Liv Reads Statius: The Thebaid (Final)

Liv reads the final book of Statius' Thebaid, translated by JH Mozley. The brothers of Thebes, Eteocles and Polynices, are dead. Their wives and sisters want to bury them, but (unfortunately!) they need the king of Athens, Theseus, to make it happen. Submit to the Q&A at mythsbaby.com/questions http://mythsbaby.com/questions and get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby http://patreon.com/mythsbaby CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events. This is not a standard narrative story episode, it's a reading of an ancient source, audiobook style. For regular episodes look for any that don't have "Liv Reads..." in the title! For a list of Roman/Latin names and who they generally refer to in the Greek, visit:mythsbaby.com/names http://mythsbaby.com/names Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here:mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions http://mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. Learn more about Liv's next group trips https://travelbugxlivalbert.my.canva.site/ to GREECE! Application deadline is November 30 (Subject to change due to demand). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Liv Albert?

  Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So, check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/groups.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So, this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO, and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 1:39Liv Albert?

  Hello, this is Let's Talk About Myths, baby, and I am your host, the original one, here with, well, we're here with the final reading episode of Statius's The Baeed.

• 1:56Liv Albert?

  And, and wow, wow, because Theseus is coming in. This is where we're getting, this is the perfect time for this final reminder about like kind of where this epic comes from, because this is an epic written by a Roman period author about a iconically Greek myth, the kind of Greek myth that sort of has a similar infamy to the Trojan War, right? Like this is the, the Battle of Thebes, the Seven Against Thebes, these, these two brothers fighting each other for this kingdom, which has just gone through the whole Oedipus and

• 2:41Liv Albert?

  Jocasta situation and everything else. And so this myth is about as like historically mythologized, you know, in that way that the ancient Greeks understood their, their mythos to be, you know, historical as well. So this is one of those things, but then at the same time, this version of it, because it probably existed in countless other forms long before, but they are lost to us outside of the Greek plays. We only have the Greek plays about this, this sort of shared mythos of Thebes and these kings. Um, and so we're talking about this piece that is then written like, I don't know, 700

• 3:22Liv Albert?

  or so years after the originating mythos is being developed and still probably 500 or so years after the plays, which are the, the surviving Greek mythos that we have. And so what Statius is able to work with is like a thousand years of, of Theban kind of mythos and Greek mythos. And so what we end up getting is this story that like mostly resembles the myths that we have, but then simultaneously includes this ending, which we're going to get to, which features Theseus, which of course, in the originating mythos of this, if we are

• 4:02Liv Albert?

  talking that it's coming from the Iron Age, um, like say Homer, you know, the Iliad and the Odyssey, if that is the case, which it seems likely to be with these stories because of how long we've had them, like Theseus would have never been involved because spoilers, Theseus is much later Athenian mythology that is like pretty explicitly tied to Athenian propaganda. And so it's, we get this like kind of microcosm of like a thousand years of Greek mythology that has also been influenced by Roman culture and history and mythology and is being interpreted by this Roman. So it's just, I think it's so important to remember this stuff and it's also just like

• 4:44Liv Albert?

  so much more interesting that way if we, because we come at it like it's just this thing that exists from the ancient world, but you have to think about like what led to it and, and that like probably about a thousand years of this development of this mythos. And so this guy's coming into it at the end, you know, at the Ovid of it all, where Ovid has this kind of like capsule of Greek myth because he is writing at a period where this has been developing for a thousand years and Rome is coming in late. And they're like, hey, this is kind of cool and interesting. Like what if we kind of made it something of our own? And so it's just this like, oh, oh my God. Okay. Could go on forever, but I'm not going to. It's already been three minutes. But like, I am so excited about that kind of concept of it. And I just think it's really goddamn interesting.

• 5:29Liv Albert?

  But first, a little quick warning and like a little ha, ha, ha peek into my life that I haven't been able to like really go into in all that much detail because of just how little I've been able to be behind this microphone lately, um, what with Odyssey and everything. Um, but so today, for reasons I won't go into explaining, but like I usually am able to close the door of this little like office space I have where I recorded my new apartment in Toronto. But I can't today for various reasons. So what that means is you might get, um, you might get to hear the official, the first sort of podcast introduction to my cats, my current cats.

• 6:09Liv Albert?

  As probably long time listeners know, two years ago, I lost my beloved Lupin, who was literally the, my entire reason for being. Um, and now I'm slowly exam, examining a life with other cats. These are my children. He was my partner. It's a whole thing. But I have these two cats and one of them, the one I brought back from Greece, you guys, he's.

• 6:29Liv Albert?

  He he's what it what did Jenny Williamson call it? I mean, he's like a trickster god in an orange cat's brain, but with a black cat's body. He's got orange cat energy, but he's also mostly gremlin. Um, I have never met a cat like Anchovy. He is, I mean, well, he's a, he's a cat that I plucked off of a mountainside on Naxos, Dionysus's island. I'll tell you that much. He knows where he's from. Um, and he is, uh, wacky and he has this lovely habit of deciding that he needs attention um, in the morning and particularly while I'm in this office. So it's really likely that he's just gonna come and like, start screaming and I kinda want you all to hear it. So, um, stay tuned for that. But either way, you all need to know how

• 7:15Liv Albert?

  utterly unhinged this cat is. Like, I don't.

• 7:20Liv Albert?

  He is, he's really something. He's really, I love him to the ends of the earth. But oh my God, he's mostly gremlin. He also has the body. He has like the weirdest body. Like, he's not growing into his shape. So he's got this like tiny head and this like enormously long and lanky body, kind of like a natural hunchback. He walks like a cowboy who thinks he has a really big dick, but doesn't. And he is a year and a half old, almost now, and still meows like a kitten. Um, like he has the whiniest, most absurd little meow, and he does like to use it.

• 8:02Liv Albert?

  So you'll probably hear that. I hope so. Uh, honestly, if I had it in me to be on social media slash if social media wasn't like the most depressing place for me right now, um, I would make him famous. But that would have had to be social media five years ago, cuz the current one, I don't need to be involved in it. Um. And that seems like a great time to remind everyone that to please send in your questions, whether they are text or in these new voice notes that we're doing for the end of year Q and A. I do this every year, sort of the end of year, beginning of the new year, and I really want to keep that going. Michaela's going to help me out with these questions this time, but I need you all to ask them. So go to mythsbaby.com/ questions, send them in via text there.

• 8:46Liv Albert?

  There's a form, or you can send a voice note, which are really fun, a new thing we're doing. Check that out. And now that I've rambled for all of that time, let's just very quick reminder, because we are going into this final book of Statius's The Bayad. And last time, we did kind of reach this climax of the two brothers, Atiocles and Polynices, they have killed each other. They have brought this war that has essentially led these two enormous factions of Greek people to fight against one another. Brother killed brother. It's a whole dramatic to do. Wikipedia sums it up as "Tisiphony and her sister Magera," these are the Furies,

• 9:28Liv Albert?

