Sophocles' Antigone

Antigone - My own sister Ismene, linked to myself, are you aware that Zeus...ah, which of the evils that come from Oedipus is he not accomplishing while we still live? No, there is nothing more painful or laden with destruction or shameful or dishonouring among your sorrows and mine that I have not witnessed. (1-6)

Creon - There is no way of getting to know a man's spirit and thought and judgement, until he has been seen to be versed in government and in the laws. Yes, to me anyone who while guiding the whole city fails to set his hand to the best counsels, but keeps his mouth shut by reason of some fear seems now and has always seemed the worst of men; and him who rates a dear one higher than his native land, him I put nowhere. I would never be silent, may Zeus who sees all things for ever know it, when I saw ruin coming upon the citizens instead of safety, nor would I make a friend of the enemy of my country, knowing that this is the ship that preserves us, and that this is the ship on which we sail and only while she prospers can we make our friends. (175-190)

Messenger - King, I will not say that I come breathless with running, having plied a nimble foot! I had many worries that held me up, turning this way and that in my jourmey as I thought of going back. Yes, my mind spoke many words to me: "Wretch, why are you going to a place where you will pay the penalty? Poor fellow, are you staying behind, then? And if Creon learns this from another man, how shall you escape affliction?" (223-230)

Chorus - King, my anxious thought has long been advising me that this action [burrying Polyneices] may have been prompted by the gods. (278-9)

Creon - ...long since men in the city who find it hard to bear me have been murmering against me, unwilling to keep their necks beneath the yoke, as justice demands, so as to put up with me. I know well that these people have been bribed by those men to do this thing. (289-294)

Creon - If you do not find the author of this burial and reveal him to my eyes, a single Hades shall not suffice for you, before all have been strung up alive to expose this insolence. (306-9)

‘Ode to Man’
Chorus - Many things are formidable [deinos], none more formidable than man! He crosses the gray sea beneath the winter wind, passing beneath the surges that surround him; and he wears away the highest of the gods, Earth [Gaia], immortal and unwearying, as his ploughs go back and forth from year to year, turning the soil with the aid of the breed of horses.
And he captures the tribe of thoughtless birds and the races of wild beasts and the watery brood of the sea, catching them in the woven coils of nets, man the skilful. And he contrives to overcome the beast that roams the mountain, and tames the shaggy-maned horse and the untiring mountain bull, putting a yoke about their necks.
And he has learned speech and wind-swift thought and the temper that rules cities, and how to escape the exposure of the inhospitable hills and the sharp arrows of the rain, all resourceful; he meets nothing in the future without resource; only from Hades shall he apply no means of flight; and he has contrived escape from desperate maladies.
Skilful [sophon] beyond hope is the contrivance of his art, and he advances sometimes to evil, at other times to good. When he applies the laws [nomous] of the earth [kthonos] and the justice [dikan] the gods [theon] have sworn to uphold he is high in the city [polis]; outcast from the city is he with whom the ignoble consorts for the sake of gain. May he who does such things never sit by my hearth or share my thoughts! (332-375)

Creon - whether she is my sister's child or closer in affinity than our while family linked by Zeus of the hearth, she and her sister shall not escape a dreadful death! (486-9)

Antigone - ...it was not Zeus who made this proclamation, nor was it Justice [Dike] who lives with the gods below that established such laws among men, nor did I think your proclamations strong enough to have power to overrule, mortal as they were, the unwritten and unfailing ordinances of the gods. For theses have life, not simply today and yesterday, but for ever, and no one knows how long ago they were revealed. For this I did not intend to pay the penalty among the gods for fear of any man's pride. (450-460)

Antigone - O tomb, O bridal chamber, O deep-dug hom, to be guarded for ever, where I go to join those who are my own, of whom Prtsephassa [Persephone] has already received a great number, dead, among the shades! Of these I am the last and my descent will be the saddest of all, before the term of my life has come. But when I come there, I am confident that I shall come dear to my father, dear to you, my mother, and dear to you, my own brother; since when you died it was I that with my own hands washed you and adorned you and poured libations on your graves; and now, Polyneices, for burying your body I get this reward!...If my husband had died, I could have had another, and a child by another man, if I had lost the first, but with my mother and my father in Hades below, I could never have another brother. (891-903 & 909-912)

Teiresias - And it is your will that has put this plague upon the city; for our altars and our braziers, one and all, are filled with carrion brought by birds and dogs from the unhappy son of Oedipus who fell. And the gods are no longer accepting the prayers that accompany sacrifice or the flame that consumes the thigh bones, and the cries screamed out by the birds no longer give me signs...for they have eaten fat compounded with a dead man's blood.
Think upon this, my son! All men are liable to make mistakes [hamarté]; and when a man does this, he who after getting into trouble tries to repair the damage and does not remain immovable is not foolish or miserable. (1015-1027)

Messenger - ...his son glared at him with furious eyes, spat in his face, and returning no answer drew his two-edged sword. As his father darted back to escape him, he missed him; the the unhappy man, furious with himself, just as he was, pressed himself against the sword and drove it, half its length, into his side. Still living, he clasped the maiden in the bend of his feeble arm, and pouring forth a sharp jet of blood, he stained her white cheek. He lay, a corpse holding a corpse, having achieved his marriage rites, poor fellow, in the house of Hades, having shown by how much the worst evil among mortals is bad counsel. (1231-1243)


Select Bibliography

Benardete, Seth. Sacred Transgressions: a Reading of Sophocles’ Antigone. (South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press, 1999).

Bennett, Larry J. & Wm. Blake Tyrrell, ‘Sophocles' Antigone and Funeral Oratory,’ The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 111, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 441-456.

Butler, Judith. Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life & Death. (NY, Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2000).

Daniels, Charles B., and Sam Scully. What Really Goes on in Sophocles' Theban Plays. (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1996).

Detienne, Marcel, ‘Being Born Impure in the City of Cadmus and Oedipus,’ Arion, Third Series, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Winter, 2003), pp. 35-47.

Else, Gerald Frank. The Madness of Antigone. (Heidelberg : C. Winter, 1976).

Goheen, Robert F. The Imagery of Sophocles' Antigone: A Study of Poetic Language and Structure. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951).

Porter, David H. Only Connect: Three Studies in Greek Tragedy. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987).

Segal, Charles. “Sophocles’ Praise of Man and the Conflicts of the Antigone” in Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, Poetry, Text. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986).

Tyrrell, Wm. Blake & Larry J. Bennett. Recapturing Sophocles’ Antigone. (Lanham, Md.; Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c1998).

Calder III, W.M., “The Protagonist of Sophocles’ Antigone,” Arethusa 4.1 (1971) 49ff.

Jost, L.J., “Antigone’s Engagement: A Theme Delayed,” Liverpool Classical Monthly (1983) 8-9.

Segal, Charles, “Antigone: Death and Love, Hades and Dionysus,” in Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy, ed. by E. Segal (Oxford: OUP, 1983) 167-176.

Sorum, C.E., “The Family in Sophocles’ Antigone and Electra,” Classical World 75 (1982) 201-211.

Wiersma, S., “Women in Sophocles,” Mnemosyne 37 (1984) 25-55.

Wiltshire, S..F., “Antigone’s Disobedience,” Arethusa 9 (1976) 29-36.

*Zeitlin, Froma, 'Thebes: Theatre of Self and Society in Athenian Drama,' in J. Peter Euben, ed. Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (California & London: University of California Press, 1986), pp. 101-141.*

*This last piece is the chapter that we discussed at the end of class on Thursday in which Zeitlin outlines the idea that Thebes serves as a sort of 'anti-Athens'*

Sophocles' Ajax

Athena – (describing Odysseus) …on his [Ajax’] trail and scanning his newly made footprints, to see whether he is inside or not; moving like a Spartan hound with keen scent, you travel quickly to your goal. (5-8)

Odysseus – You have come opportunely; because as in the past, so in the future it is your hand that steers me. (36-7)

Odysseus – How could he dare such a thing? What gave him confidence? (46)

Athena – I urged him on and drove him into a cruel trap….I will show this madness openly to you also, so that you may tell all the Argives what you have seen. (60 & 66-7)

Athena – Will you not be quiet, and not show yourself a coward? (75)

Ajax – Hail, Athena! hail, daughter of Zeus! How loyally have you stood by me! Yes, I shall honour you with golden offerings from my booty to thank you for this catch…. I have a right to boast, and I shall not deny it! (91-3 & 96)

Athena – Do not so torture the poor man!
Ajax – In all other matters, Athena, I salute you; but that man shall pay this penalty and no other.
Athena – Well, since this is your pleasure, the action is in your power! Do not hold your hand, do not stop at anything you have in mind!
Ajax – I go to work! And this I say to you, always stand by me and fight with me thus! (111-117)

Odysseus – I pity him in his misery, though he is my enemy, not thinking of his fate, but my own; because I see that all of us who live are nothing but ghosts, or a fleeting shadow. (121-6)

