for the best--that
the gods may be our allies. And after thou hast listened to my prayers,
then do thou raise the sacred auspicious shout of the Paean, the Grecian
rite of sacrificial acclamation, an encouragement to thy friends that
removes the fear of the foe. And I, to the tutelary gods of our land,
both those who haunt the plains, and those who watch over the forum, and
to the fountains of Dirce, and I speak not without those of the
Ismenus,[112] if things turn out well and our city is preserved, do thus
make my vows that we, dyeing the altars of the gods with the blood of
sheep, offering bulls to the gods, will deposit trophies, and vestments
of our enemies, spear-won spoils of the foe, in their hallowed abodes.
Offer thou prayers like these to the gods, not with a number of sighs,
nor with foolish and wild sobbings; for not one whit the more wilt thou
escape Destiny. But I too, forsooth,[113] will go and marshal at the
seven outlets of our walls, six men, with myself for a seventh,
antagonists to our foes in gallant plight, before both urgent messengers
and quickly-bruited tidings arrive, and inflame us by the crisis.

[_Exit_ ETEOCLES.

CH. I attend, but through terror my heart sleeps not, and cares that
press close upon my heart keep my dread alive, because of the host that
hems our walls[114] around; like as a dove, an all-attentive nurse,
fears, on behalf of her brood, serpents, evil intruders into her nest.
For some are advancing against the towers in all their numbers, in all
their array; (what will become of me?) and others are launching the vast
rugged stone at the citizens, who are assailed on all sides. By every
means, O ye Jove-descended gods! rescue the city and the army that
spring from Cadmus. What better plain of land will ye take in exchange
to yourselves than this, after ye have abandoned to our enemies the
fertile land, and Dirce's water best fed of all the streams that
earth-encircling Neptune sends forth, and the daughters of Tethys?
Wherefore, O tutelary gods of the city! having hurled on those without
the towers the calamity that slaughters men, and casts away shields,
achieve glory for these citizens, and be your statues placed on noble
sites, as deliverers of our city,[115] through our entreaties fraught
with shrill groanings. For sad it is to send prematurely to destruction
an ancient city, a prey of slavery to the spear, ingloriously overthrown
in crumbling ashes by an Achaean accordin