Seven Against Thebes

Aeschylus

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

  1. Here too gain follows with interest from gain.[*](Tydeus’ insolence (l. 387) was gain to our cause; to it is now added that of Capaneus, which is like money put out at interest (τόκος).) The tongue proves in the end to be an unerring accuser of men’s wicked thoughts.
  2. Capaneus makes his threats, ready to act, irreverent toward the gods, and giving his tongue full exercise in wicked glee, he, though a mere mortal, sends a loud and swollen boast to Zeus in heaven. But I trust that the fire-bearing thunderbolt will justly come to him,
  3. and when it comes it will not be anything like the sun’s mid-day heat. And against him, even though he is a big talker, a man of fiery spirit, mighty Polyphontes, is stationed, a dependable sentinel
  4. with the good will of guardian Artemis and the other gods. Now tell me about another one allotted to other gates! Exit Polyphontes.
Chorus
  1. Death to him who exults so arrogantly over the city! May the thunderbolt stop him before he leaps into my home
  2. and plunders me from my maiden chambers with his outrageous spear!
Scout
  1. Now I will tell you about the man who next drew station at the gates. The third lot leaped out of the upturned bronze helmet for Eteoclus,
  2. to hurl his band against the Neistan gates. He whirls his horses as they snort through their bridles, eager to fall against the gate. Their muzzles whistle in a barbarian way, filled with the breath of their haughty nostrils.
  3. His shield is decorated in great style: an armored man climbs a ladder’s rungs to mount an enemy tower that he wants to destroy. This one, too, shouts in syllables of written letters that even Ares could not hurl him from the battlements.