What curses for the state he imprecates;
That he may stand upon the walls, he prays:—
That, heralded as king to all the land,
With paeans for its capture, he with thee
Fighting, may slay thee, dying by thy side,
Or thee, who wrong'd him, chasing forth alive,
Requite in kind his proper banishment.
Such words he shouts and calls upon the gods,
Who o'er his race preside and Fatherland,
With gracious eye to look upon his prayers.[1]
*****
A well-wrought buckler, newly forged, he bears,
With two-fold blazon riveted thereon; 640
For there a woman leads, with sober mien,
A mailèd warrior, enchased in gold;—
Justice her style, and thus the legend speaks:
"This man I will restore, and he shall hold
The city and his fathers' palace-homes."
Such the devices of the hostile chiefs.
'Tis for thyself to choose whom thou wilt send;
But never shalt thou blame my herald-words;
To guide the rudder of the State be thine!
Eteocles.
O heaven-demented race of Œdipus, 650
My race, tear-fraught, detested of the gods.
Alas, our father's curses now bear fruit.
But it beseems not to lament or weep,
Lest lamentations sadder still be born.
- ↑ I omit a line which is regarded as spurious.