Chorus – Such are the whispered words which Odysseus is putting together and carrying to the ears of all, and he is most persuasive;… (148-150)

Chorus – …a godsent sickness must have come upon you; but may Zeus and Phoebus avert the evil rumour of the Argives! But if the great kings and he of the worthless line of Sisyphus are trumping up charges and spreading false stories, do not, do not, my lord, remain thus in your huts by the sea and win an evil name! (185-191)

Tecmessa – (quoting Ajax) “Woman, silence makes a woman beautiful.” (293)

Tecmessa – …at last with difficulty [Ajax] came to his senses; and when he gazed at the room filled with ruin he struck his head and uttered a loud cry, then fell among the fallen corpses of the slaughtered sheep and sat there, grasping his hair and tearing it with his nails…. And he at once lamented with dreadful cries, such as I had never before heard from him. For he always used to teach that such weeping was the mark of a cowardly and spiritless man;… (305-310 & 317-320)

Tecmessa – For such men are won over by the words of friends. (330)

Ajax – (of Odysseus) …filthiest trickster of the army, how you must be laughing in your delight! (381-2)
Ajax – …daughter of Zeus, the mighty goddess, tortures me to death! Where can one escape to? Where can I go and remain? If my great deeds perish, friends, near to these , and I have devoted myself to the pursuit of foolishly chosen game, and the whole army may with sword grasped in both hands strike me dead! (401-9)

Ajax – O streams of Scamander…no longer shall you look upon a man – I shall utter a mighty boast! – such as no other of the army that Troy has seen come from the land of Hellas! (418-426)

AIAΣ – Alas! [Aiai] Who ever would have thought that my name would come to harmonise with my sorrows? (430-1)

Ajax – Yet so much I think I well know, that if Achilles were alive and were to award the prize of valour in a contest for his own arms, no other would receive them but I. (441-4)

Ajax – But am I to go to the Trojan wall, challenge them all single-handed, achieve some feat, and at last perish? No, in that way I would give pleasure, I think, to the sons of Atreus. That cannot be! (466-470)

Tecmessa – For on the day when you perish and by your death abandon me, believe that on that day I shall be seized with violence by the Argives together with your son and shall have the treatment of a slave. (496-9)

Ajax – And my arms shall not be set before the Achaeans by any umpire of contests, nor by him who has ruined me;… (572-3)

Ajax – It is not the way of a clever doctor to chant incantations over a pain that needs surgery. (581-2)

Ajax – I feel pity at leaving her a widow and my son an orphan near enemies. But I shall go to the meadows by the shore where I can wash myself, so that I can clean off the dirt upon me and escape the grievous anger of the goddess. I shall come to where I can find untrodden ground and conceal this sword of mine, most hated of all weapons, digging a hole in the ground where none can see it, but let the darkness of Hades guard it down below. For since I received this gift from Hector, the deadliest of my enemies, never have I had any good thing from the Argives. No, the saying of mortals is true, that the gifts of enemies are no gifts and bring no profit. (650-665)

Ajax – …and perhaps you shall learn that, even though now I am unfortunate, I have been preserved. (690-2)

Messenger – …every single man of them assailed him with taunts this way and that, calling him the brother of the madman who had plotted against the army, and declaring that they would not be content till he was dead, mangled to death with stones. (724-8)

Messenger – (Ajax’ words) “Father, together with the gods even one who amounts to nothing may win victory; but I am confident that I can grasp this glory even without them.” (767-9)

Messenger – (Ajax’ words) “Queen, stand by the other Argives; where I am the enemy shall never break through.” (774-5)

Teucer – …now that I can see [he says] I am stricken to death! / Alas! Come, uncover him, so that I may see the whole horror!” (998-1003)

Menelaus – I shall depart; it would be disgraceful if anyone learned that I was chastising with words when I could use force.
Teucer – Be off, the, for for me too it is utterly disgraceful to listen to a futile fellow speaking foolish words. (1159-62)

Teucer – Boy, come here and, standing close by, clasp as a suppliant the father who begot you. Sit there in supplication, holding a lock of mine and one of hers and thirdly one of your own, a store of implements of supplication! And if any of the army tries to drag you by force away from this corpse, may that man perish out of the earth without burial,… (1171-7)

Teucer – Do you not know that the father of your father, Pelops, was by origin a barbarous Phrygian? And that Atreus, your parent, set before his brother a most impious meal, the flesh of his children? (1291-1294)

Odysseus – Listen, then! I beg you not to venture to cast this man out ruthlessly, unburied. Violence must not so prevail on you that you trample justice under foot! For me too he was once my chief enemy in the army, ever since I became the owner of the arms of Achilles; but though he was such in regard to me, I would not so far fail to do him honour as to deny that he was the most valiant man among the Argives, except Achilles. (1332-1340)

Agamemnon – Remember what sort of man is the recipient of your kindness.
Odysseus – This man was an enemy, but he was noble.
Agamemnon – What is it you will do? Have you such respect for the corpse of an enemy?
Odysseus – His excellence weighs more with me than his enmity.
Agamemnon – That is what inconsistent people are like.
Odysseus – In truth many people are now friends and later enemies.
Agamemnon – Do you approve of making friends of such people?
Odysseus – It is not my way to approve of a rigid mind.
Agamemnon – On this day you will make us seem cowards. (1354-1362)

Teucer – But I am reluctant, seed of Laertes, to allow you to set your hand to this grave, for fear of doing a thing displeasing to the dead. (1393-5)

Chorus – Mortal can judge of many things when they have seen them; but before seeing it no man can prophesy what his fortune shall be in the future. (1418-1420)


Ajax Bibliography:

M.W. Blundell Helping Friends and Harming Enemies (Cambridge: CUP, 1989)

D. J. Bradshaw "The Ajax myth and the polis: old values and new" in D.C. Pozzi and J. M. Wickersham (ed.) Myth and the Polis (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991) 99-125.

P. Burian "Supplication and hero-cult in Sophocles’ Ajax" Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies13 (1972) 151-6.

G. Crane "Ajax, the unexpected and the deception speech" Classical Philology 85 (1990) 89-101.

J.A.S. Evans "A reading of Sophocles' Ajax" Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 38 (1991) 69-85.

E.P. Garrison Groaning Tears: Ethical and Dramatic Aspects of Suicide in Greek Tragedy (NY: Kinderhook, 1995).

A. Henrichs "The tomb of Aias and the prospect of hero cult in Sophokles" Classical Antiquity 12 (1993) 165-80.

P. Holt "Ajax’s Burial in Early Greek Epic" American Journal of Philology 113 (1992) 319-31.

G.M. Kirkwood "Homer and Sophocles’ Ajax", in M.J. Anderson (ed.) Classical Drama and its Influence (London & NY: Barnes & Noble, 1965) 51-70.

Stuart Lawrence, "Ancient ethics, the heroic code, and the morality of Sophocles’ Ajax", Greece and Rome 52 (2005), 18-33.

G. Ley "A scenic plot of Sophocles’ Ajax and Philoctetes" Eranos 86 (1988) 85-115.

J.R. March "Sophocles’ Ajax: the death and burial of a hero" Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 38 (1991-1993) 1-36.

J. Moore "The dissembling speech of Ajax" Yale Classical Studies 25 (1977) 47-66.

D. O’Higgins ‘The second best of the Achaeans’ Hermathena 147 (1989) 43-56.

K. Ormond, "Silent by convention: Sophocles’ Tecmessa" American Journal of Philology 117 (1996) 37-64.

M. Sicherl "The tragic issue in Sophocles’ Ajax" Yale Classical Studies 25 (1977) 67-98.

O. Taplin "Yielding to forethought", Arktouros (Knox Festschrift, 1979) 122-9.

G. Zanker "Sophocles’ Ajax and the heroic values of the Iliad" Classical Quarterly 42 (1992) 20-25.

Hesiod, Works and Days (Prometheus and the Metallic Ages)

Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men are famed or unfamed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. [5] For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud,—Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high. Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. [10] And, Perses, I would tell of true things.

So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: [15] her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honor due. But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men. [20] She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbor vies with his neighbor as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. [25] And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel. Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not let that Strife who delights in mischief hold your heart back from work, while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of the court-house. [30] Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter's grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get another's goods. But you shall have no second chance [35] to deal so again: nay, let us settle our dispute here with true judgement which is of Zeus and is perfect. For we had already divided our inheritance, but you seized the greater share and carried it off, greatly swelling the glory of our bribe-swallowing lords who love to judge such a cause as this. [40] Fools! They know not how much more the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow and asphodel.

For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; [45] soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. [50] He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger: “Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, [55] you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire—a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.”

So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. [60] And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athena to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; [65] and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. [70] Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess brighteyed Athena girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, [75] and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athena bedecked her form with all manner of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, [80] and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora, because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.

But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, [85] the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood. [90] For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sicknesses which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands [95] and scattered, all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. [100] But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils, and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. [105] So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus. Or if you will, I will sum you up another tale well and skilfully—and do you lay it up in your heart,—how the gods and mortal men sprang from one source.

