Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/306

 274 HISTORY OF GREECE. near tae Ismenian hill, in which they were defeated and lorced to retire within the walls. The prophet Teiresias acquainted them that if Menockeus, son of Kreon, would offer himself as a victim to Ares, victory would be assured to Thebes. The generous youth, as soon as he learnt that his life was to be the price of safety to his country, went and slew himself before the gates. The heroes along with Adrastus now commenced a vigorous attack upon the town, each of the seven selecting one of the gates to assault. The contest was long and strenuously maintained but the devotion of Menoekeus had procured for the Thebans the protection of the gods. Parthenopseus was killed with a stone by Periklymenus ; and when the furious Kapaneus, having planted a scaling-ladder, had mounted the walls, he was smitten by a thunderbolt from Zeus and cast down dead upon the earth. This event struck terror into the Argeians, and Adrastus called back his troops from the attack. The Thebans now sallied forth to pursue them, when Eteokles, arresting the battle, proposed to decide the controversy by single combat with his brother. The challenge, eagerly accepted by Polynikes, was agreed to by Adrastus : a single combat ensued between the two brothers, in which both were exasperated to fury and both ultimately slain by each other's hand. This equal termination left the result of the general contest still undetermined, and the bulk of the two armies renewed the fight. In the sanguinary struggle which ensued the sons of Astakus on the Theban side displayed the most conspicu- ous and successful valor. One of them, 1 Melanippus, mortally wounded Tydeus while two others, Leades and Amphidikus, killed Eteoklus and Hippomedon. Amphiaraus avenged Tydeug by killing Melanippus ; but unable to arrest the rout of the army, 1 The story recounted that the head of Melanippus was brought to Tydeus as he was about to expire of his wound, and that he knawed it with his teeth, a story touched upon by Sophokles (apud Herodian. in Rhetor. Gnec. t. viii. p. 601, Walz.). The lyric poet Bacchylides (ap. Schol. Aristoph. Aves, 1535) seems to have handled the story even earlier than Sophokles. We find the same allegation embodied in charges against real historical men: the invective of Montanus against Aquilius Regulus, at the beginning of the reign of Vespasian, affirmed, " datam interfectori Pisonis pectin iam a Hegulo, appetitumque morsu Pisonis cap 4" 'Tacit. Hist. iv. 42).