Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/167

Rh Actor, own brother to Hyperbius!

He will not let a boast without a blow

Stream through our gates and nourish our despair,

Nor give him way who on his hostile shield

Bears the brute image of the loathly Sphinx!

Blocked at the gate, she will rebuke the man

Who strives to thrust her forward, when she feels

Thick crash of blows, up to the city wall.

With Heaven's goodwill, my forecast shall be true.

Home to my heart the vaunting goes,

And, quick with terror, on my head

Rises my hair, at sound of those

Who wildly, impiously rave!

If gods there be, to them I plead—

Give them to darkness and the grave.

Fronting the sixth gate stands another foe,

Wisest of warriors, bravest among seers—

Such must I name Amphiaraus: he,

Set steadfast at the Homoloïd gate,

Berates strong Tydeus with reviling words—

The man of blood, the bane of state and home,

To Argos, arch-allurer to all ill,

Evoker of the fury-fiend of hell,

Death's minister, and counsellor of wrong

Unto Adrastus in this fatal field.

Ay, and with eyes upturned and mien of scorn

He chides thy brother Polynices too

At his desert, and once and yet again

Dwells hard and meaningly upon his name

Where it saith glory yet importeth feud.