"From their firm base to rend
These walls, and lay their ramparts in the dust;
Or, dying, with their warm blood steep this earth."
And they were casting lots, when he left, for their several stations. He urges on Eteocles, as "prudent helmsman"[1] of the state, the duty of guarding the towers, for already
"All in arms the Argive host comes on,
Involved in dust, and from the snorting steeds
The thick foam falls, and whitens all the fields.
Even now the waves of war roar o'er the plain."
The scout returns to his post; and after a brief appeal to the protection of the gods, the king also leaves the scene to attend to the defences, and the stage is for a moment empty. Then the Chorus enters—a band of Theban maidens, who are going in solemn procession to offer their supplications at the altars of the gods. They enter the orchestra at once, and deploy the ranks of their little battalions, like the Egyptian Suppliants in a former play. Their song presents a wonderful intermingling of the various
- ↑ The reader will notice how constantly metaphors from naval life occur in the poets of the seafaring Athenians. The figure before us has become a commonplace in modern poetry. So Scott says of Pitt:—
"With Palinure's unaltered mood,
Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
Each call for needful rest repelled,
With dying hand the rudder held,
Till in his fall, with fateful sway,
The steerage of the realm gave way."