First of all [110] the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods [115] without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, [120] rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods. But after the earth had covered this generation—they are called pure spirits dwelling on the earth, and are kindly, delivering from harm, and guardians of mortal men; [125] for they roam everywhere over the earth, clothed in mist and keep watch on judgements and cruel deeds, givers of wealth; for this royal right also they received;—then they who dwell on Olympus made a second generation which was of silver and less noble by far. It was like the golden race neither in body nor in spirit. [130] A child was brought up at his good mother's side a hundred years, an utter simpleton, playing childishly in his own home. But when they were full grown and were come to the full measure of their prime, they lived only a little time and that in sorrow because of their foolishness, for they could not keep from sinning and [135] from wronging one another, nor would they serve the immortals, nor sacrifice on the holy altars of the blessed ones as it is right for men to do wherever they dwell. Then Zeus the son of Cronos was angry and put them away, because they would not give honor to the blessed gods who live on Olympus.

[140] But when earth had covered this generation also—they are called blessed spirits of the underworld by men, and, though they are of second order, yet honor attends them also—Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees; and it was in no way equal to the silver age, [145] but was terrible and strong. They loved the lamentable works of Ares and deeds of violence; they ate no bread, but were hard of heart like adamant, fearful men. Great was their strength and unconquerable the arms which grew from their shoulders on their strong limbs. [150] Their armor was of bronze, and their houses of bronze, and of bronze were their implements: there was no black iron. These were destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades, and left no name: terrible though they were, [155] black Death seized them, and they left the bright light of the sun. But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called [160] demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven-gated Thebes when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf [165] to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them. But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. [170] And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep-swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom [173] the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, [169] far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them; [169a] for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. [169b] And these last equally have honor and glory. [169c] And again far-seeing Zeus made yet another generation, the fifth, of men [169d] who are upon the bounteous earth.

[174] Thereafter, would that I were not among the men of the fifth generation, [175] but either had died before or been born afterwards. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from labor and sorrow by day, and from perishing by night; and the gods shall lay sore trouble upon them. But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some good mingled with their evils. [180] And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth. The father will not agree with his children, nor the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade; nor will brother be dear to brother as aforetime. [185] Men will dishonor their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at them, chiding them with bitter words, hard-hearted they, not knowing the fear of the gods. They will not repay their aged parents the cost of their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack another's city. [190] There will be no favor for the man who keeps his oath or for the just or for the good; but rather men will praise the evil-doer and his violent dealing. Strength will be right, and reverence will cease to be; and the wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. [195] Envy, foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along with wretched men one and all. [200] And then Aidos and Nemesis, with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the wide-pathed earth and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods: and bitter sorrows will be left for mortal men, and there will be no help against evil.

Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound

Kratos – For thine own pride, even flashing fire, source of all arts, he hath purloined and bestowed upon mortal creatures. Such is his offence; wherefore he is bound to make requital to the gods, that so he may be lessoned to brook the sovereignty of Zeus and forbear his championship of man. (7-11)


Prometheus – O thou bright sky of heaven, ye swift-winged breezes, ye river-waters, and multitudinous laughter of the waves of ocean, O universal mother Earth, Behold what I, a god, endure of evil from the gods. (88-92)


Prometheus – My allotted doom I needs must bear as lightly as I may, knowing that the might of Necessity brooketh no resistance. (104-5)


Prometheus – I hunted out and stored in fennel stalk the stolen source of fire that hath proved to mortals a teacher in every art and a means to mighty ends. (109-111)


Chorus of Oceanids – For new rulers lord it in heaven, and with new-fangled laws Zeus wieldeth arbitrary sway; and that which was mighty of old he now bringeth to naught. (148-151


Prometheus – Oh that he had hurled me below the earth, aye ’neath Hades, the entertainer of the dead, into impassable Tartarus,… (152-4)


Prometheus – Verily the day shall yet come when, though I be thus tortured in stubborn fetters, the Prince of the Blessed shall have need of me to reveal the new design and by whom he shall be stripped of his sceptre and his dignities. (168-172)


Prometheus – Of mine own will, aye, of mine own will I erred – gainsay it I cannot. In succouring mortals I found suffering for myself; nevertheless I thought not to be punished thus – to waste away upon cliffs in mid-air, my portion this desolate and drear crag. And now, I pray ye, bewail no more my present woes; alight on the ground and listen to my oncoming fortunes that ye may be told them from end to end.” (268-275)


Oceanus – Learn to know thyself and adapt to thyself new ways; for new likewise is the ruler among the gods. But if thou hurlest forth words so harsh and of such whetted edge, peradventure Zeus may hear thee, though throned afar, high in the heavens, so that thy present multitude of sorrows shall seem but childish sport. (311-316)

Prometheus – I envy thee that thou art clear of blame for having so much as dared to share with me in these my troubles. (332-4)


Prometheus – I am distressed by the fate of my brother Atlas, who, towards the west, stands bearing on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and earth, a burthen not easy for his arms to grasp. (349-352)

Atlas & Prometheus

Prometheus – …I will drain to the dregs my present lot until such time as the mind of Zeus shall abate its wrath.
Oceanus – Knowest thou not then, Prometheus, that words are the mediciners of a disordered temper?
Prometheus – If one salve the soul in season, and not seek to reduce its swelling rage by violence. (377-382)


Prometheus – First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but understand not; but, like to shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. (447-451)


Oceanids – Do not benefit mortals beyond due measure and yet be heedless of thine own distress; forasmuch as I am of good hope that thou shalt be loosed from these bonds and have power no wise inferior to Zeus.
Prometheus – Not thus, nor yet, is fulfilling Fate destined to bring this end to pass. When I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite, thus only am I to escape my bondage. Art is feebler far than Necessity.
Oceanids – Who then is the steersman of Necessity?
Prometheus – The triform Fates and mindful Furies.
Oceanids – Can it be that Zeus hath lesser power than they?
Prometheus – Aye, in that at least he cannot escape what is foredoomed.
(507-520)
Oceanids – Tell me, what succour for thee is there, and where, in creatures of a day? What aid? (545-7)


Io – What gain have I then in life? Why did I not hurl myself amain from this rugged rock, that so I had been dashed to earth and freed from all my sufferings? Better it were to die once for all than linger out all my days in misery. (747-751)

Hermes killing Argos, Io looking on

Io – …hath he [Zeus] no means to avert this doom?
Prometheus – No, none – except it were I, released from bondage.
Io – Who then is to loose thee against the will of Zeus?
Prometheus – It is to be one of thine own lineage. (769-772)


Prometheus – There at last Zeus restores thee to thy senses by the mere stroke and touch of his unterrifying hand. And thou shalt bring forth swart Epaphus,’ thus named from the manner of Zeus’ engendering;… (848-852)


Prometheus – For thy servitude, rest thee sure, I’d not barter my hard lot, not I.
Hermes – Better, no doubt, to serve this rock than to be trusted messenger of Father Zeus! (966-9)


Prometheus - There is no torment or device by which Zeus shall induce me to utter this until these injurious fetters be loosed. So then, let his blazing Levin be hurled, and with the white wings of the snow and thunders of earthquake let him confound the reeling world. For naught of this shall bend my will ever to tell at whose hands he is fated to be hurled from his sovereignty. (989-996)


Hermes – Thou dost take the bit in thy teeth like a new-harnessed colt and art restive and strugglest against the reins….First, the Father will shatter this jagged cliff with thunder and lightning-flame, and will entomb thy frame, while the rock shall still hold thee clasped in its embrace….Then verily the winged hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle, coming an unbidden banqueter the whole day long,…
Look for no term of this thine agony until some god appear to take upon himself thy woes and of his own free will descend into the sunless realm of Death and the dark deeps of Tartarus. (1009-10; 1016-9; 1021-3 & 1026-9)


Prometheus – Lo, now it hath passed from word to deed – the earth rocks, the echoing thunder-peal from the depths rolls roaring past me; the fiery wreathed lightening-flashes flare forth, and whirlwinds toss the swirling dust; the blasts of all the winds leap forth and set in hostile array their embattled strife; the sky is confounded with the deep. Behold, this stormy turmoil advances against me, manifestly sped of Zeus to make me tremble. O holy mother mine, O thou firmament that dost revolve the common light of all, thou seest the wrongs I suffer! (1080-1093)

Select Bibliography:

Conacher, J. D. Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound: A Literary Commentary (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).

Golden, L. In Praise of Prometheus: Humanism and Rationalism in Aeschylean Thought (NC: Chapel Hill, 1962).

Griffith, Mark. The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound (Cambridge: CUP, 1977).

Herington, C. J. The Author of the Prometheus Bound (Texas: Austin, 1970).

Ireland, S. ‘Dramatic Structure in the Persae and Prometheus of Aeschylus,’ Greece and Rome20 (1973) 162-8.

Sutton, Dana F. ‘The Date of the Prometheus Bound,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 23 (1983) 289-294.

