Seven Against Thebes

“There were seven men, fierce regiment commanders;

they cut bulls’ throats into an iron-rimmed

shield, and with hands touched the bulls’ blood,

taking their oaths by Ares and Enyo,

and by the bloodthirsty god of Terror,

either to smash and lay your city level

with the ground, sacked, or by their death to make

a bloody paste of this same soil of yours.”

The “seven men” whose actions are described by the Messenger are, of course, the “Seven Against Thebes,” the seven heroes who lead the invasion of Thebes in the play. The gory way in which they swear their oath reflects ancient Greek customs, as in ancient Greece the most solemn oaths were often sanctified by an animal sacrifice. The savage determination of these “fierce regiment commanders” invokes The Horrors of War.

“O Zeus and Earth and gods that guard the city,

and mighty curse, the fury of my father,

do not root out this city of mine, do not

give her to ruin and destruction, do not

give her to capture nor her homes and hearths.”

Eteocles prays to the gods for the salvation of Thebes, for he realizes that the success of his war will depend not only on his leadership, but on the favor of the gods, thus reflecting Human Agency Versus Divine Forces. Eteocles also invokes the notorious Curse of Oedipus, the “mighty curse, the fury of [his] father,” in his prayer (See: Symbols & Motifs), as though he hopes to recruit even this malevolent force as an ally. Sure enough, the Curse of Oedipus does ultimately help rescue Thebes by leading Eteocles and his brother Polynices to kill each other in single combat; Eteocles’s invocation of the curse here thus becomes an example of foreshadowing.

“My worries are great and fearful: I cry aloud:

the army has left the camp and runs free.”

The first words uttered by the Chorus as they enter the stage express their character and attitude: They are fearful, panicked, and loud, frightened by The Horrors of War that await them if the city should fall. The Chorus’s frenzied song—half-prayer, half-lament—infuriates the macho Eteocles.

“Neither in evils nor in fair good fortune

may I share a dwelling with the tribe of women!

When she’s triumphant, hers is confidence

that others cannot deal with; when afraid,

a greater evil both for home and city.”

Eteocles’s annoyance with the Chorus’s panicky ravings takes up the bulk of the first episode, with Eteocles denouncing the Chorus in terms that echo classic Greek misogyny. Eteocles, like most of the Greeks living at the time Aeschylus produced his play, thinks that women are at best a necessary evil, and that as such they should be quiet and domestic, leaving public affairs to the men.

“CHORUS. Oftentimes when someone is hopelessly sunk

in misfortune, a god raises him, even from the greatest trials

with the clouds hanging high above his eyes.

ETEOCLES. But it is men’s part, the sacrifice, the consultation

of the gods, when the enemy assaults us;

it is yours to be silent and stay within doors.”

This exchange between the Chorus and Eteocles represents different ways of viewing the relationship between human beings and gods. To the Chorus, the gods are able to do anything they want, so that human effort counts for very little—a human being in crisis can do little more than pray. For Eteocles, on the other hand, divine forces do not cancel out human agency: Humans must still act, even if the gods make the final call. The conflict between the Chorus’s fatalism and Eteocles’s sense of agency reflects a typically ancient Greek contrast between passive women and active men, while also gesturing toward the dilemma of Human Agency Versus Divine Forces.

“I do not grudge your honoring the gods.

But lest you turn our citizens into cowards,

be quiet and not overfearful.”

For the soldier Eteocles, morale is all-important: The Chorus’s prayers are doing more harm than good for the city because they are too loud and panicked. To maintain morale, Eteocles orders the Chorus to be more restrained, and even suggests that doing otherwise in the current crisis would be tantamount to treason—earlier, he even threatens the Chorus with stoning, a punishment typically reserved for traitors in ancient Greece.

“Gods of the city and community,

lords of its fields and its assembly places;

springs of Dirce, waters of Ismenus—

to you my vow:

if all go well with us, if the city is saved,

my people shall redden your hearths with the blood

of sacrificed sheep, and with the blood

of bulls slaughtered to honor the gods.

I shall myself dedicate trophies,

spoils of my enemies, their garments fixed

on spear points, in your sanctuaries.”

Eteocles gives the Chorus an example of what he considers to be a good prayer, in accordance with Greek customs, that serves to adequately invoke the gods while also raising morale. Eteocles’s prayer follows conventional ancient Greek formulae, especially in its incorporation of a vow to honor the gods with lavish offerings if the request is granted. This element of reciprocity was crucial in ancient Greek religious worship.

“No equipment of a man will make me tremble.

Devices on a shield deal no one wounds.”

In the “Shield Scene,” the Messenger describes the shield devices of the enemy heroes stationed at each of the seven gates of Thebes while Eteocles interprets the devices to determine the best Theban champion to send against them. As Eteocles explains, the shield devices themselves are not something to be feared, though they do reveal a great deal about the wielder of the shield. The shield devices thus perform an important symbolic function in the play (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“May the gods grant

good luck to our champion,

since justly he comes forward,

a fighter for our city.”