  "stir Polynices to challenge Atiocles to single combat to decide the war. Atiocles is hesitant, but he is urged by Creon to accept the duel, while Antigone and Jocasta try to defuse the situation. Meeting on the plain before the city, the brothers fight and kill each other. Jocasta kills herself at the news. Creon succeeds Atiocles as king of Thebes, as the rest of the Argive army departs." And so it kind of seems like it's over. And it probably would have been in the mythos of like the 700 years before. But now, Statius is here to wrap things up in a nice little bow. With Theseus. So just not a nice little bow, but a Thesean bow.

• 10:37Liv Albert?

  This is The Thebaid by Statius, Book Twelve, translated by J. H. Mosley.

• 10:47Liv Albert?

  Not yet had the wakeful dawn put all the stars to flight from heaven, and the moon was beholding the approach of day with facing horn. What time Typhonia scatters the clouds in hurrying rout and prepares the wide firmament for the return of Phoebus! All ready, Durkion bands stray forth from their scanty dwellings, complaining of the tardy night. Although not till then had they rested or gained their first sleep after battle, yet a troubled peace forbids repose, and victory still remembers the horrors of war.

• 11:25Liv Albert?

  Scarc'd at first dare they to step forth and destroy the rampart works, scarce wholly to unbar the gates. The old fears rise before them and the dread of the deserted plain. Just as to men long tossed on ocean, earth heaves at first, so are they spellbound and amazed that naught assails them and fancy that the slain hosts rise up again. So when idalian birds have seen a tawny snake climbing the threshold of a conspicuous tower, they drive their little ones within and wall the nesting broods behind their talons and stir their unwarlike wings to battle.

• 12:08Liv Albert?

  And though he soon retreat, yet the white flock fears the empty air, and when at last they venture flight, they thrill with terror and still look back from the mid-vault of heaven. Fourth they go to the bloodless multitude and the remnants of the fallen host, wherever grief and indignation, blood-stained guides impel them. Some behold the weapons, some the bodies, others but the faces of the slain, with strangers' limbs near by. Some mourn their chariots and address, all they can do, the widowed steeds. Others imprint kisses on gaping wounds and bewail the valor of the dead.

• 12:51Liv Albert?

  They sword out the cold heaps of slain, severed hands appear with lances and sword hilts in their grip and arrows fixed in eyes. Many find no traces of their dead and rush about with grief ever ready and on the verge. But around the unsightly corpses a pitiable strife arises, who shall perform the rites and make their funeral. Often too were they deceived, fortune mocking them awhile and wept for foemen, nor was it easy to tell what carnage to avoid and what to trample. But those whose homes have suffered not and who are spared all anguish,

• 13:33Liv Albert?

  either stray around the deserted tents of the Danians and set them afire, oh, or, so far as they can after battle, search where lies the dust-bespattered Tydeus, whether the chasm of ravished augur still be gaping, where is the enemy of the gods and whether the heavenly embers still glow among his limbs. All ready the daylight faded upon their tears, nor did late vespers drive them away. In their misery they love their lamentation and feast upon their sorrow, nor return they to their homes but sit all night about the corpses

• 14:14Liv Albert?

  and bewailing them in turns, ward off the beasts by fires and sounds of woe. Nor did their eyes close, yielding to the sweet influence of the stars, nor through constant weeping.

• 14:28Liv Albert?

  For the third time Aurora strove with the morning star, and all ready the mountains are despoiled, and mighty trunks of Themyscys, the glory of the groves, and the timber of Kytheron, friend of the funeral pyre, is come. On high rock piles blaze the bodies of the ruined race. The Ogagian ghosts rejoice at the last tribute, but the unburied troupe of Greeks raise pitiable lament, and moaning flit about the forbidden fires. Nor does the cruel spirit of fierce Eteocles receive the honors of a prince; his brother by command is held and argive still, and his outlawed shade is driven away.

• 15:12Liv Albert?

  But Menichus is not suffered by Thebes or the king, his father, to burn upon a vulgar pile; no heap of logs forms a common, customary mound, but a warlike pile of chariots and shields and all the weapons of the Greeks is raised. On the massed trophies of the foe he himself, like a conqueror, is laid, his locks adorned with peace-bringing laurel and woolen fillets, just as when the Tyrrhenian, summoned by the stars, laid him down with joy on kindled etah. Thereon did his father sacrifice yet-living victims, Pelasgian captives and bridled steeds, a solace to his warlike valor.

• 15:56Liv Albert?

  Upon them the towering flames quiver, and at last his father's groans burst forth. Ah! Had not overmastering desire of noble praise possessed thee, my son, you had been revered alike with me, yes, even ruled Ekion's city; but now you embitter my coming joys and the ungrateful burden of a realm. Though your unfailing virtue dwells in heaven amid the companies of the gods, as I verily believe, yet I shall ever mourn you, deity as you are; let Thebes build altars and dedicate lofty feins, suffer your father alone to lament you. And now, alas, what worthy rites,

• 16:39Liv Albert?

  what funeral pomp can I lavish on your tomb? I could not, even had I power to mingle baneful Argos and stricken Mycenae with your ashes, and fling myself upon them, who have gained life, ah, horror, and royal state by the blood of my son! Has one day one same unhallowed war sent you, boy, and those dread brothers to Tartarus, together? Are Oedipus now and I an equal plight of sorrow? Like, indeed, are the shades we mourn, O righteous jove! Receive, my son, new offerings to grace your triumph; receive this ruling scepter of my right hand, and this haughty crown that binds my brow;

• 17:22Liv Albert?

  your gifts unto your father, small joy indeed to him. As king, yes, king, let the sullen shade of Attiochles behold you.

• 17:34Liv Albert?

  So speaking, he strips head and hand, and with wrath inflamed, continues in more violent strain. Come, then, let them call me fierce and heartless, if I forbid the lernie and dead to burn with you. Would I could put lingering life within their bodies, and drive their guilty souls from heaven and Erebus, and myself, yes, go search for wild beasts and birds with hooked mouths, and show them the accursed limbs of the princes. Woe is me that the kindly earth and the lapse of time resolve them where they lie. Wherefore, again and again, I repeat my stern decree, let none venture to give the aid of final fire to the Pelasgians, or he will atone his deed by death,

• 18:18Liv Albert?

  and fill up the tale of corpses. By the gods above, and by great Manichaeus, I sear it. He spoke, and his companions dragged him away, and bore him to the palace. Meanwhile, a sorrowful band of Anakiian women, widowed and bereaved, drawn hapless ones by the sad tidings, were hastening like a captive throng from desolate Argos. Each had her own wounds, all were similar in plight, with their hair hanging down upon their bosoms in high girt raiment; their faces, torn by their cruel nails, were streaming; their tender arms were swollen with beating. First of her stricken sisters, helpless Argia,

• 19:03Liv Albert?

  queen of the sable-clad company, seeks her path, sinking upon her sorrowing maidens, and anon struggling to her feet. No thought has she of her father or royal home, one devotion fills her heart, one name. That of her beloved Polynices is on her lips. She would fain forget Mycenae and make Derke and Cadmus's ill-starred city her abode. Next, Diippylle. As eager as her sister, brings Caledonian women mingling with the train of Lerna to Tydeus's obsequies. She had heard unhappy one of her husband's crime, and impious gnawing. But love in affliction forgives the slain one all.