Wutrich, T. R. Prometheus and Faust: The Promethean Revolt in Drama from Classical Antiquity to Goethe (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995).

Homer's Odyssey, bk. IV, 355-599 - Proteus (subject of the satyr play that accompanied the Oresteia)

Eidothea ("the very image of the Goddess") daughter of Proteus tells Menalaus how to capture her father.

“In Egypt eager though I was to journey hither, the gods still held me back, because I offered not to them hecatombs that bring fulfillment, and the gods ever wished that men should be mindful of their commands. Now there is an island in the surging sea in front of Egypt, and men call it Pharos, distant as far as a hollow ship runs in a whole day when the shrill wind blows fair behind her. Therein is a harbor with good anchorage, whence men launch the shapely ships into the sea, when they have drawn supplies of black water. There for twenty days the gods kept me, nor ever did the winds that blow over the deep spring up, which speed men's ships over the broad back of the sea. And now would all my stores have been spent and the strength of my men, had not one of the gods taken pity on me and saved me, even Eidothea, daughter of mighty Proteus, the old man of the sea; for her heart above all others had I moved. She met me as I wandered alone apart from my comrades, who were ever roaming about the island, fishing with bent hooks, for hunger pinched their bellies; and she came close to me, and spoke, and said: “‘Art thou so very foolish, stranger, and slack of wit, or art thou of thine own will remiss, and hast pleasure in suffering woes? So long art thou pent in the isle and canst find no sign of deliverance and the heart of thy comrades grows faint.’ “So she spoke, and I made answer and said: ‘I will speak out and tell thee, whosoever among goddesses thou art, that in no wise am I pent here of mine own will, but it must be that I have sinned against the immortals, who hold broad heaven. But do thou tell me—for the gods know all things— who of the immortals fetters me here, and has hindered me from my path, and tell me of my return, how I may go over the teeming deep.’ “So I spoke, and the beautiful goddess straightway made answer: ‘Then verily, stranger, will I frankly tell thee all. There is wont to come hither the unerring old man of the sea, immortal Proteus of Egypt, who knows the depths of every sea, and is the servant of Poseidon. He, they say, is my father that begat me. If thou couldst in any wise lie in wait and catch him, he will tell thee thy way and the measure of thy path, and of thy return, how thou mayest go over the teeming deep. Aye, and he will tell thee, thou fostered of Zeus, if so thou wilt, what evil and what good has been wrought in thy halls, while thou hast been gone on thy long and grievous way.’ “So she spoke, and I made answer and said: ‘Do thou thyself now devise a means of lying in wait for the divine old man, lest haply he see me beforehand and being ware of my purpose avoid me. For hard is a god for a mortal man to master.’

“So I spoke, and the beautiful goddess straightway made answer: ‘Then verily, stranger, will I frankly tell thee all. When the sun hath reached mid-heaven, the unerring old man of the sea is wont to come forth from the brine at the breath of the West Wind, hidden by the dark ripple. And when he is come forth, he lies down to sleep in the hollow caves; and around him the seals, the brood of the fair daughter of the sea, sleep in a herd, coming forth from the gray water, and bitter is the smell they breathe of the depths of the sea. Thither will I lead thee at break of day and lay you all in a row; for do thou choose carefully three of thy companions, who are the best thou hast in thy well-benched ships. And I will tell thee all the wizard wiles of that old man. First he will count the seals, and go over them; but when he has told them all off by fives, and beheld them, he will lay himself down in their midst, as a shepherd among his flocks of sheep. Now so soon as you see him laid to rest, thereafter let your hearts be filled with strength and courage, and do you hold him there despite his striving and struggling to escape. For try he will, and will assume all manner of shapes of all things that move upon the earth, and of water, and of wondrous blazing fire. Yet do ye hold him unflinchingly and grip him yet the more. But when at length of his own will he speaks and questions thee in that shape in which you saw him laid to rest, then, hero, stay thy might, and set the old man free, and ask him who of the gods is wroth with thee, and of thy return, how thou mayest go over the teeming deep.’ “So saying she plunged beneath the surging sea, but I went to my ships, where they stood on the sand, and many things did my heart darkly ponder as I went. But when I had come down to the ship and to the sea, and we had made ready our supper, and immortal night had come on, then we lay down to rest on the shore of the sea. And as soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, I went along the shore of the broad-wayed sea, praying earnestly to the gods; and I took with me three of my comrades, in whom I trusted most for every adventure.

“She meanwhile had plunged beneath the broad bosom of the sea, and had brought forth from the deep the skins of four seals, and all were newly flayed; and she devised a plot against her father. She had scooped out lairs in the sand of the sea, and sat waiting; and we came very near to her, and she made us to lie down in a row, and cast a skin over each. Then would our ambush have proved most terrible, for terribly did the deadly stench of the brine-bred seals distress us—who would lay him down by a beast of the sea?—but she of herself delivered us, and devised a great boon; she brought and placed ambrosia of a very sweet fragrance beneath each man's nose, and destroyed the stench of the beast. So all the morning we waited with steadfast heart, and the seals came forth from the sea in throngs. These then laid them down in rows along the shore of the sea, and at noon the old man came forth from the sea and found the fatted seals; and he went over all, and counted their number. Among the creatures he counted us first, nor did his heart guess that there was guile; and then he too laid him down. Thereat we rushed upon him with a shout, and threw our arms about him, nor did that old man forget his crafty wiles. Nay, at the first he turned into a bearded lion, and then into a serpent, and a leopard, and a huge boar; then he turned into flowing water, and into a tree, high and leafy; but we held on unflinchingly with steadfast heart. But when at last that old man, skilled in wizard arts, grew weary, then he questioned me, and spoke, and said: “‘Who of the gods, son of Atreus, took counsel with thee that thou mightest lie in wait for me, and take me against my will? Of what hast thou need?’ “So he spoke, and I made answer, and said: ‘Thou knowest, old man—why dost thou seek to put me off with this question?—how long a time I am pent in this isle, and can find no sign of deliverance, and my heart grows faint within me. But do thou tell me—for the gods know all things—who of the immortals fetters me here, and has hindered me from my path, and tell me of my return, how I may go over the teeming deep.’ “So I spoke, and he straightway made answer, and said: ‘Nay, surely thou oughtest to have made fair offerings to Zeus and the other gods before embarking, that with greatest speed thou mightest have come to thy country, sailing over the wine-dark sea. For it is not thy fate to see thy friends, and reach thy well-built house and thy native land, before that thou hast once more gone to the waters of Aegyptus, the heaven-fed river, and hast offered holy hecatombs to the immortal gods who hold broad heaven. Then at length shall the gods grant thee the journey thou desirest.’

“So he spoke, and my spirit was broken within me, for that he bade me go again over the misty deep to Aegyptus, a long and weary way. Yet even so I made answer, and said: “‘All this will I perform, old man, even as thou dost bid. But come now, tell me this, and declare it truly. Did all the Achaeans return unscathed in their ships, all those whom Nestor and I left, as we set out from Troy? Or did any perish by a cruel death on board his ship, or in the arms of his friends, when he had wound up the skein of war?’ “So I spoke, and he straightway made answer, and said: ‘Son of Atreus, why dost thou question me of this? In no wise does it behove thee to know, or to learn my mind; nor, methinks, wilt thou long be free from tears, when thou hast heard all aright. For many of them were slain, and many were left; but two chieftains alone of the brazen-coated Achaeans perished on their homeward way - as for the fighting, thou thyself wast there - and one, I ween, still lives, and is held back on the broad deep. “‘Aias truly was lost amid his long-oared ships. Upon the great rocks of Gyrae Poseidon at first drove him, but saved him from the sea; and he would have escaped his doom, hated of Athena though he was, had he not uttered a boastful word in great blindness of heart. He declared that it was in spite of the gods that he had escaped the great gulf of the sea; and Poseidon heard his boastful speech, and straightway took his trident in his mighty hands, and smote the rock of Gyrae and clove it in sunder. And one part abode in its place, but the sundered part fell into the sea, even that on which Aias sat at the first when his heart was greatly blinded, and it bore him down into the boundless surging deep. So there he perished, when he had drunk the salt water.