After each paired speech in the Shield Scene, featuring the Messenger’s description of the enemy hero and his shield, followed by Eteocles’s interpretation of the shield device and his decision about which Theban champion to send to the gate in question, the Chorus offers a brief prayer in which they ask the gods to help them and destroy their enemies. Like Eteocles, the Chorus tends to juxtapose the justice of the Theban cause with the injustice of their foes.

“For of the arrogance of vain men, the true

accuser is their own tongue. Capaneus

threatens to act—and is prepared to act—

in contempt of the gods; and giving exercise

to his mouth, in vain joy, up to heaven

mortal though he is, against Zeus sends his words,

shouted in swelling pride. I trust that to him

will justly come the bolt that carries fire

in no way like the sun’s warm rays at noontide.”

The arrogance and impiety of the enemy, in Eteocles’s view, is actually to the advantage of Thebes, for the gods will surely destroy those who act “in contempt” of them. Nor is he mistaken: In the usual version of the myth, Capaneus was indeed struck down by Zeus himself as he assaulted the walls of Thebes.

“As with wild extravagance

they boast loudly against the city

with maddened heart, so may Zeus

the punisher look on them in wrath.”

While boasting was an important part of Greek heroic warfare, it was important not to overdo it: Boasting quickly turned into impiety when one’s boasts made little of the gods. The excessive arrogance of most of Thebes’ attackers, including Tydeus and Capaneus, ensure that the gods will not take their side in the coming conflict, a realization that encourages the Chorus.

“Hermes has matched the two with excellent reason,

for man with man they shall engage as foes

and on their shields shall carry enemy gods.

The one has Typhon breathing fire, the other,

Hyperbius, has father Zeus in station

sitting upon his shield, and in his hand a burning bolt.

No one has ever yet seen Zeus defeated.

Such on each side are the favors of the gods;

we are on the winning side, they with the vanquished

if Zeus is truly mightier in war than Typhon.

According to the logic of the emblems,

Zeus on Hyperbius’ shield should be our savior.”

Eteocles’s interpretation of Hippomedon’s shield is an excellent illustration of his method. Hippomedon has the monster Typhon on his shield, while Thebes has a champion, Hyperbius, whose shield device is Zeus. Since Zeus was said to have defeated the monster Typhon, “the logic of the emblems” would dictate that Hyperbius likewise must defeat Hippomedon.

“Is such a deed as this dear to the gods,

and fair to hear and tell of for posterity,

for one to sack his native town, destroy

the gods of his own country, bringing in

an alien enemy host? What claim of justice

shall quench the guilt that wells up from your mother,

and your fatherland destroyed by the spear

which your own zeal impelled—shall it be your ally?

But for myself I shall make fat this soil

a prophet buried under enemy ground.

Let us fight. The fate I look for is right honorable.”

Amphiaraus’s rebuke of Polynices, reported by the Messenger, shows that he is more pious than the men with whom he is fighting. Amphiaraus does not approve of Polynices’s decision to wage war against his “fatherland,” an act he tells him will only increase the pollution he already bears because of his birth (Polynices, like Eteocles, was born from the incestuous union of Oedipus and Jocasta). Amphiaraus, who was a prophet, knew that Polynices and those who fought with him were all doomed, though he himself is proud that at least he will die a glorious death.

“So spoke the prophet brandishing his round

brazen shield. No device is on its circle.

He is best not at seeming to be such

but being so.”

Amphiaraus is the only one of the seven warriors who does not have a shield device. This sets him apart in a very obvious way from his allies, who all bear very aggressive shield devices, and both the Messenger and Eteocles interpret the lack of a shield device as a sign that Amphiaraus is brave as well as pious—a combination that makes him a more serious threat.

“Alas, the luck which among human beings

can join an honest man with impious ones!

In every enterprise is no greater evil

than bad companionship: there is no fruit

worth gathering from it. The field of doom

bears death as its harvest.”

Eteocles, impressed by Amphiaraus’s character, laments the bad luck that joined him with the other impious leaders of the seven. He likens “bad companionship” to a bad fruit that ruins a harvest, foreshadowing Amphiaraus’s fate—namely, to die because of the folly, injustice, and impiety of his companions.

“Hear how he curses the city and what fate

he invokes upon her. He prays that once his foot

is set upon our walls, once he is proclaimed

the conqueror of this land, once he has cried

a paean of triumph in its overthrow,

he then may close in fight with you and killing

encounter his own death beside your corpse.

Or if you live, that he may banish you—

in the selfsame way as you dishonored him—

to exile. So he shouts and calls the gods

of his race and of his fatherland to witness

his prayers—a very violent Polynices.”