• 19:46Liv Albert?

  After her, Neelke, wild of aspect, yet rousing tearful compassion, bewails Hippomedon with the grief that is his due. Then comes the seer's unrighteous spouse, doomed alas to build an empty pyre. The bereft comrade of Menaly and Diana leads the raremost companies of the mourners. And Evadne, bitter at heart, the one in querulous sorrow for the exploits of her daring boy, the other mindful of her mighty lord, goes fiercely weeping and in wrath against high heaven. Hecate beheld them from her Lycaean groves, and bore them tearful company. And as they approached the double shore, the Theban mother lamented from her Ithmian tomb.

• 20:30Liv Albert?

  The Eleusinian, though sorrowing for herself, wept for the night-wandering multitude, and showed her mystic fires to guide their errant course. The Saturnian herself leads their going, lest her own folk should meet them and forbid them passage, and the glory of their great enterprise be lost. Moreover, Iris is bid and cherish the dead bodies of the princes, and laves their decaying limbs with mysterious dews and ambrosial juices, that they may resist the longer and await the pyre, nor perish before the flames have seized them. Low, ornatus, haggard of face and pale from a gaping wound,

• 21:14Liv Albert?

  He had lost his friends and was hampered by a recent blow, Feebly picks his way in timid stealth Through pathless deserts leaning upon a broken spear. When, in amazement, he beheld the solitude Stirred by strange tumult and the train of women, All that he sees surviving of the host of Lerna, He inquires not of their journey or its cause, It's clear enough, But in mournful accents thus accosts them: "Where hapless ones, where are you journeying? Do you hope for funeral fires for your dead heroes? A sentinel of the slain stands there, unsleeping, And keeps count of the unburied corpses for the king. Tears are there, nowhere, all men that venture nigh

• 21:56Liv Albert?

  Are driven far away, only beasts and birds are suffered to approach. Will the just Creon pay respect to your grief? Sooner may one prevail upon the merciless altars of Bucyris Or the ravening Odrysian stall or the Sicilian deities; Perchance he will carry off the suppliants, If I know his mind, nor will he slay you Upon the bodies of your lords, but far from the spirits you love. Nay, flee, while your road is safe, Return to Lerna and carve, this you can yet do, The names of your lost ones on empty sepulchers, And call the absent ghosts to untenanted tombs. Or implore Caecropion's secour,

• 22:39Liv Albert?

  They say that Theseus draws nigh, Returning in triumph from victory on Thermidon's banks. By force of arms alone will Creon learn humanity. So he spoke, but they were horrified amid their tears, And their great zest of going was struck with dismay, And all their faces were frozen in one pallor. Even so, when the hungry roar of the Hircanian tigress Comes wafted on the wind to gentle heifers, At the sound terror seizes the countryside, And all are filled with a mighty fear which shall please her, Whose shoulders shall feel the ravening beast upon them.

• 23:20Liv Albert?

  Straightway, opinion is divided by many, a discordant impulse. Some wish to supplicate Thebes and haughty Creon, others to see if the clemency of the Attic folk will grant them aught. Return seems cowardly and is last in their thoughts. Hereupon Argia conceives a sudden passion for more than womanly valor, and neglecting her sex, designs a mighty emprise. She proposes cruel expectations of the unequalled peril to come to grips with the law of the impious realm, whether no maid of Rhodoppe, no child of snowy Phasus, ringed round by virgin cohorts, would go.

• 24:01Liv Albert?

  Then she devises a cunning ruse whereby to separate herself from her faithful train, and in contempt of her life and in the rashness of overpowering grief, to challenge the merciless gods and the cruel king. Devotion and chaste passion urge her on. He himself, too, appears before her eyes, manifest in every fact, now as her guest, unhappy girl, now pledging his hand at the first holy rites, now her kindly spouse, and now grimly helmed and mournful in her embrace, and often looking back from the outer threshold of the gate. But no image more frequently haunts her mind than that which comes, stripped of its armour,

• 24:46Liv Albert?

  from the blood of the aeonian battlefield, and cries for burial. Her soul, fretted with such frenzy, she sickens and with purest passion woos the grave. Then, turning to her Pelasian comrades, "Do you," she says, "call forth the Attic hosts in Marathonian arms, and may fortune favor your devoted toil? Suffer me, to penetrate the Ogaigian abodes, who was the sole cause of ruin, and endure the first terrors of the monarch. Nor shall I beat at the city's doors in vain, the parents and the sisters of my lord are there. Not as a stranger shall I enter Thebes, only call me not back, my keen desire urges me

• 25:30Liv Albert?

  there, and gives me good omen."

• 25:34Liv Albert?

  Without more words, she selects Manetes alone, once the guardian and counselor of her mated modesty, and though without experience of knowledge of the country hurries on with headlong speed by the way that Ornatus had come. And when she seemed to have left afar the comrades of her woes, "Could I wait?" she cried, "for the pleasure of tardy Theseus, while you, ah, Soro, are mouldering on the emeny's enemies' fields? What is chieftain's? What is cunning soothsayer assent to war? Meanwhile, your body does decay; rather than that shall I not give my own limbs for the taloned birds to tear? Even now, if you have any feeling in the world of shades, you are complaining,

• 26:19Liv Albert?

  faithful spouse, to the deities of Styx, that I am heart-hearted, that I am slow in coming. Alas, if you still are bare, alas, if perchance already buried, mine is the crime in either case, has Soro, then no power? Is death or fierce Creon all a dream? Ornatus, you do cheer me on my way." So speaking, she hastens with rapid pace over the fields of Magara; folk that she meets point out her path, awestruck at her miserable plight. With grim countenance she strides onward, terrified by no sound without a panic within, with all the confidence of her utter despair, and rather feared than fearing,

• 27:04Liv Albert?

  as when upon a knight in Phrygia, Dindamus, resounds with wailing and the crazy leader of the women's revel speeds to the waters of pine-rearing Simoas, she to whom the goddess herself gave the knife, selecting her for bloodshed, and marked her with the wool-bound wreath.

• 27:36Liv Albert?

  This episode is brought to you by Quince. You know the drill. Quince makes elevated, everyday essentials using premium materials like Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and premium stretch denim. I have been speaking into a microphone about Quince for a while now, and I have no complaints. I have a bunch of their stuff. I've got a couple cute sweaters that, I mean, it's nearing sweater season, so those will be back in the rotation anytime now. And I have this leather bag that I absolutely love. It's like this braided leather, and I use it like basically every day. Because that's the thing, they have really great basics. Like, they have really great

• 28:21Liv Albert?

  things that you can wear with so many other things. Just the options are endless. And as the weather gets colder, like all the sweaters in my closet, Quince has everything you need to round out your wardrobe, from warm, responsibly sourced down jackets and cozy cashmere scarves and gloves, to beautiful 14 karat gold jewelry that adds the perfect finishing touch. And of course, everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And if we haven't learned anything in the last 10 years, isn't it just getting rid of the middlemen, you know, making things more affordable?

• 29:02Liv Albert?

  So find the fall pieces you'll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was me. Let's talk about myths, baby. It's the best way to support the show.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 30:15Liv Albert?