“‘But thy brother escaped, indeed, the fates and shunned them with his hollow ships, for queenly Hera saved him. But when he was now about to reach the steep height of Malea, then the storm-wind caught him up and bore him over the teeming deep, groaning heavily, to the border of the land, where aforetime Thyestes dwelt, but where now dwelt Thyestes' son Aegisthus. But when from hence too a safe return was shewed him, and the gods changed the course of the wind that it blew fair, and they reached home, then verily with rejoicing did Agamemnon set foot on his native land, and he clasped his land and kissed it, and many were the hot tears that streamed from his eyes, for welcome to him was the sight of his land. Now from his place of watch a watchman saw him, whom guileful Aegisthus took and set there, promising him as a reward two talents of gold; and he had been keeping guard for a year, lest Agamemnon should pass by him unseen, and be mindful of his furious might. So he went to the palace to bear the tidings to the shepherd of the people, and Aegisthus straightway planned a treacherous device. He chose out twenty men, the best in the land, and set them to lie in wait, but on the further side of the hall he bade prepare a feast. Then he went with chariot and horses to summon Agamemnon, shepherd of the people, his mind pondering a dastardly deed. So he brought him up all unaware of his doom, and when he had feasted him he slew him, as one slays an ox at the stall. And not one of the comrades of the son of Atreus was left, of all that followed him, nor one of the men of Aegisthus, but they were all slain in the halls.’ “So he spoke, and my spirit was broken within me, and I wept, as I sat on the sands, nor had my heart any longer desire to live and to behold the light of the sun. But when I had had my fill of weeping and writhing, then the unerring old man of the sea said to me: “‘No more, son of Atreus, do thou weep long time thus without ceasing, for in it we shall find no help. Nay, rather, with all the speed thou canst, strive that thou mayest come to thy native land, for either thou wilt find Aegisthus alive, or haply Orestes may have forestalled thee and slain him, and thou mayest chance upon his funeral feast.’ “So he spoke, and my heart and spirit were again warmed with comfort in my breast despite my grief, and I spoke, and addressed him with winged words: “‘Of these men now I know, but do thou name the third, who he is that still lives, and is held back upon the broad sea, or is haply dead. Fain would I hear, despite my grief.’

“So I spoke, and he straightway made answer, and said: ‘It is the son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca. Him I saw in an island, shedding big tears, in the halls of the nymph Calypso, who keeps him there perforce, and he cannot come to his native land, for he has at hand no ships with oars and no comrades to send him on his way over the broad back of the sea. But for thyself, Menelaus, fostered of Zeus, it is not ordained that thou shouldst die and meet thy fate in horse-pasturing Argos, but to the Elysian plain and the bounds of the earth will the immortals convey thee, where dwells fair-haired Rhadamanthus, and where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men; for thou hast Helen to wife, and art in their eyes the husband of the daughter of Zeus.’ “So saying he plunged beneath the surging sea, but I went to my ships with my god like comrades, and many things did my heart darkly ponder as I went. But when I had come down to the ship and to the sea, and we had made ready our supper, and immortal night had come on, then we lay down to rest on the shore of the sea. And as soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, our ships first of all we drew down to the bright sea, and set the masts and the sails in the shapely ships, and the men, too, went on board and sat down upon the benches, and sitting well in order smote the grey sea with their oars. So back again to the waters of Aegyptus, the heaven-fed river, I sailed, and there moored my ships and offered hecatombs that bring fulfillment. But when I had stayed the wrath of the gods that are forever, I heaped up a mound to Agamemnon, that his fame might be unquenchable. Then, when I had made an end of this, I set out for home, and the immortals gave me a fair wind, and brought me swiftly to my dear native land. But come now, tarry in my halls until the eleventh or the twelfth day be come. Then will I send thee forth with honor and give thee splendid gifts, three horses and a well-polished car; and besides I will give thee a beautiful cup, that thou mayest pour libations to the immortal gods, and remember me all thy days.”

Homer. The Odyssey. trans. A.T. Murray. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1919.

Aeschylus' Eumenides & some reading for Oresteia

Apollo – For evil’s sake were they even born, since they inhabit the evil gloom of Tartarus beneath the earth – creatures loathed of men and of Olympian gods. (71-3)


Apollo – there, with judges of thy cause and speech of persuasive charm, we shall discover means to release thee utterly from thy distress; for it was at my behest that thou didst take thy mother’s life. (81-4)


Ghost of Clytaemnestra – ’Tis due to you that I am thus dishonoured among the dead; because of my deeds of blood the dead never cease reviling me, and I wander in disgrace. I declare to you that they bring against me charge most grievous. And yet, howbeit I have suffered thus cruelly from my nearest kin, no power divine is wroth in my behalf, slaughtered as I have been by the hands of mine own son. Mark ye these gashes in my heart, whence they come! (95-103)


Chorus – Such are the doings of the younger gods, who rule, altogether beyond the right [dikas], a throne dripping blood, about its foot, about its head.
’Tis mine to see the centre-stone of the earth defiled with a terrible pollution of blood.
Seer though he is, at his own bidding, at his own urgence, he hath stained his sanctuary with pollution at its hearth; transgressing the ordinance of the gods, he hath held mortal things in honour and set at naught the apportionments of eld.
To me too he bringeth distress, but him he shall not deliver; though he fly beneath the earth, never is he set free. Stained with the guilt of murder, he shall get upon his head another avenger of his kin [race]. (162-177)


Apollo – This is, in sooth, no house meet for your approach; no, your place is where there are sentences to beheading, gouging out of eyes, and cutting of throats; where, by destruction of the seed, the manhood of youth is ruined; where men are mutilated, stoned to death, and where, impaled beneath their spine, they make moaning long and piteous. D’ye hear what sort of feast ye love that makes you detestible to the gods? (185-192)


Orestes – Queen Athena, at Loxias’ bidding I am come; and do thou of thy grace receive an accursed wretch, no suppliant for purification, or uncleansed of hand, but with my guilt’s edge already blunted worn away at other habitations and in the travelled paths of men. Holding my course over land and sea alike, obedient to the behests of Loxias’ oracle, I now approach thy house and thine image, O goddess. Here will I keep my post and abide the issue of my trail. (235-243)


Chorus – thou art bound in requital to suffer that I suck the ruddy clouts of gore from thy living limbs. May I feed myself on thee – a gruesome draught! (264-6)


Chorus – O’er our victim consecrate, this is our song – fraught with madness, fraught with frenzy, crazing the brain, the Furies’ hymn, spell to bind the soul, untuned to the lyre, withering the life of mortal man. (328-333, repeated at 341-345)



Chorus – For it abideth. Skilled to contrive, powerful to execute are we, mindful of evil wrought, awful and inexorable to mankind, pursuing our appointed office dishonoured, despised, separated from the gods by a light not of the sun – an office that maketh rough the path of the living and the dead alike.
…Mine ancient prerogative still abideth, nor do I meet with dishonour, albeit my appointed place is beneath the earth and in sunless gloom. (381-8 & 393-6)


Athena – Who in the world be ye? I address you all in common – both yon stranger kneeling at mine image, and you, who are like to no race of creatures born, neither beheld of gods among goddesses, nor yet having resemblance to shapes of human kind. But to speak ill of one’s neighbour who is innocent of offence, is far from just, and Right standeth aloof. (408-414)


Apollo – …seer that I am, I cannot utter untruth. Never yet, on my oracular throne, have I spoken aught touching man or woman or commonwealth, but what hath been commanded by Zeus, the father of the Olympians.
Mark how potent is this plea of justice; and I charge you to yield obedience to the Father’s will; for an oath hath not greater authority than Zeus. (615-621)


Athena – Neither anarchy nor tyranny – this I counsel my burghers to maintain and hold in reverence, nor quite to banish fear from out the city. For who among mortal men is righteous that hath no fear of aught? (696-8)


Chorus – Since thou, a youth, woulds’t override mine age, I wait to hear the verdict in the case, for that I am still in doubt whether or not to be wroth against the town.
Athena – My office it is now to give final judgement; and this, my vote, I shall add to Orestes’ side. For mother have I none that gave me birth, and in all things, save wedlock, I am for the male with all my soul, and am entirely on the father’s side. Wherefore I shall not hold of greater account the death of a wife, who slew her lord, the lawful master of the house. Orestes, even with equal ballots, wins. (731-741)


Orestes – For I myself, then in my grave, will bring it to pass by baffling ill-success, even by visiting their marches with discouragement and their ways with evil omens, that they who violate my present oath shall repent them of their enterprise. (767-771)


Athena – Let me prevail with you not to bear it with sore lament. For ye have not been vanquished. Nay, the trial resulted fairly in ballots equally divided without disgrace to thee; but from Zeus was offered testimony clear, and he that himself uttered the oracle himself bare witness that Orestes should not suffer harm for his deed. (794-799)
Athena – Bereft of honour ye are not; wherefore, goddesses though ye be, do not in excess of wrath blight past all cure a land of mortal men. I, too, rely on Zeus – what need to speak of that? – and know, I alone of the gods, the keys of the armoury wherein his thunderbolt is sealed. (824-829)

Recommended Reading for Eumenides & Oresteia more generally:

Bacon, Helene. ‘The Furies’ homecoming,’ Classical Philology 96 (2001) 48-59.

Bowie, A.M. ‘Religion and politics in Aeschylus’ Oresteia,’ Classical Quarterly 43 (1993) 10-31 .

Brown, A.L. ‘The Erinyes in the Oresteia: real life, the supernatural, and the stage,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies103 (1983) 13-34.

Brown, A.L. ‘Eumenides in Greek Tragedy,’ Classical Quarterly 34 (1984) 260-81.

