Named Entity Results, Thebes (Greece)

im on his way to my house. Creon enters. Creon I have been everywhere, lord Eteocles, in my desire to see you, and have gone all round the gates and sentinels of Thebes hunting for you. Eteocles And I wanted to see you, Creon; for I found the terms of peace far from satisfactory, when I came to confer with Polyneices. Creon I hear that he has wider aims than Thebes, relying on his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But we must leave this dependent on the gods; I have come to tell you our chief obstacle. Eteocles What is that? I do not understand what you say. Creon Someone has come who was captured from the Argives. Eteocles What news does he bring from there? Creon He says the Argive army intend at once to wind about [the city of Thebes and its towers, with their army.] Eteocles In that case the city of Cadmus must lead out its army. Creon Where? Are you so young that your eyes do not see what they should? Eteocles Across those trenches, to fight at once. Creon Ou

Chorus Cadmus of Tyre came to this land, and at his feet a four-footed, untamed heifer threw itself down, fulfilling an oracle, where the god's prophecy told him to make his home in the plains rich with wheat, and where the lovely waters of Dirce pour over the fields, the green and deep-seeded fields; here Bromius' mother gave birth from her union with Zeus; Bromius, round whom the ivy twined its wreaths while he was still a baby, covering him and blessing him in the shades of its green foliage, a Bacchic dance for the maids and wives inspired in Thebes.

Polyneices The event will show. Jocasta Oh, try to escape your father's curse!Jocasta enters the palace. Eteocles May destruction seize our whole house! Polyneices Soon my sword will be busy, plunged in gore. But I call my native land and the gods to witness, with what dishonor and bitter treatment I am being driven forth, as though I were a slave, not a son of Oedipus as much as he. If anything happens to you, my city, blame him, not me; for I did not come willingly, and unwillingly I am driven from the land. And you, Phoebus, lord of highways, and my home, farewell, and my comrades, and statues of the gods, where sheep are sacrificed. For I do not know if I can ever again address you; though hope is not yet asleep, which makes me confident that with the gods' help I shall slay him and rule this land of Thebes.Polyneices departs. Eteocles Get out of the country! It was a true name our father gave you, when, prompted by some god, he called you Polyneices, man of many quarrels.

ule or save your city? Will you say you wish to rule? Again, if this man conquers you [and his Argive warriors take the army of Cadmus,] you will see this city of Thebes conquered, and you will see many captured maidens brutally dishonored by men of the enemy. Then that wealth you seek to have will become grievous to Thebes; but Thebes; but still ambition fills you. That I say to you; and this to you, Polyneices; Adrastus has conferred a foolish favor on you; and you too have shown little sense in coming to lay your city waste. Suppose you conquer this land—may it not happen!—tell me, by the gods, how will you set up a trophy to Zeus? How will you begin the sacrifice after your country's conquest or inscribe the spoils at the streams of Inachus: “Polyneices after giving Thebes to the flames dedicated these shields to the gods”? O my son, may you never win such fame from Hellas! If, on the other hand, you are beaten and your brother's cause prevails, how will you return to Argos, leaving co

ch thing. I will tell you this, mother, without any concealment: I would go to the rising of the stars and the sun, or beneath the earth, if I were able so to do, to win Tyranny, the greatest of the gods. Therefore, mother, I will not yield this blessing to another rather than keep it for myself; for it is cowardly to lose the greater and to win the less. Besides, I am ashamed to think that he should gain his object by coming with arms and ravaging the land; for this would be a disgrace to Thebes, if I should yield my scepter up to him for fear of Mycenaean might. He ought not to have attempted reconcilement by armed force, mother, for words accomplish everything that even the sword of an enemy might effect. Still, if on any other terms he cares to dwell here, he may; but that I shall never willingly let go. Shall I become his slave, when I can rule? Therefore come fire, come sword! Harness your horses, fill the plains with chariots, for I will not give up my tyranny to him. For if

in the house the old blind man, always possessed by his tearful longing for the pair of brothers estranged from the home, rushed to kill himself with the sword or by the noose suspended over his chamber-roof, moaning his curses on his sons; and now he hides himself in darkness, always weeping and lamenting. And you, my child, I hear you have married and are begetting children to your joy in a foreign home, and are courting a foreign alliance, a ceaseless woe to me your mother and to Laius your ancestor, ruin brought by your marriage. I was not the one who lit for you the marriage-torch, the custom in marriage for a happy mother; Ismenus had no part at your wedding in supplying the luxurious bath, and there was silence through the streets of Thebes, at the entrance of your bride. Curses on them! whether the sword or strife or your father that is to blame, or heaven's visitation that has burst riotously upon the house of Oedipus; for on me has come all the anguish of these evils.

se, open wide the gates! Do you hear, you who gave birth to this man? Why do you delay to leave the sheltered hall and hold your son in your embrace? Jocasta enters from the palace. Jocasta Maidens, I hear your Phoenician voice, and my old feet drag their tottering steps. O my son, at last after countless days I see your face; throw your arms about your mother's breast, stretch out to me your cheeks and the dark, curly locks of your hair, overshadowing my neck. Hail to you! all hail! scarcely here in your mother's arms, beyond hope and expectation. What can I say to you? How in every way, by hands, by words, in the mazy delight of the dance, shall I find the pleasure of my former joy? Ah! my son, you left your father's house desolate, when your brother's outrage drove you away in exile. Truly you were missed alike by your friends and Thebes. And so I cut my white hair and let it fall for grief, in tears, not clad in robes of white, my son, but taking instead these dark rags.

t the same time mistrust her, the one who persuaded me to come here under truce. Well, there is help at hand, for the altar's hearth is close and the house is not deserted. Come, let me sheath my sword in its dark scabbard and ask these women standing near the house, who they are. Ladies of another land, tell me from what country do you come to the halls of Hellas? Chorus Leader Phoenicia is my native land where I was born and bred; and the grandsons of Agenor sent me here as first-fruits of the spoil of war for Phoebus. But when the noble son of Oedipus was about to send me to the hallowed oracle and the altars of Loxias, the Argive army came against his city. Now tell me in return who you are, who have come to this fortress of the Theban land with its seven gates. Polyneices My father was Oedipus, the son of Laius; my mother Jocasta, daughter of Menoeceus; and I am called Polyneices by the people of Thebes. Chorus O kinsman of Agenor's race, my royal masters who sent me here!

Before the royal palace of Thebes. Jocasta enters from the palace alone. Jocasta O Sun-god, you who cut your path in heaven's stars, mounted on a chariot inlaid with gold and whirling out your flame with swift horses, what an unfortunate beam you shed on Thebes, the day that Cadmus left Phoenicia's realm beside the sea and reached this land! He married at that time Harmonia, the daughter of Cypris, and begot Polydorus from whom they say Labdacus was born, and Laius from him. I am known as thThebes, the day that Cadmus left Phoenicia's realm beside the sea and reached this land! He married at that time Harmonia, the daughter of Cypris, and begot Polydorus from whom they say Labdacus was born, and Laius from him. I am known as the daughter of Menoeceus, and Creon is my brother by the same mother. They call me Jocasta, for so my father named me, and I am married to Laius. Now when he was still childless after being married to me a long time in the palace, he went and questioned Phoebus, and asked for us both to have sons for the house. But the god said: “Lord of Thebes famous for horses, do not sow a furrow of children against the will of the gods; for if you beget a son, that child will kill you, and all your house sh