  Already had Father Titan hidden his flaming chariot in the Hesperian flood. To emerge again from other waves, yet she, her weary toil beguiled by grief, knows not that the day is ended. Nor does the gathering gloom of the fields affray her. But unchecked, she fares over pathless rocks, past boughs that threaten to fall, through mysterious forests, pitch dark even in cloudless day, over ploughlands scarred with hidden dykes, plunging heedless through rivers, past sleeping beasts and dangerous lairs of fearful monsters. So great is the strength and passion of grief.

• 30:59Liv Albert?

  Manetes is ashamed of his slower pace and marvels at the gait of his frail ward. What abodes of beasts or men echoed not to her grievous plaint? How often did she lose the track as she went? How often did the solace of the companion flame desert her straying steps and the cold darkness swallow up the torchlight? And now, on the slopes of Pentheus's ridge, lie beside their weary path and broaden into plain, when Manetes, nigh failing and with panting breast, thus begins to speak.

• 31:36Liv Albert?

  Not far away, Argia, if the hope inspired by the toils we have endured deceives not, lie, methinks, the Ogaigian dwellings and the bodies that lack suppoker. From close at hand come waves of heavily tainted air, and mighty birds are returning through the void. It is indeed that cruel battlefield, nor is the city far distant. Do you see how the plain outstretches the vast shadow of the walls, and how the dying fires flicker from the watchtowers? The city is hard by, night herself was more silent, but a moment passed, and only the stars broke through the pitchy gloom. Argia shuddered, and stretched out her right hand toward the walls.

• 32:21Liv Albert?

  Oh, city of Thebes, once longed for, but now the dwelling of our foes, yet, if you give back my dead spouse uninjured, even so a soil beloved. See, do you see in what garb arrayed, by what a train accompanied, I, the daughter-in-law of mighty Oedipus, for the first time approach your gates? No unhallowed wish have I, a stranger, I beg, but for a pyre, a corpse, and the leave to mourn. Him restored me, I pray, who was exiled from his realm and conquered in the fight, him, who you deem not worthy of his father's throne. And come you too, I beg, if spirits have any shape, and souls can wander freed from

• 33:05Liv Albert?

  their bodies, show me the way, and lead me yourself to your own corpse, if I have so deserved. She spoke, and entering the pastoral shelter of a neighboring cottage, kindles anew the breath of the dying brand, and impetuously rushes forth upon the awful plain. Even so did the bereaved Ceres light her torch, and from Aetna's rocks cast the shifting glare of the mighty flare here over Sicily, there over Osonia, as she followed the traces of the dark ravisher and the great wheel furrows in the dust. And Chelidus himself re-echoes her wild wailings, and illuminates her path with bursting fire.

• 33:50Liv Albert?

  Persephone, cry woods and rivers, seas and clouds, only the palace of her stygian lord calls not Persephone.

• 34:01Liv Albert?

  Her faithful supporter warns the distracted dame to remember Creon and keep low her torch in stealthy hiding. She who of late was feared as queen throughout argive cities, the ambitious hope of suitors and sacred promise of her race, through all the terrors of the night without a guide and in the presence of the foe goes on alone, over obstacles of arms, over grass all slippery with gore, trembling not at the gloom nor at troops of spirits hovering around or ghosts bewailing their own limbs, often treading blindly but unheeding on swords and weapons she labors but to avoid the fallen, and thinks every corpse the one she seeks.

• 34:45Liv Albert?

  While with clean glance she searches the slain and bending down turns bodies on their backs and complains to the stars that they give not enough light. By chance, Juno, stealing herself from the bosom of her mighty lord, was faring through the slumberous darkness of the sky to Theseus's walls, that she might move Pallas to yield and Athens to give gracious welcome to the pious suppleance. And when from the height of heaven she beheld the innocent Argia, exhausted by fruitless wandering over the plain, she was grieved at the sight, and encountering the lunar team she faced them and spoke thus with calm accents:

• 35:27Liv Albert?

  "Grant me a little boon, O Cynthia, if Juno can command respect, it is true that Jove's bidding, you shameless one, that threefold night when Hercules, but I will let old quarrels be, can now you do me a service. Argia, the daughter of Anakis, my favorite votary, sees you in what a night she roams, nor with failing strength can find her spouse in the thick darkness. Your beams too are faint with shrouding vapour, show forth your horns, I pray you, and let your orbit approach the earth nearer than is your wont. This sleep, too, who leaning forward piles for you your humid chariot reins, send him upon the aeonian watchmen.

• 36:10Liv Albert?

  Scare's, had she spoken when the goddess cleft the clouds and displayed her mighty orb, the shadows started in terror, and when the stars were shorn of their radiance, Scare's did Saturnia herself endure the brightness."

• 36:26Liv Albert?

  First by the light that floods the plain she recognizes her husband's cloak, her own handiwork, poor woman. Though the texture is hidden and the purple mourns to be suffused with blood. And while she calls upon the gods and thinks that this is all that is left of the beloved corpse, she catches sight of himself, nigh trampled into the dust. Her spirit quailed and vision and speech fled and grief thrust back her tears. Then she falls prostrate about his face and seeks with kisses for his departed soul and pressing the blood from his hair and raiment gathers it up to treasure. At last, as her voice returns, "My husband? Is it he who once marched captain of the war to the realm that was his due?

• 37:12Liv Albert?

  Is it the son-in-law of powerful Adrastus whom I now behold? Is this the manner in which I go to meet your triumph? Raise here your countenance and your sightless eyes, Argia, has come to your Thebes; lead me then inside the city; show me your father's halls and make me welcome in your turn." "Alas, what am I doing? You lie on the naked earth and this is all that you do own of your native land. What were those quarrels? It is sure your brother holds not dominion here; did you move none of your own to tears? Where is your mother? Where is the famed Antigone? Verily, it is for me you lie dead; for me alone you did suffer defeat, I asked you. Where do you march?

• 37:56Liv Albert?

  Why do you demand the scepter denied to you? You have Argos and will reign in my father's halls; long honors await you here, an undivided power." "But why do I complain? Myself I gave you war and with my own lips begged it of my sorrowing father, that now I might hold you thus in my embrace." "But it is well, you gods, I thank you. Fortune, the distant hope of my wandering is fulfilled; I have found his body whole." Ah, what a deep and gaping wound! Was this your brother's work? Were lies, I pray, that infamous robber? I would outdo the birds, might I but approach him, and keep the beasts away. Has the fell villain fire as well?

• 38:41Liv Albert?

  But you, your land, shall not behold, undour'd, aflamed! Burn you shall, and tears that may not weep for kings shall rain on you, and desolate love shall endure, and, yes, tend your sepulchre. Your son shall be the witness of my sorrow. A little polyomites shall cherish your couch for me. Lo, with another torch and other sounds of woe, hapless antigony drew nigh the dead, having scarce won from the town the escape she longed for. For ever do guards attend her, and the king himself bids her to be held fast. The times of watching are shortened, and more frequent glow the fires. Therefore she makes excuses for her delaying to the gods and her brother, and frantically, so soon as the rough sentinels relaxed,

• 39:26Liv Albert?

  one whit their vigilance burst from out the walls. With such a cry does the virgin lioness terrify the countryside, her fury free at last, when, for the first time, her mother shares not in her rage. Not long did she tarry, for she knew the cruel plain and where her brother lay in the dust. Menetes, as he stands unbusied, marks her as she comes, and hushes the groans of his dear ward. But when the latest sob reached the maiden's uplifted ears, and when she saw by the stars' rays the light of either torch her mourning raymond and disheveled hair, and face all foul with congealed gore, she cried: Whose body do you seek, in this night that is mine? Who are you, daring woman?

