Seven Against Thebes

Aeschylus

Aeschylus, Volume 1. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.

  1. What more fertile plain will you find in place of ours,
  2. if you abandon to the enemy this deep-soiled land and the water of Dirce which is the most nourishing of the streams that earth-encircling Poseidon
  3. and Tethys’ children pour forth? Therefore, divine guardians of the city, hurl murderous destruction on the men outside our walls
  4. and panic that makes them throw away their weapons, and so win glory for these citizens. Defend the city and remain in possession of your home and throne
  5. in answer to our shrill, wailing prayers!
Chorus
  1. It is a great cause for grief to hurl a primeval city to Hades in this way, quarry and slave of the spear, ravaged shamefully in the dusty ashes by an Argive man through divine will.
  2. And grief, too, to let the women be led away captive—ah me!—young and old, dragged by the hair, like horses, with their cloaks torn off them.
  3. A city, emptied, shouts out as the human booty perishes with mingled cries. A heavy fate, indeed, my fear anticipates.
Chorus
  1. It is a lamentable thing that modest girls should be plucked unripe, before the customary rites, and should make