They shall not let me 'scape but with my blood.
Needs must I then turn every way mine eye265
Hither and thither, lest some treachery lurk.
Mine hand with this blade armed shall give to me
The assurance of a desperate courage born.
Ha! who goes there?—or fear I but a sound?
All perilous seems to them that venture all,270
Soon as their feet are set on hostile soil.
Yet do I trust my mother—and mistrust,—
Who drew me to come hither under truce.
But help is nigh; for lo, the altar-hearth
At hand; nor void the palace is of folk.275
Into its dark sheath let me plunge my sword,
And ask these by the palace who they be.
Ye alien women, say, from what far land
Unto the homes of Hellas are ye come?
Chorus.
Phœnician was the land that fostered me.280
Agenor's sons' sons sent me hitherward
To Phœbus, firstfruits of their battle-spoil.
When Oedipus' famed son would speed me on
To Loxias' awful oracle and hearths,
Even then the Argives marched against the town.285
But thou, make answer, who art thou that com'st
Into this fortress of seven-gated Thebes?
Polyneikes.
Oedipus, son of Laïus, was my sire;
Menoikeus' child Jocasta gave me birth;
And me the Theban folk Polyneikes name.290
Chorus.
O kinsman thou of old Agenor's race,
