The seven against thebes Essay Example For Students

The seven against thebes Essay A monologue from the play by Aeschylus NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Dramas of Aeschylus. Trans. Anna Swanwick. London: George Bell and Sons, 1907. ETEOCLES: Burghers of Cadmos, timely words beseem Him at the stern who guards the citys weal, Guiding the helm with lids unsoothed by sleep; For, if we prosper, God alone is praised, But if, which Heaven forfend, mischance befall, One man, Eteocles, through all the town, In noiseful rhymes and wailings manifold Would by the folk be chanted; which may Zeus, True to his sacred name, Averter, turn From our Cadmeian city; you meanwhile It now behovethhim alike who fails Of youths fair prime, and him whose bloom is past, Yet nursing still his bodys stalwart strength, And each one grown to manhood, as befits The State to aid and shrines of native gods, That neer their homes be erased; to aid Your children too, and this your mother earth, Beloved nurse, who, while your childish limbs Crept on her friendly plain, all nurture-toil Full kindly entertained, and fostered you Her denizens to be, in strait like this Shield-bearing champions, trusty in her cause. And so far, to the present day, in sooth God in our favour hath inclined the scale; For unto us, so long beleaguered here, War prospers in the main, through heavens high will; But now, so speaks the seer, augur divine, Without fire omens, but in ear and mind Marking, with faultless skill, presageful birds, He, lord of these divining arts, declares That the prime onset of the Achaian host, Night-plotted, threatens even now the town; Haste, to the turrets then and bastion-gates Rush in full panoply;the breastwork throng, Take station on the platforms of the towers, And, biding at the outlets of the ports, Be of good courage, nor this alien swarm Dread over-much; God will rule all for good. Myself have scouts sent forth and army spies, Who, as I trust, no bootless journey make; And having heard their tidings, in no wise Shall I by guileful stratagem be caught. We will write a custom essay on The seven against thebes specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now