Cohen, D. ‘The theodicy of Aeschylus: justice and tyranny in the Oresteia,’ Greece and Rome 33 (1986) 129-141.

Conagher, D. J. Aeschylus’ Oresteia: A Literary Commentary. Toronto: U of T P, 1987.

Dignan, F. The Idle Actor in Aeschylus (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1905).

Dodds, E.R. ‘Morals and politics in the Oresteia,’ Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 6 (1960) 19-31.

Dover, K.J. ‘The political aspect of the Eumenides,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 77 (1957) 230-7.

Euben, J. Peter, The Tragedy of Political Theory: The Road not Taken (Princeton: PUP, 1990).

Goldhill, S. Language, Sexuality, Narrative: The Oresteia (Cambridge: CUP, 1984).

Griffith, M. ‘Brilliant Dynasts: Power and Politics in the Oresteia.’ Classical Antiquity 14: (1995) 62-129.

Heath, J. ‘Disentangling the beast: humans and other animals in Aeschylus’ Oresteia,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 119 (1999) 17-47.

*Helm, James J. 'Aeschylus' Genealogy of Morals,' Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 134. no. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 23-54.*

*Kennedy, Rebecca Futo. Justice, Geography and Empire in Aeschylus' Eumenides,' Classical Antiquity, vol. 25, no. 1 (Apr., 2006), pp. 35-72.*

Lebeck, A. The Oresteia: A Study in Language and Structure (London: OUP, 1971).

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh ‘Erinyes, Semnai Theai, Eumenides,’ in E. M. Craik, ed. Owl to Athens. Essays on Classical Subject. Oxford: OUP, 1990. 203-211.

McCall, M., ed. Aeschylus: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972).

Macleod, C.W. ‘Politics and the Oresteia,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 102 (1982) 124-44.

*Mace, Sarah. 'Why the Oresteia's Sleeping Dead Won't Lie. Part I: Agamemnon,' The Classical Journal, vol. 98, no. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 2002), pp. 35-56.*

&

*Mace, Sarah. 'Why the Oresteia's Sleeping Dead Won't Lie. Part II: Choephoroe & Eumenides,'The Classical Journal, vol. 100, no. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 2004), pp. 39-60.*

Otis, B. Cosmos and Tragedy: An Essay on the Meaning of Aeschylus (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: U of NC Press, 1981).

Owen, E.T. The Harmony of Aeschylus (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & co., 1952).

Podlecki, Anthony J. The Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy. Michigan: U of M P, 1966, esp. 63-100.

Thomson, G. Aeschylus and Athens (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1941).

Vellacott, Philip. The Logic of Tragedy: Morals and Integrity in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Durham N.C.: Duke UP, 1984.

Winningham-Ingram, R. P. Studies in Aeschylus. Cambridge: CUP, 1983.

Winnington-Ingram, R.P. ‘Clytaemnestra and the vote of Athena’ Journal of Hellenic Stiudies 68 (1948) 130-47.

Zeitlin, Froma I. ‘The Dynamics of Misogyny: Myth and Myth-making in the Oresteia.’Arethusa 11 (1978)

Aeschylus' Choephoroe

Chorus – Sent forth from the palace I am come to convey libations to the accompaniment of blows dealt swift and sharp by my hands. My cheek is marked with bloody gashes where my nails have cut fresh furrows – and yet throughout all my life my heart is fed with lamentation. To the tune of grievous blows the rendings sounded loud as they made havoc of my vesture of woven linen where my bosom is covered by a robe smitten by reason of fortunes stranger to all mirth.
For with thrilling voice that sets each hair on end, the inspiring power who divines for the house in dreams, with breath of wrath in sleep, at dead of night uttered a cry for terror from the inmost chamber, falling heavily upon the women’s bower. And the readers of dreams like these, interpreting Heaven’s will under pledge, declared that those beneath the earth complain in bitter anger and are wroth against their slayers. (22-41)


Chorus – The while thou pourest, utter words fraught with good to loyal hearts.
Electra – And to whom of those near to me am I to give this name?
Chorus – To thyself first – then to all who hate Aegisthus.
Electra – For myself then and for thee as well shall I make this prayer?
Chorus – It is for thee, using thy judgement, forthwith to consider that thyself.
Electra – Who else then is there that I am to add to our company?
Chorus – Forget not Orestes, though he be still from home.
Electra – Well said! Most excellently hast thou admonished me
Chorus – For the guilty murderers now, with mindful thought –
Electra – What shall I pray? Instruct my inexperience, prescribe the form.
Chorus – That upon them there may come some one or god or mortal –
Electra – As judge or as avenger, meanest thou?
Chorus – Say in plain speech “one who shall take life for life.”
Electra – And is this a righteous thing for me to ask of Heaven?
Chorus – Righteous? How not? To requite an enemy evil for evil! (109-123)


Electra – O best beloved darling of thy father’s house, its hope of saving seed, longed for with tears, trust in thy prowess and thou shalt win again thy father’s house. O thou fond presence that hath for me four parts of love: for father I needs must call thee, and to thee falls the love I should bear my mother – she whom I most rightly hate – and the love I bore my sister, victim of a pitiless sacrifice; and as brother thou hast been my trust, winning reverence even for me, thou only. May Might [Kratos] and Justice, [Dike] with Zeus the third, supreme over all, lend thee their aid! (235-245)


Orestes – Of a surety the mighty oracle of Loxias will not abandon me, charging me to brave this peril to the end, and, with loud utterance, proclaiming afflictions chilling my warm heart’s blood, if I avenge not my father on the guilty; bidding me, infuriated by the loss of my possessions, slay them even as they slew. And with mine own life, he declared, I should else pay the debt myself by many grievous sufferings. For he spake revealing to mankind the wrath of malignant powers from underneath the earth, and telling of plagues: leprous ulcers that mount with fierce fangs on the flesh, eating away its primal nature; and how, upon this disease, a white down should sprout forth. And of other assaults of the Avenging Spirits (Erinys) he spake, destined to be brought to pass from a father’s blood; for the darkling bolt of the infernal powers, who are stirred by slain victims of kindred race calling for vengeance, and both madness and groundless terrors out of the night torment and harass the man, who seeth clearly, though he moveth his eyebrows in the dark; so that, his body marred by the brazen scourge, he be even chased in exile from his country. (269-290)


Orestes – In the guise of an alien, thereto full-equipped, I shall come to the outer gate – and with me Pylades, whom ye see here, as guest and ally of the house. Both of us will speak the speech of Parnassus, imitating the utterance of a Phocian tongue. (560-4)


Chorus – Full many are the horrors, dread and appalling bred of earth, and the arms of the deep teem with hateful monsters. Likewise ’twixt heaven and earth there draw nigh lights hung aloft in the air; and winged things and things that walk the earth can also tell of the stormy wrath of whirlwinds. (585-593)


Orestes – For myself, I am sure, with hosts so prosperous, I had rather been made known and welcomed by reason of good tidings. For where is good-will greater than from guest to host? Yet to my thought it had been a breach of sacred duty not to fulfil for friends a charge like this when I was bound by promise and by hospitality pledged to me. (700-706)


Chorus – May Maia’s son, as rightfully he ought, lend aid, for none can better waft a deed on a favouring course, when so he will; but by his mysterious utterance he bringeth darkness o’er men’s eyes by night, and by day he is no whit clearer. (811-818)


Aegisthus – Orestes is dead. To lay this too upon the house would prove a fearful burthen when it is still festering and galled by the wound inflicted by a former murder. (841-3)


Chorus – We heard the tale, ’tis true – but pass within and make enquiry of the strangers. The sureness of a messenger’s report is naught compared with one’s own enquiry of the man himself. (848-850)


Clytemnestra – Hold, my son! Have pity, child, upon this breast at which full oft, sleeping the while, with toothless gums thou didst suck the milk that nourished thee.
Orestes – Pylades, what shall I do? Shall I for pity spare my mother?
Pylades – What then becomes henceforth of Loxias’ oracles, declared at Pytho, and of our covenant pledged on oath? Count all men thy enemies rather than the gods. (896-902)


Chorus – As unto Priam and his sons justice came at last in crushing retribution, so unto Agamemnon’s house came a twofold lion, twofold slaughter. Unto the uttermost hath the exile, the suppliant of Pytho’s god, fulfilled his course, urged justly on by counsels from above.
…And he hath come whose part is the crafty vengeance of stealthy attack; and in the battle his hand was guided by her who is in very truth daughter of Zeus, breathing wrath to the death upon her foes. Justice we mortals call her name, hitting well the mark.
…The commands loud proclaimed by Loxias, tenant of Parnassus’ mighty cavern shrine, with guileless guile assail the mischief now become inveterate. May the word of God prevail that so I serve not the wicked! It is right to reverence the rule of Heaven.
…But soon shall all-accomplishing Time [Kronos] pass the portals of the house when from the hearth all pollution shall be driven by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. (46-51 & 935-41 & 956-60 & 965-8)


