ETEOCLES
_Scout_
_Herald_
ISMENE
ANTIGONE
_Chorus of Theban Maidens_
ARGUMENT.—_When Œdipus king of Thebes discovered that he had unknowingly
been the murderer of his father, and had lived in incest with his
mother, he blinded himself. And his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneikes,
wishing to banish the remembrance of these horrors from the eyes of men,
at first kept him in confinement. And he, being wroth with them, prayed
that they might divide their inheritance with the sword. And they, in
fear lest the prayer should be accomplished, agreed to reign in turn,
each for a year, and Eteocles, as the elder of the two, took the first
turn. But when at the end of the year Polyneikes came to ask for the
kingdom, Eteocles refused to give way, and sent him away empty. So
Polyneikes went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastos the king
of that country, and gathered together a great army under six great
captains, himself going as the seventh, and led it against Thebes. And
so they compassed it about, and at each of the seven gates of the city
was stationed one of the divisions of the army._
_Note._—_The Seven against Thebes_ appears to have been produced B.C.
472, the year after _The Persians_.