• 40:13Liv Albert?

  Not answered the other for a while, but cast her raymond about her husband's face, and likewise her own, a prey to sudden fear, and a while forgetful of her sorrow. Antigony, chiding her suspected silence, persists the more, and urges her comrade and herself, but both are lost in utter silence.

• 40:32Liv Albert?

  At last Argia unveiled her face and spoke, yet still clasped the body. If you come to seek aught with me in this stale blood of battle, if you also fear Creon's harsh commands, I can with confidence reveal myself to you. If you are wretched and surely I behold tears and signs of grief, come, join with me in friendship. Addressed as his royal seat, am I, ah, is any near? At the pyre of my beloved Poloniques, though kingdoms set their ban, the Cadmian made it and started in a maze, and trembled, and broke in upon her speech. Is it I, then, whom you do fear? How blind is chance, I, the partner of your woes! Mine are the limbs you hold, mine the corpse you do bewail.

• 41:16Liv Albert?

  Take him, he is yours! Ah, shame for the cowardly devotion of a sister, she came before me!

• 41:24Liv Albert?

  Side by side they fall, and together embracing the same body, mingle greedily their tears and tresses, and share his limbs between them. And anon return with united lament to his face, and glut themselves by turns upon his well-loved breast. And while they recall the one her brother and the other her spouse, and each tells to each the tale of Argos and of Thebes, Argia in long strain brings to mind her own sad story. By the sacred communion of our stolen mourning, by our common dead and the witnessing stars, I swear to you, not his lost crown, nor his native soil, nor his dear mother's breast, did he desire, wandering exile though he was, but you alone.

• 42:10Liv Albert?

  Of you, Antigone, he spoke by night and day, I was a lesser care and easily relinquished. Yet did you perchance before the horrid deed, from a lofty turret, behold him? Towering high and giving the Grecian companies their banners, and he looked back at you from the very line of battle, and saluted you with his sword and the nodding summit of his helm. But I was far away. But what God drove them to the extremity of wrath! Did your prayers not avail, did the other refuse your own entreaty?

• 42:43Liv Albert?

  Antigone had begun to set forth the causes and the cruelty of fate, but the faithful comrade warned them. No, finish rather your task, already the stars are paling en route before the approaching day. Complete your toil, the time for tears will come, kindle the fire, then weep your fill.

• 43:02Liv Albert?

  Nor far away a roar betrayed the channel of Ismenos, where he was flowing still discoloured and befouled by gore. Here with united effort they feebly bare the mangled limbs, while their companion, as weak as they, adds his arms to theirs. So did his sisters lave the smoking phaeton, Hyperion's son, in the heated paddus. Scarc was he interred when a weeping grove rose by the riverside. When the filth was purged in the stream and the body was once more beautiful in death, the wretched women after the last kisses searched for fire. But dead and cold were the ashes in the mouldering pits and all the pyres were silent.

• 43:45Liv Albert?

  Still there remained one funeral pyre, whether by chance or heaven's will, that had been fated to burn the limbs of fierce Eteocles. Whether fortune once gave opportunity for portents or the fury had spared the fires for mutual strife? Here both in their eagerness beheld a feeble glow still alive among the blackened timbers and together wept tears of joy. Nor yet knew they whose pyre, but prayed whosoever it be that he be favourable and graciously admit a partner to his latest ashes and unite their ghosts. Once more behold the brothers, as soon as the devouring fire touched the body

• 44:26Liv Albert?

  the pile shook, and streams up with double head each darting tongues of flashing light. As though pale orcus had set in conflict the torches of the humanities, each ball of fire threatens and strives to outreach the other. The very timbers with all their massive weight were moved and gave way a space. The maiden cries out in terror: "We are undone, ourselves we have stirred his wrath in death, it was his brother! Who else would be so cruel as to spurn the approach of a stranger ghost?" "Lo, I recognise the broken buckler and the charred sword-belt, yes, it was his brother!" Do you see how the flame shrinks away and yet rushes to the fight?

• 45:07Liv Albert?

  Alive, yes, alive, is that impious hatred! The war was in vain, while thus you strive, unhappy ones; Creon is conquered after all. Gone is your realm; why then such fury? For whom do you rage? Appease your anger, and you, everywhere in exile, ever debarred from justice, yield at last. This is your wife's and your sister's prayer; else shall we leap into the fierce flame to part you! Scarc'd had she spoken, when a sudden tremor shook the plain and the lofty roofs, and increased the chasm of the discordant pyre, while the watchman, whose very sleep-shaped images

• 45:51Liv Albert?

  of woe, started from repose. Straightway the soldiers rush forth, and with a ring of arms search the whole countryside. As they draw nigh, the old man alone has fear, but the women, openly before the pyre, confess to have spurned fierce Creon's command, and with loud cry admit their deed, careless, for they see that already the whole body is consumed. Ambitious are they for cruel destruction, and a spirited hope of death is aflame within them. They contend that they stole, the one her consort's the other her kinsman's limbs, and prove their case by turns. I brought the body, but I the fire; I was led by affection, I by love. They delight to ask for cruel punishment, and to thrust their arms into the chains.

• 46:36Liv Albert?

  Gone is the reverence, but that but now was in the words of each, wrath and hatred one would deem it, so loud on either side the r- ryes, the cries of discord; they even drag their captors before the king. But far away, Juno leads the distraught Pheronian dames, herself no less distraught, to the walls of Athens, having gained at last the goodwill of Pallas Athena. And goes before them on the road, she gives the train of mourners favor in the people's sight, and inspires reverence for their tears. With her own hand she gives them boughs of olives and supplicating fillets, and teaches

• 47:16Liv Albert?

  them to hide their faces in their robes, and bear before them urns untenanted by the dead. A multitude of every age streams forth from the Arechthean homes and fills the housetops and the streets whence comes this swarm, whence so many mourners together. Not yet do they know the cause of their distress, yet are already weeping. With either concourse the goddess mingles and tells them of all, of what race they are sprung, what deaths they are bewailing, and what they seek. They themselves too in various converse make everywhere loud outcry against the Ogagian laws and the inhuman creon.

• 47:57Liv Albert?