Orestes – But now again behold, ye who hearken to this disastrous cause, the device for binding fast my unhappy father, wherewith his hands were manacled, his feet were fettered. Spread it out! Stand round in a throng, and display it – a covering for a man! – that the Father (not mine, but he that surveyeth all things in this world, the Sun) may behold the impious work of my own mother; and so in the day of judgement may be present as my witness that with just cause I pursued this death, even my mother’s; for of Aegisthus’ death I speak not; for he hath suffered the adulterer’s punishment as the law allows. (980-990)


Orestes – But – since I would have you know – for I know not how ’twill end – methinks I am a charioteer driving my team far outside the course; for my wits, hard to govern, whirl me away o’ermastered, and at my heart fear is fain to sing and dance to a tune of wrath. (1021-5)


Orestes – Ah, ah! Ye handmaidens, see them yonder – like Gorgons, stolen in sable garb, entwined with swarming snakes! . . . For in very truth yonder are the wrathful sleuth-hounds that avenge my mother . . . now they come in troops, and from their eyes they drip loathsome blood! (1047-50, 1054 & 1057-8)


Chorus – First, at the beginning, came the cruel woes of children slain for food; next, the fate of a man, a king, when, murdered in a bath, perished the war-lord of the Achaeans. And now, once again, hath come somewhence, a third, a deliverer – or shall I say a doom? Oh when will it work its accomplishment, when will the fury of calamity, lulled to rest find an end and cease? (1065-1076)


Some Recommended Reading:

Hame, Kerri J. 'All in the Family: Funeral Rites and the Health of the Oikos in Aischylos'Oresteia,' The American Journal of Philology, vol. 125, no. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 513-538.

Mace, Sarah. 'Why the Oresteia's Sleeping Dead Won't Lie, Part II: Choephoroi and Eumenides,'The Classical Journal, vol. 100, no. 1 (Oct.-Nov., 2004), pp. 39-60.

Rose, H. J. 'The Part of Pylades in Aeschylus' Choephoroe,' The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 37, (1936/1937), pp. 201-206.

Rose, H. J. ‘Ghost Ritual in Aeschylus,’ The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Oct., 1950), pp. 257-280.

Rose, A.R., ‘The Significance of the Nurse's Speech in Aeschylus’ Choephoroi,’ Classical Bulletin58 (1982) 49-50.

Aeschylus' Agamemnon

Watchman – Ah well, may the master of the house come home and may I clasp his welcome hand in mine! For the rest I’m dumb; a great ox stands upon my tongue – yet the house itself, could it but speak, might tell a tale full plain; since, for my part, of mine own choice I have no words for such as know, and to those who know not I’ve lost my memory. (34-39)


Chorus – …the kingly birds, one black, one white of tail, hard by the palace, on the spear-hand, in a station full conspicuous, devouring a hare with brood unborn checked in the last effort to escape.
Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail! (115-121)


Chorus – [quoting Calchas] “…holy Artemis is wroth at the winged hounds of her sire that they make sacrifice of a wretched timorous thing, herself and her young ere she hath brought them forth. An abomination unto her is the eagles’ feast.” (134-138)


Chorus – [quoting Calchas] “I implore Paean, the healer, that she [Artemis] may not raise adverse gales with long delay to stay the Danaad fleet from putting forth by reason of her urgence of another sacrifice, knowing no law, unmet for feast, worker of family strife, dissolving wife’s reverence for husband. For there abideth wrath – terrible, not to be suppressed, a treacherous warder of the home, ever mindful, a wrath that exacteth vengeance for a child.’” (146-155)


Chorus – Then, as she shed to earth her saffron robe, she smote each of her sacrificers with a glance from her eyes beseeching pity, and showing as in a picture, fain to speak; for oft had she sung where men were met at her father’s hospitable board, and with her virgin voice had been wont lovingly to do honour to her loved father’s prayer for blessing at the third libation – (238-247)


Chorus – Hail, sovereign Zeus, and thou kindly Night, that hast given us great glory for our possession, thou who didst cast thy meshed snare upon the towered walls of Troy, so that nor old nor young could o’erleap the huge enthralling net, all-conquering doom. Great Zeus…lord of host and guest… (355-361)


Chorus – So they make lament, lauding now this one: ‘How skilled in battle!’ now that one: ‘Fallen nobly in the carnage,’ – ‘for another’s wife,’ some mutter in secret, and grief charged with resentment spreads stealthily against the sons of Atreus, champions in the strife…
Dangerous is a people’s voice charged with wrath – it hath the office of a curse of public doom. In anxious fear I wait to hear something shrouded still in gloom; for Heaven is not unmindful of men of blood. In the end the black Spirits of Vengeance [Erinyes] bring to obscurity him who hath prospered in unrighteousness and wear down his fortunes by reverse;… (445-451 & 456-469)


Clytemnestra – …let him come with all speed, his country’s fond desire, come to find at home his wife faithful, even as he left her, a watch-dog of his house, loyal to him, a foe to those who wish him ill; yea, for the rest, unchanged in every part; in all this length of time never having broken seal. Of pleasure from other man or voice of scandal I know no more than of dyeing bronze. (605-612)


Chorus – Even so a man reared in his house a lion’s whelp, robbed of its mother’s milk yet still desiring the breast. Gentle it was in the prelude of its life, kindly to children, and a delight to the old. Much did it get, held in arms like a nursling child, with its bright eye turned toward his hand, and fawning under compulsion of its belly’s need.
But brought to full growth by time it showed forth the nature it had from its parents. Unbidden, in requital for its fostering, it prepared a feast with ruinous slaughter of the flocks;… (717-731)


Chorus – But old Arrogance [hubris] is like to bring forth in evil men, or soon or late, at the fated hour of birth, a young Arrogance [hubris] and that spirit irresistible, unconquerable, unholy, even Recklessness, - black Curses unto the household, and like are they to their parents. (763-771)


Clytemnestra – There is a sea (and who shall drain it dry?) producing stain of plenteous purple, costly as silver and ever fresh, wherewith to dye our vestments; and of these our house, thanks be to Heaven, hath ample store; it knows no penury. (958-962)


Cassandra – …a house of Heaven loathed, a house that knoweth many a horrible butchery of kin, a human shambles and a floor swimming with blood. (1090-1092)


Cassandra - Behold yon babes bewailing their own butchery and their roasted flesh eaten by their sire! (1095-1096)


Cassandra - Ha! Ha! What apparition’s this? Is it a net of death? Nay, she is a snare that shares his bed, that shares the guilt of murder. Let the fatal pack, insatiable against the race, raise a shout of jubilance over a victim accursed! (1114-1118)


Cassandra – For from this roof doth never depart a choir chanting in unison, but unmelodius; for it telleth not of good. And lo, having quaffed human blood, to be the more emboldened, a revel-rout of kindred Furies haunteth the house, hard to be driven forth. Lodged within its halls they chant their chant, the primal sin; and, each in turn, they spurn with loathing a brother’s bed, for that they are bitter with wroth against him that defiled it. … Bear witness upon thine oath that I do know the deeds of sin [hamartias], ancient in story, of this house. (1188-1193 & 1196-1197)


Cassandra - Yet, unavenged of Heaven, shall we not die; for there shall come in turn another, our avenger, a scion of the race, to slay his mother and exact requital for his sire; an exile, a wanderer, strangered from this land, he shall return to put the coping-stone upon these infatuate iniquities of this house. (1279-1283)


Clytemnestra – Once he had fallen, I dealt him yet a third stroke to grace my prayer to the infernal Zeus [dis], the saviour of the dead. Fallen thus, he gasped away his life, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of blood, he smote me with dark drops of ensanguined dew; while I rejoiced no less than the sown earth is gladdened in heaven’s refreshing rain at the birth-time of the flower buds. (1384-1392)


Clytemnestra – By Justice [Dike], exacted for my child, by Ate [impulsive revenge], by the Avenging Spirit [Erinys], unto whom I sacrificed yon man,… (1432-4


Recommended reading:
Brown, A.L. ‘The Erinyes in the Oresteia: real life, the supernatural, and the stage,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies103 (1983) 13-34.

Dignan, F. The Idle Actor in Aeschylus (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1905).

Fagles, Robert & W. B. Stanford. ‘The Serpent and the Eagle,’ in Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Robert Fagles. NY: Viking Penguin, 1979. 13-97.

Heath, J. ‘Disentangling the beast: humans and other animals in Aeschylus’ Oresteia,’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 119 (1999) pp. 17-47.

*Hernandez, Pura Nieto, 'Odysseus, Agamemnon and Apollo,' The Classical Journal, vol. 97, no. 4 (Apr.-May, 2002), pp. 319-334.*

*Lee, Mirielle M. '"Evil Wealth of Raiment": Deadly Poploi in Greek Tragedy,' The Classical Journal, vol. 99. no. 3 (Feb.-Mar., 2004), pp. 253-279.*

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh ‘The Guilt of Agamemnon,’ in E. Segal, ed. Greek Tragedy: Moderm Essays in Criticism. Yale: YUP, 1983.

