combatants will fare accordingly; and to
Hyperbius, in accordance with its blazonry, may Jove that is on his
shield become a savior.

CH. I feel confident that he who hath upon his shield the adversary of
Jove, the hateful form of the subterranean fiend, a semblance hateful
both to mortals and the everliving gods, will have to leave his head
before our gates.

MES. May such be the issue! But, farthermore, I mention the fifth,
marshaled at the fifth gate, that of Boreas, by the very tomb of
Jove-born Amphion. And he makes oath by the spear[138] which he grasps,
daring to revere it more than a god, and more dearly than his eyes,[139]
that verily he will make havoc of the city of the Cadmaeans in spite of
Jove: thus says the fair-faced scion of a mountain-dwelling mother, a
stripling hero, and the down is just making its way through his cheeks,
in the spring of his prime, thick sprouting hair. And he takes his post,
having a ruthless spirit, not answering to his maidenly name,[140] and a
savage aspect. Yet not without his vaunt does he take stand against our
gates, for on his brazen-forged shield the rounded bulwark of his body,
he was wielding the reproach of our city, the Sphinx of ruthless maw
affixed by means of studs, a gleaming embossed form; and under her she
holds a man, one of the Cadmaeans, so that against this man[141] most
shafts are hurled. And he, a youth, Parthenopaeus an Arcadian, seems to
have come to fight in no short measure,[142] and not to disgrace the
length of way that he has traversed; for this man, such as he is, is a
sojourner, and, by way of fully repaying Argos for the goodly nurture
she has given him, he utters against these towers menaces, which may the
deity not fulfill.

ET. O may they receive from the gods the things which they are purposing
in those very unhallowed vaunts! Assuredly they would perish most
miserably in utter destruction. But there is [provided] for this man
also, the Arcadian of whom you speak, a man that is no braggart, but his
hand discerns what should be done, Actor, brother of the one
aforementioned, who will not allow either a tongue, without deeds,
streaming within our gates, to aggravate mischiefs, nor him to make his
way within who bears upon his hostile buckler the image of the wild
beast, most odious monster, which from the outside shall find fault with
him who bears it within, when it meets with a thick battering under the
city. So, please the gods, may I be s