
The maiden and matron alike
should pass to the wedlock of scorn!
I hear it arise from the city,
the manifold wail of despair--
_Woe, woe for the doom that shall be_--
as in grasp of the foeman they fare!
For a woe and a weeping it is,
if the maiden inviolate flower
Is plucked by the foe in his might,
not culled in the bridal bower!
Alas for the hate and the horror--
how say it? --less hateful by far
Is the doom to be slain by the sword,
hewn down in the carnage of war!
For wide, ah! wide is the woe
when the foeman has mounted the wall;
There is havoc and terror and flame,
and the dark smoke broods over all,
And wild is the war-god's breath,
as in frenzy of conquest he springs,
And pollutes with the blast of his lips
the glory of holiest things!
Up to the citadel rise clash and din,
The war-net closes in,
The spear is in the heart: with blood imbrued
Young mothers wail aloud,
For children at their breast who scream and die!
And boys and maidens fly,
Yet scape not the pursuer, in his greed
To thrust and grasp and feed!
Robber with robber joins, each calls his mate
Unto the feast of hate--
_The banquet, lo! is spread--
seize, rend, and tear!
No need to choose or share_!
And all the wealth of earth to waste is poured--
A sight by all abhorred!
The grieving housewives eye it;
heaped and blent,
Earth's boons are spoiled and spent,
And waste to nothingness; and O alas,
Young maids, forlorn ye pass--
Fresh horror at your hearts--beneath the power
Of those who crop the flower!
Ye own the ruffian ravisher for lord,
And night brings rites abhorred!
Woe, woe for you! upon your grief and pain
There comes a fouler stain.
[_Enter, on one side_, THE SPY;
_on the other_, ETEOCLES
_and the_ SIX CHAMPIONS.
SEMI-CHORUS
Look, friends! methinks the scout, who parted hence
To spy upon the foemen, comes with news,
His feet as swift as wafting chariot-wheels.
SEMI-CHORUS
Ay, and our king, the son of Oedipus,
Comes prompt to time, to learn the spy's report--
His heart is fainter than his foot is fast!
THE SPY
Well have I scanned the foe, and well can say
Unto which chief, by lot, each gate is given.
Tydeus already with his onset-cry
Storms at the gate called Proetides; but him
The seer Amphiaraus holds at halt,
Nor wills that he should cross Ismenus' ford,
Until the sacrifices promise fair.
But Tydeus, mad with lust of blood and broil,
Like to a cockatrice at noontide hour,
Hisses out wrath and smites with scourge of tongue
The prophet-son of Oecleus--_Wise thou art,
Faint against war, and holding back from death_!
With such revilings loud upon his lips
He waves the triple plumes that o'er his helm
Float overshadowing, as a courser's mane;
And at his shield's rim, terror in their tone,
Clang and reverberate the brazen bells.
And this proud sign, wrought on his shield, he bears--
The vault of heaven, inlaid with blazing stars;
And, for the boss, the bright moon glows at full,
The eye of night, the first and lordliest star.
Thus with high-vaunted armour, madly bold,
He clamours by the stream-bank, wild for war,
As a steed panting grimly on his bit,
Held in and chafing for the trumpet's bray!
Whom wilt thou set against him? when the gates
Of Proetus yield, who can his rush repel?
ETEOCLES
To me, no blazon on a foeman's shield
Shall e'er present a fear! such pointed threats
Are powerless to wound; his plumes and bells,
Without a spear, are snakes without a sting.
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.
CHORUS
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 he, 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' 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 within 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?