*McNeil, Lynda. 'Bridal Cloths, Cover-ups, and Kharis: The "Carpet Scene" in Aeschylus'Agamemnon,' Greece & Rome, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 1-17.*

*Mace, Sarah. 'Why the Oresteia's Sleeping Dead Won't Lie. Part I: Agamemnon,' The Classical Journal, vol. 98, no. 1 (Oct.-Nov., 2002), pp.35-56.*

Smith, Peter M. On the Hymn to Zeus in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Oxford: OUP, 1980.

Tyrrell, W. Blake. ‘Zeus and Agamemnon at Aulis,’ Classical Journal, 71 (1976) 328-334.

Vidal-Naquer, P. ‘Hunting & Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia’ in Tragedy and Myth in Anchient Greece. NY: Zone Books, 1990.

Aeschylus' Septem Contra Thebas / Seven Against Thebes

Spy / Scout / Messenger - Seven warriors, impetuous leaders of their companies, shedding a bull’s blood into a black-bound shield, and touching with their hands the victim’s gore, have sworn an oath by Ares, by, Enyo, and by bloodthirsty Rout, that they will bring destruction on the city of the Cadmeans and ravage it by force of arms, or in death imbrue this land of ours with their blood. (42-48)

Eteocles - O Zeus and Earth (Gaia), and ye gods that guard our city, and Curse, the potent spirit of the vengeance of my sire, do not, I entreat ye, extirpate in ruin utter and complete, with ravage by the foe, a city that speaks the speech of Hellas, and our hearths and homes. O may they never constrain in slavery’s yoke a land of freedom and the town of Cadmus! But show yourselves our strength. Methinks it is our common cause I urge. For a State that prospers pays honours to the gods. (69-77)

Cadmus & the Dragon

Eteocles - You, I ask, insufferable creatures that ye are! is this the best course to save the town, does this hearten our beleaguered soldiery – to fling yourselves before the images of the gods that guard the city and shout and shriek and make decent folk detest you? Neither in evil days nor in gladsome prosperity may I have to house with womankind. Has she the upper hand, – ’tis insolence past living with; but, if seized with fear, to home and city she is a still greater bane. So now, by hurrying to and fro in flight, in your clamour ye have spread craven cowardice among the townsfolk. (181-192)

Chorus – Hark! I hear the snorting of steeds!
Eteocles – For all thy hearing, hear not too plainly.
Chorus – The stronghold groans from its base, as if they were girding it about.
Eteocles – Well, it is enough, I hope, that I take thought thereon.
Chorus – I am adread, the battering grows louder at the ports.
Eteocles – Hold thy peace! Say naught of this about the town!
Chorus – O guardian company of gods, abandon not our battlements!
Eteocles – Plague on thee! Wilt thou not hold thy peace and suffer in patience?
Chorus – Gods of our city! Save me from the fate of slavery!
Eteocles – ’Tis thou, thou, that art making a slave of me and of the whole city.
Chorus – O Almighty Zeus, turn thy bolt upon the foe!
Eteocles – O Zeus, what a breed thou hast given us in womankind!
Chorus – A breed beset with miseries, even as men whose city is captured.
Eteocles – What! ill-omened words and thy hands upon the statues of the gods?
Chorus – Aye, for that I am faint of heart, fear runs away with my tongue. (245-259)

Chorus - Tumult reigns through the town, against it advances a towering net of ruin. Man encounters man and is laid low by the spear. For the babes at their breast resound the wailing cries of young mothers, all streaming with blood. Kindred are the prey of scattering bands. Pillager encounters pillager; the empty-handed hails the empty-handed, fain to have a partner, all greedy neither for less nor equal share…Young women, enslaved, suffer a new misery. There it is to expect a captive’s woeful bed, bed as of a happy mate but a triumphant foe’s – the coming of the nightly rite to alleviate her tears and anguish! (345-355 & 363-8)

[The Scout is seen approaching from one side; Eteocles from the other]
Leader of the First Half-Chorus –
My friends, the scout, methinks, is bringing to us some recent tidings of the host, urging in hot haste the joints of his legs that bear him hither.
Leader of the Second Half-Chorus –
And lo! here comes our lord himself, the son of Oedipus, at the fit moment to hear the messenger’s report. He, too, from haste keeps not his even pace.
(369-374)

Messenger – [of Tydeus] …he shakes three overshadowing crests, his helmet’s mane, while from beneath his shield bronze-wrought bells peal forth a fearsome clang. On his shield he beareth this presumptuous device – a sky of cunning workmanship, ablaze with stars, and in the centre of his buckler shines, most revered among the stars, the bright full moon, the eye of night. Raving thus in his vaunting garniture, he shouts upon the river-bank, lusting for the fray, like some charger that panting in fury against the bit, chafes while it awaits the trumpet’s blare. (384-394)

Eteocles – [of Melanippus] Right nobly born is he, and he holds in reverence the throne of Honour and detests boastful speech. Laggard in deeds of shame, yet no dastards, is he wont to be. From the Heroes of the Dragon’s blood whom Ares spared, his stock is sprung, and a true scion of our soil is Melanippus. As for the issue, Ares with his dice will determine that; but Justice, [i.e. Dike] his true kin in blood, sends him forth, charged to ward off the foeman’s spear from the mother that gave him birth. (410-416)

Zeus & Typhon

Messenger – [citing Amphiaraus shouting at Tydeus] “murderer, troubler of the State, Argos’ chief teacher in the ways of wrong, summoner of the Avenging Curse, minister of bloodshed, counsellor unto Adrastus in his present evil course.” (572-5)

Chorus – For what art thou so eager, child? Let not mad [margos] lust for battle fill thy soul and carry thee away. Cast from thee the evil passion at its birth….
…Nay resist its impulse. A craven’s name thou shalt not bear if thou hast prospered well in life. Will not the sable-palled Avenging Spirit [Erinyes] quit the house, when the gods receive oblation at thy hands? (686-8 & 698-701)
Messenger – Dead are the men, by hands that slew their own.
Chorus – Were they slain together by hands thus close akin?
[i.e. both by birth and in cruelty.]
Messenger – Thus all too equal was their destiny to them both. Of itself alone, in very truth, it maketh an end of the ill-starred race. Cause have we here for joy and tears – … (810-5)

Antigone – Smitten, thou didst smite.
Ismene – And slaying, thou wast slain.
Antigone – By the spear thou didst slay –
Ismene – By the spear thou wast slain –
Antigone – Unhappy in thy deed.
Ismene – Unhappy in thy sufferings.
Antigone – Let lament be poured forth.
Ismene – Let tears be poured forth.
Antigone – Thou liest prostrate –
Ismene – Thou who didst slay.
Antigone – Ah me!
Ismene – Ah me! (957-962)

Oedipus &

The Sphynx

Select Bibliography:

Brown, A.L. ‘The End of the Seven Against Thebes’, Classical Quarterly, vol. 26 (1976), pp. 206-219.

*Brown, A. L. ‘Eteocles and the Chorus in the Seven Against Thebes’, Phoenix, vol. 31, no. 4 (Winter, 1977), pp. 300-318.*

Burnett, A.P. ‘Curse and Dream in Aeschylus’ Septem,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 14 (1973), pp. 343-68.

Conacher, D. J., Aeschylus: The Earlier Plays and Related Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Dawe, R. ‘The End of the Seven Against Thebes’, Classical Quarterly, NS vol. 17 (1967), pp. 16-28.

*Detienne, Marcel. ‘Being Born Impure in the City of Cadmus and Oedipus,’ Arion, 3^rd. Series, vol. 10, no. 3 (Winter, 2003), pp. 35-47.*

*DeVito, Ann. ‘Amphiaraus, and Necessity in Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes,’ Hermes, vol. 127, No. 2 (2^nd Qtr., 1999), pp. 165-171.*

Flintoff, E. ‘The Ending of the Seven Against Thebes’, Mnemosyne, vol. 33 (1980), pp. 344-71.

*Jackson, E. ‘The Argument of Septem Contra Thebas,’ Phoenix, vol. 42, no. 1 (Winter, 1988), pp. 287-303.*

Kirkwood, G. ‘Eteocles Oiakostrophos,’ Phoenix, vol. 23 (1969), pp. 9-25.

Otis, B. ‘The Unity of the Seven Against Thebes,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 3 (1960), pp. 153-74.

Podlecki, J. ‘The Character of Eteocles in Aeschylus’ Septem’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 95 (1964), pp. 283-99.

Thalmann, William G. Dramatic Art in Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes. Yale: YUP, 1978.

Zeitlin, Froma. 'Thebes: Theatre of the Self and Society in Athenian Drama,' in Peter Euben, ed.Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (Berkeley: U of California P, 1986), pp. 101-41.

Zeitlin, Froma. ‘Patterns of Gender in Aeschylus’ Drama: Seven Against Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy’, Cabinet of the Muses. Mark Griffith & Donald J. Mastronarde, eds. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990; 103-115.