  No lengthier plaint do the Getic birds utter upon the foreign housetops in mutilated speech, when they exclaim against the treachery of the wedding-bower and Tarius's cruel deed. There was in the midst of the city an altar, belonging to no god, of power gentle clemency had there her seat, and the wretched made it sacred. Never lacked she a new suppliant, none did she condemn or refuse their prayers. All that ask are heard, night and day, may one approach and win the heart of the goddess by complaints alone. No costly rites are hers, she accepts no incense flame, no blood deep welling, tears flow upon her altar, sad offerings of severed tresses hang above it, and raiment left when

• 48:42Liv Albert?

  fortune changed. Around is a grove of gentle trees, marked by the cult of the venerable wool-entwined laurel and the suppliant olive. No images there, to no metal is the divine form entrusted, in hearts and minds does the goddess delight to dwell. The distressed are ever near her, her precinct ever swarms with needy folk, only to the prosperous is her shrine unknown. Fame says that the sons of Hercules, saved in battle after the death of their divine father, set up this altar, but fame comes short of truth. It is right to believe that the heavenly ones themselves, to whom Athens was ever a welcoming land, as once they gave laws and a new man and sacred ceremonies, and the

• 49:27Liv Albert?

  seas that here descend upon the empty earth, so now sanctified in this spot a common refuge for traveling souls, whence the wrath and threatenings of monarchs might be far removed, and fortune depart from a shrine of righteousness. All ready to countless races were those altars known. Here came flocking those defeated in war and exiled from their country, kings who had lost their realms and those guilty of grievous crime and sought for peace. And later this abode of kindliness overcame the rage of Oedipus and sheltered the murder of Olyntus and defended hapless Orestes from his mother. Here guided by the common folk comes the distressful band of Lerna

• 50:11Liv Albert?

  and the crowd of previous votaries give way before them. Scarc were they arrived when their troubles were soothed and their hearts had rest. Even as cranes chased over the deep by their native north wind beholding pharaohs spread in denser array over the sky and raise a joyful clamor, they delight beneath a cloudless heaven to thin scorn of snows and to loose the grip of winter by the banks of Nile. And now Theseus, drawing near his native land in laureled car after fierce battling with the Scythian folk, is heralded by glad applause and the heaven-flung shout of the populace and the merry trump of warfare ended.

• 50:56Liv Albert?

  Before the chief are borne his spoils and virgin chariots that recall the grim war-god, and wagons heaped with crests and downcast steeds and broken axes wherewith the foe were wont to cleave the forest than frozen Myotis. Light quivers too are borne and baldricks fiery with gems and targis stained with the blood of warrior maids. They themselves, still unafraid, admit no thought of sex and scorn to entreat nor utter mean lament, only they seek the shrine of unwedded Minerva. The first passion of the folk is to behold the conqueror, drawn by his four snow-white steeds.

• 51:39Liv Albert?

  Hippolyta, too, drew all toward her, friendly now in look and patient of the marriage bond. With hushed whispers and sidelong gaze the attic dames marvel that she has broken her country's austere laws, that her locks are trim and all her bosom hidden beneath her robe, and that though a barbarian, she mingles with mighty Athens and comes to bear offspring to her foemen lord.

• 52:13Liv Albert?

  The sorrowful daughters of Pelops moved a short space from the altars where they sat, and marvelled at the triumph with its train of spoils and their vanquished lords came once more to their minds. And when the conqueror halted the chariots and from his proud car inquired the causes that had brought them, and with kind attention bade them make their request, the wife of Capanius dared speak before the others. Warlike son of Aegeus, for whom fortune opens up vast fields of unexpected glory through our ruin, no strangers by race are we, nor guilty of any heinous crime. Our home was Argos, and our husband princes, would they had not also been brave?

• 52:58Liv Albert?

  What need was there to arouse a sevenfold host and chastise the city of Agonore? We complain not that they were slain, but they were no monsters risen from Sicilian dens, or twy formed creatures of ossa who fell in the battle. Of their race and famous fathers I speak not; they were men, renowned Theseus, and of the seed of men, born to the selfsame stars, to the same human lot, the same food and drink as you are. Yet Creon denies them fire, and like the father of the Furies, or the ferryman of Lethe's stream, debars them from the Stygian gate, and keeps them hovering doubtfully between the worlds of heaven and hell. Alas, sovereign nature, where are the gods?

• 53:43Liv Albert?

  Where is the hurler of the unrighteous brand? Where are you, Athens? Already the seventh dawn shrinks with frightened steeds from their corpses, the starry pole shudders in all its splendors and withdraws its rays. Already the very birds and prowling beasts loathe the horrid carrion, and the battlefield that reeks of corruption and heavily taints the breezes and the air. How much, indeed, remains? Let him but permit me to sweep up bare bones and putrid gore! Make haste, you worthy sons of Kikrop! Such a vengeance becomes you, before the Mathians and Thracians suffer, and every race of men that would feign be burnt on pyres, and be given the last rites of death.

• 54:28Liv Albert?

  For what limit will be set to his fury? We made war, I grant it, but hatred is assuaged and death has put an end to sullen wrath. You also, for so fame has taught us of your noble deeds, did not give cynus and the unutterable Kerkion to cruel monsters, and were willing to let fierce Skiron burn. I ween too, that Teneus smoked with Amazonian pyres. Where you have brought this host, deem then this triumph also worthy of you. Devote one exploit to earth and heaven and hell alike, if you did save your native marathon from fear and the hulls of Crete, and if the aged mother that welcomed you shed not her tears in vain. So may no battles of your lack palaces aid,

• 55:14Liv Albert?

  nor the divine Tyrrhenian envy your equal exploits. May your mother ever behold your triumphant in your car, and Athens know not defeat, nor ever make a prayer like mine. She spoke. They all with hands outstretched make clamorous echo to her words. The Neptunian hero, flushed, deeply stirred by their tears, soon fired by righteous anger, he cries: "What fury has inspired this strange, unkingly conduct? Not so minded were the Greeks at my departure, when I sought Scivia in the Pontic snows. Where is this new madness from? Did you think Theseus conquered, fell Creon? I am near at hand, think me not blood-weary,

• 55:57Liv Albert?

  even yet my spear thirsts for righteous slaughter. I make no delay, turn on the instant your galloping steed, most trusty figueus. Speed to the Tyrian towers and proclaim that the Danai must burn, of Thebes must fight." So speaks he, forgetful of the labors of warfare and the march, and encourages his men and inspires their exhausted strength anew. As when a bull has lately won back his brides and pasture and ceased from battle. If by chance another glade resounds with a warrior's lowing, then, though his neck and breast be dripping with the bloody rain, he prepares afresh for war, and pawing the plain hides his groaning and conceals his wounds in dust.

• 56:39Liv Albert?

  Tritonia herself smote upon her buckler the Libyan terror, the Medusa that guards her bosom. Straightway all the serpents rose erect, together and in a mass, looked towards Thebes. Not yet were the attic warriors on the march, and already ill-fated Dirke trembled at the trumpet's sound.

• 58:02Liv Albert?

  At once not only are they inflamed to war, who were returned from sharing the Caucasian victory, all the countryside stirred up its untrained sons to war. They flock together and of their own accord follow their prince's standard. The men who spare not chilly Brawn and the Monetian fields and Perea's, firm ground for frightened sailors, and Marathon, yet not yet famous for her eastern triumph. The homesteads of Icarius and of Celius that entertained their native gods, sent troops to battle. Green Maleni, too, and Igalius, rich in forests, and Parnes, friend of vines, and Le Cabezos, richer in the juicy olive.

