emy should give occasion to
smite him; and if one showed so much as an eye above the rim of his
shield the other would strike at him. But after a while King Eteocles
slipped upon a stone that was under his foot, and uncovered his leg,
at which straightway Polynices took aim with his spear, piercing the
skin. But so doing he laid his own shoulder bare, and King Eteocles
gave him a wound in the breast. He brake his spear in striking and
would have fared ill but that with a great stone he smote the spear of
Polynices and brake this also in the middle. And now were the two
equal, for each had lost his spear. So they drew their swords and came
yet closer together. But Eteocles used a device which he had learnt in
the land of Thessaly; for he drew his left foot back, as if he would
have ceased from the battle, and then of a sudden moved the right
forward; and so smiting sideways, drove his sword right through the
body of Polynices. But when, thinking that he had slain him, he set
his weapons in the earth and began to spoil him of his arms, the
other, for he yet breathed a little, laid his hand upon his sword, and
though he had scarce strength to smite, yet gave the king a mortal
blow, so that the two lay dead together on the plain. And the men of
Thebes lifted up the bodies of the dead and bare them both into the
city.

When these two brothers, the sons of King Oedipus, had fallen each
by the hand of the other, the kingdom fell to Creon, their uncle. For
not only was he the next of kin to the dead, but also the people held
him in great honor because his son Menoeceus had offered himself
with a willing heart that he might deliver his city from captivity.

Now when Creon was come to the throne he made a proclamation about the
two princes, commanding that they should bury Eteocles with all honor,
seeing that he died as beseemed a good man and a brave, doing battle
for his country, that it should not be delivered into the hands of the
enemy; but as for Polynices, he bade them leave his body to be
devoured by the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, because
he had joined himself to the enemy and would have beaten down the
walls of the city and burned the temples of the gods with fire and led
the people captive. Also he commanded that if any man should break
this decree he should suffer death by stoning.

Now Antigone, who was sister to the two princes, heard that the decree
had gone forth, and chancing to meet her sist