Polynices’s boasts reflect his “violent” nature, itself heralded by his name, as in Greek, the name “Polynices” means “Much Strife.” Polynices wants not only to conquer Thebes but to punish Eteocles, and speaks of either killing or banishing him. Polynices is thus fighting this war to get revenge for the way Eteocles treated him, demonstrating that Eteocles’ actions are in part responsible for the war—a fact that Eteocles himself does not acknowledge.

“Our family, the family of Oedipus,

by the gods maddened, by them greatly hated;

ah, my father’s curses are now fulfilled!

But from me no crying and no lamentation,

lest grief arise yet harder to endure.”

Since Polynices is the hero stationed at the last gate, Eteocles decides that he must fight him: After all, he has already sent out a champion to all the other gates. Eteocles interprets this result—the final showdown between him and his brother—as caused by his father’s curse and the anger of the gods, yet it is really his own decision to fight his brother. There is no reason, as the Chorus tells Eteocles, that he cannot simply find somebody else to fight Polynices. By invoking fate and the gods, Eteocles denies his own agency, though he does not do so convincingly. His references to “the family of Oedipus” being “by the gods maddened, by them greatly hated” also allude to The Hereditary Nature of Family Misfortune.

“In this I trust, and to the conflict with him

I’ll go myself. What other has more right?

King against king, and brother against brother,

foe against foe we’ll fight.”

As Eteocles reflects that it is only right for him to fight Polynices, he reasserts some measure of agency and responsibility for his decision. Eteocles’s battle with Polynices may have been where the gods have led him, but it is also his decision to face Polynices. In other words, the battle between Eteocles and Polynices is overdetermined, having two causes. Eteocles sticks to his conviction that his cause his just while Polynices’s is unjust, refusing to acknowledge that it was his own mistreatment of his brother that led to the war.

“We are already past the care of gods.

For them our death is the delightful offering.

Why then delay, cringing at final destruction?”

Eteocles presents his fight with Polynices as a “delightful offering” to the gods, and even predicts that the two of them are going to die (as indeed they do). These lines have led some scholars to argue that Eteocles sees his death as a self-sacrifice (“Opfertod” in German scholarship) and that he is giving up his life to save his city.

“When they die with mutual hand

mutually slaughtering

and earth’s dust drinks

black clotted murder-blood,

who shall then give purification,

who shall wash away the stain?

O new evils of the house,

new mingled with the old!”

The Chorus, like Eteocles, rightly predicts that Eteocles and Polynices will kill each other. This, for the Chorus, is the fulfillment of the Curse of Oedipus (See: Symbols & Motifs) but also a reflection of The Hereditary Nature of Family Misfortune within the house of the Labdacids. The Chorus, however, does not see Eteocles’s death as a noble self-sacrifice: Rather, by shedding kindred blood, the two brothers will only bring further pollution to Thebes.

“For the most part all is well—at six of the gates.

The seventh the lord Apollo, Captain of Sevens,

took for himself: on Oedipus’ offspring

he has fulfilled the ancient follies of Laius.”

The Messenger’s happy news about the Theban victory is dampened by the deaths of Eteocles and Polynices, who have killed each other in single combat by the seventh gate. The Messenger attributes this outcome more to divine forces than human agency, representing the deaths of the brothers as the doing of “lord Apollo” acting to fulfill “the ancient follies of Laius.” Eteocles and Polynices, in other words, could not escape The Hereditary Nature of Family Misfortune and had to pay for the sins of their ancestors.

“O great Zeus and spirits that guard

the city, you protectors

that guard our walls:

shall I rejoice, shall I cry aloud

for our city‘s safety?

or for those wretched ones, luckless and childless,

our generals, shall I lament?”

With Eteocles and Polynices dead, the Chorus is unable to give themselves over fully to joy: The city has been saved, but their ruling house has also been destroyed. Indeed, the very same gods who protected the city have also brought about the deaths of Eteocles and Polynices, and the Chorus is not sure now whether to thank the gods for saving them or to mourn the loss of their princes.

“But I to those Cadmean magistrates

declare: if no one else will dare to join me

in burying him, yet will I bury him

and take the danger on my head alone

when that is done. He is my brother. I

am not ashamed of this anarchic act

of disobedience to the city.”

Most scholars do not regard the final part of the play (the antiphonal dirge and exodos) as part of Aeschylus’s original production, arguing instead that these were later interpolations likely added to link the end of Aeschylus’s play with the plot of Sophocles’s Antigone (441 BCE). Sure enough, in these lines Antigone states her decision to defy the edict forbidding the burial of Polynices with the same boldness she displays in Sophocles’s play. Her devotion to her brother stands in marked contrast to the fratricidal violence of Polynices and Eteocles.