• 58:44Liv Albert?

  Violent Elias came, and the plowman of fragrant Hymetis. You, too, a Carnai, who did clothe the bare wands in ivy. Soonon, far seen of eastern prowess, is left behind. Whence Geas fell, deceived by the lying sails of the Cretan bark, and gave a name to the wandering main. (SPO) These folks from Salamis, those from Elephus, Ceres's town, were sent, Their plows hung up to the dreadful fray, And they whom Calyroe enfold with her nine errant streams, And Alyssos, who, privy to Orytheia's rape, Concealed beneath his banks the Thracian lover. That hill, too, is emptied for the fight, Where gods strove mightily,

• 59:27Liv Albert?

  Until a new tree rose from the doubting rocks And cast its long shadow on the retreating sea. Hippolyta, too, would have led her northern squadrons To the Cadmean walls, But the already certain hope of her swelling womb restrains her, And her spouse entreats her to dismiss the thoughts of battle, And in the marriage-bower to dedicate her war-spent quiver.

• 59:56Liv Albert?

  When the chief perceives them in warlike mood And ablaze with joy a-still, How they give hurried kisses and brief embraces To their loving children, He speaks thus from his lofty chariot: Soldiers, who will defend with me The laws of nations and the covenants of heaven, Take courage worthy of our emprise! For us, it is clear, stands the favor of all gods and men, Nature our guide, and the silent multitudes of Avernus; For them, the troops of the Furies That Thebes has marshalled, And the snake-haired sisters bring forth their banners. Onward, in warlike spirit and trust, I pray you, In a cause so noble! He spoke, and hurling his spear dashed forth upon the road,

• 1:00:41Liv Albert?

  As when Jupiter plants his cloudy footsteps Upon the hyperborean pole And makes the stars tremble at the oncoming of winter. Aeolia is riven, and the storm indignant At its long idleness takes heart, And the north whistles with the hurricane. Then roar the mountains and the waves, Clouds battle in the blind gloom, And thunders and crazed lightnings revel.

• 1:01:08Liv Albert?

  The smitten earth groans, the heavy hoof changes the aspect of the verdant plains, and the crushed fields expire beneath countless troops of horse and foot. Nor is the gleam of armor lost in the thick dust, but flashes far into the air, and the spears burn amid the clouds. Night too, in the quiet shades they add to their toil, and the warriors mightily strive how they may speed the army's march, who may proclaim from a hillock the first sight of Thebes, who lance will first stand fixed in the Ogagianor ampart. But from afar Theseus, son of Neptune, dwarfs the ranks with his huge shield,

• 1:01:49Liv Albert?

  and bears upon its boss the hundred cities and hundred walls of Crete, the prelude to his own renown, and himself in the windings of the monstrous cave, twisting the shaggy neck of the struggling bull, and binding him fast with sinewy arms at grip of either hand, and avoiding the horns with the head drawn back. Terrified are the folk when he goes to battle beneath the shelter of that grim device. To behold Theseus in double shape and his hams twice drenched in gore! He himself recalls his deeds of old, the band of comrades and the once-dreaded doorway, and the pale face of the Gnausian maid, has she followed out the clue?

• 1:02:33Liv Albert?

  But meanwhile, the ruthless Creon leads onward to death, antigony, and the widowed daughter of Adrastus, their hands fettered behind them, both cheerful and proudly eager for death. They hold out their necks to the swords and battle the cruel king. When lo, bearing Theseus's message, Phigias stood there. All peaceful he, with innocent olive branch, but war is his intent, and war he threatens in loud and angry tones, and, well remembering his lord's commands, repeats that he will soon be here at hand in person, soon covering the countryside as he passes with all his coh- cohorts. The Theban stood in doubt amid the surging cares.

• 1:03:18Liv Albert?

  His anger wavers, and the first wrath grows cold. Then, stealing his heart, and with a feigned and sullen smile, he answered: "Too slight assurance, then, did we give of Mycenae's ruin? Lo, here comes others to vex our walls; let them come. We take the challenge, but let them not whine, when they are beaten. One law awaits the conquered." He speaks, but sees the daylight wane in thickening dust, and the sharp outlines fade from the Tyrian hills; yet, in pale anxiety, he bids his people arm and go to war. And suddenly beholds in his palace hall the Furies, and Menichus weeping, and the Pelasgians exultant on their pyres.

• 1:04:01Liv Albert?

  Ah, fatal day, when peace gained for Thebes at such a price of blood is lost again! They tear down the arms lately hung in their native shrines, and shield their bodies with pierced bucklers, dawn mutilated helms, and take up gore-encrusted spears. None is happy with quiver or sword; none is glorious to behold upon his charger; no trust is there in the palisade. The city-walls are all agape; the gates cry for defences; the former foe has left them in possession; the battlements are gone. Capanius has overthrown them, strengthless and faint. The warriors no more give the last kisses to wives or children,

• 1:04:44Liv Albert?

  nor do their dazed parents utter any prayer.

• 1:04:49Liv Albert?

  Meanwhile, the attic chief, beholding the rays burst through the clouds in growing splendor, and the sun first glint upon the arms, leaps down into the plain, where, by the walls, the dead still lie unburied; and, breathing beneath his dusty helm, the dread vapors of the tainted air, he groans and is inflamed to righteous rage for war. His honour, at least, did the Theban chieftain pay to the hapless Danians, that he engage not the warring hosts in a second battle over the very bodies of the fallen, or else, that his impious lust might lose naught of mangled carnage. Does he choose a virgin field to drink up the streams of gore?

• 1:05:31Liv Albert?

  Already in far different wise Bologna summons the armies to mutual fight. Here only is the battle cry. Here only the trumpet blast. There frail warriors stand with drooping ineffectual swords and loosened slings. They give way and, drawing back their armor, display old wounds yet bleeding. Already even the Cacropian chiefs have lost their ardor for the fray. Their temper wanes and confident valor flames less high. Just as the wrath of the winds is weakened if no forest impede their raging blasts and the furious billows are silent where there is no shore.

• 1:06:12Liv Albert?

  But when Theseus, born of the main, held aloft his Marathonian oaken shaft whose cruel shadow as he lifted it fell upon the foe and the spear-point flashed over the battlefield afar as though father Mavorz were driving his Edonian chariot down from Hyma's summit with death and panic riding upon his hurried axle. Even so does pale fear drive the sons of Agonore in terror-stricken rout. But Theseus disdains to do battle with the fugitives. His right hand thinks scorn of easy victims. The rest of the gallant host sate their rage in common slaughter. Even so dogs and coward wolves delight in prey that lies cowering at their feet

• 1:06:57Liv Albert?

  while anger is the strength of mighty lions. Yet he slays Olenius and Lamarus. The one he takes arrows from his quiver, the other as he raises a great stone aloft. And the sons of Alcatas, trusting in their threefold might, whom he pierces at long range with his many spears. Phileus received the spear-point in his breast. Helops bit the iron with his teeth. The missile sped through the shoulder of Iapex. And now he makes for Hymon, riding aloft in four-horse chariot and whirls the terrible javelin with his arm. The other swerved his frightened steeds. But the spear far-flung struck home and piercing two of them thirsted for yet a third wound.

