Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/163

Rh

I will say on. Eteoclus is third—

To him it fell, what time the third lot sprang

O'er the inverted helmet's brazen rim,

To dash his stormers on Neïstae gate.

He wheels his mares, who at their frontlets chafe

And yearn to charge upon the gates amain.

They snort the breath of pride, and, filled therewith,

Their nozzles whistle with barbaric sound.

High too and haughty is his shield's device—

An armed man who climbs, from rung to rung,

A scaling ladder, up a hostile wall,

Afire to sack and slay; and he too cries,

(By letters, full of sound, upon the shield)

Not Ares' self shall cast me from the wall.

Look to it, send, against this man, a man

Strong to debar the slave's yoke from our town.

Send will I—even this man, with luck to aid—

By his worth sent already, not by pride

And vain pretence, is he. 'Tis Megareus,

The child of Creon, of the Earth-sprung born!

He will not shrink from guarding of the gates,

Nor fear the maddened charger's frenzied neigh,

But, if he dies, will nobly quit the score

For nurture to the land that gave him birth,

Or from the shield-side hew two warriors down—

Eteoclus and the figure that he lifts—

Ay, and the city pictured, all in one,

And deck with spoils the temple of his sire!

Announce the next pair, stint not of thy tongue!