• 1:07:42Liv Albert?

  But the point was stayed by the intervening pole.

• 1:07:48Liv Albert?

  But Creon alone is the object of his hopes and prayers. Him alone he summons with terrible challenge amid the all the squadrons of the field. He perceives him on the battlefront afar, extorting his troops and uttering desperate threats in vain. His comrades flee away, but those of Theseus leave him at his bidding, relying on the gods and the prowess of their chief. Creon restrains his men and calls them back, but seeing that he is hated by either side alike, he nerves himself to a last outburst of rage, inspired now by the frenzy of doom and emboldened by inevitable death.

• 1:08:27Liv Albert?

  "It is no targ-bearing girls you do battle here, no maidens' hands or hours be sure. Here is the stern strife of men, who have sent great Tydeus and furious Hippomedon to death, and the vast bulk of Capaeus to the shades. What headlong madness drove you to fight, you reckless fool? Do you not see their corpses whom you would avenge?" So he spoke, and lodged his missile fruitlessly in the buckler's edge. But the terrible son of Aegaeus laughed at his words and deed alike, and, poising his iron-clad shaft for a mighty blow, first proudly cries in thunderous accents:

• 1:09:10Liv Albert?

  "You argive spirits, to whom I offer this victim, open wide the void of Tartarus, bring forth the avenging furies, lo, Creon comes!" He spoke, and the quivering spear rends the air. Then, where with the iron weft of the slender chains combine to form the manifold querass, it falls. Through a thousand meshes, spirits upward, the accursed blood, he sinks, his eyes open, in the last spasm of death. Theseus stands over him in stern wrath, and, spoiling him of his armour, speaks: "Now are you pleased to give dead foes the fire that is their due? Now will you bury the vanquished?

• 1:09:52Liv Albert?

  Go to your dreadful reckoning, yet be assumed of your own burial."

• 1:09:58Liv Albert?

  From either side the banners meet and mingle in friendly tumult. On the very field of war a treaty is made, and Theseus is now a welcome guest. They beg him to approach their walls, and to deem their homes worthy of his presence. The victor disdains not to set foot in the dwelling of his foes. The Ogagian dames and maidens rejoice, even as, overcome by the warring Thersis, Ganges by now drunken applauded womanly revels. Lo, yonder on the shady heights of Dirke, a shout of women shakes the vault, and the Pelasgian matrons come running down. Like raving Theads are they summoned to Bacchus's wars,

• 1:10:43Liv Albert?

  demanding, "You, might deem, or having done some deed of horror?" Their wailing is of joy, fresh tears gush forth. They dart now here, now there, doubting whether first to seek great-hearted Theseus, or Creon, or their own kinsmen. Their widowed grief leads them to the dead. I could not, even if some god gave hundred-fold utterance to my heart, recount in worthy strains so vast a funeral of chieftains alike and common folk. So many lamentations united. How fearless Evadne, with impetuous bound, had her fill of the fires, she loved and sought the thunderbolt in that mighty breast. How as she lay and showered kisses on his terrible form,

• 1:11:27Liv Albert?

  his unhappy spouse made excuse for Tides. How Argia tells her sister the story of the cruel watchman, with that, with what lament the Aramanthian mother bewails the Arcadian. The Arcadian who keeps his beauty though all his blood is spent. The Arcadian wept for by either host alike. Scarc would new inspiration, or Apollo's presence, sustain the task, and my little bark has voyaged far and deserves her haven. Will it you endure in the time to come, oh my Thebaid, for twelve years, object of my wakeful toil? Will you survive your master and be red?

• 1:12:09Liv Albert?

  Of a truth already present, fame has paved you a friendly road and begun to hold you up, young as you are, to future ages. Already great-hearted Caesar deigns to know you, and the youth of Italy eagerly learns and recounts your verse. "O live, I pray, nor rival the divine in Nid, but follow afar and ever venerate its footsteps." Soon, if any envy as yet overclouds you, it shall pass away, and after I am gone, your well-won honors shall be duly paid.

• 1:12:49Liv Albert?

  The end.

• 1:12:52Liv Albert?

  Oh, that was, okay, that, that final book was like so much more and so much better than I was expecting. Like, I love that all of the, like, descriptions are like Theseus comes and saves the day. Meanwhile, most of the actual final book are like women trying to make things right, like women walking like miles and miles and miles, like that, the idea of Argia, right? So Pauline Case's wife from Argos, like, she's literally walking, like, I don't even, it would have been days, days of walking, and it's like, she doesn't stop. The man with her is like fucking exhausted, but she doesn't stop. And then the fact that she meets Antigone and they're both just like, okay, cool, no,

• 1:13:34Liv Albert?

  let's team up, like, and we don't give a shit, like, I, I love that there's another woman, it's not just Antigone. Oh, I'm so obsessed with all of that. The fact that Theseus is coming back from like fucking warring with the Amazons though, and Hippolyta's pregnant, so she can't help him in the war, like, fuck you into the sun.

• 1:13:51Liv Albert?

  But I really enjoyed that last one. That was a really beautiful way to wrap it up, and I'm not gonna lie, that last little paragraph got me. Like, I'm gonna say it again, okay? Because I'm kind of obsessed with this. "Will you endure in the time to come, oh my Thebaid, for twelve years, object of my wakeful toil? Will you survive your master and be red?" Like, I'm gonna cry. This man, 2,000 years ago, okay? 2,000 years ago, this man spent 12 years writing this epic.

• 1:14:29Liv Albert?

  And I just spent almost a year reading it to you all. Two thousand years later, like. I don't normally like dudes from the ancient world, but Statius, oh, you you pulled at my heartstrings there. Like, how cool is that? Like, sorry, I'm not over it. Like, I just, the idea that a person two thousand years ago is like, I devoted 12 years of my life to writing this epic poem, and I'm really proud of it. And like, I don't want it to be better than the Aeneid, because like, I know that would be bad. But like, it could be like, second to the Aeneid. And like, I hope that this thing I devoted my 12 years to will be read after my death.

• 1:15:11Liv Albert?

  And like, that's fucking beautiful. Statius, I just read it to like, tens of thousands of people, um, 2000 years later. So. That's pretty nice. That's like a really nice, sorry, I'm like, when I get this sense of like, the very real people back then, like, I just, I lose my mind. Even if they're Roman, and that's saying a lot, that's saying a lot. But it's just fucking beautiful. That last book featured so many women being strong and more interesting than the men. And wow, like, uh, yeah, oh, I'm kind of obsessed with this ending. Statius, way to go. Two thousand years later, dude, way to go. Actually, thank you.

• 1:15:52Liv Albert?

  Um, that was really fun. This has been such an interesting read. And I'm looking into, um, the next readings now that we're finished with this, because I need to find something new. And I'm gonna just put this into the end, because if you have made it to this point, then you are a listener of my reading episodes, and this message is for you. So here's the deal. I'm looking into things I can read next. Obviously, I've already read a lot. And the bigger issue is these like, copyright free translations, right? These translations that are usually old enough to be read without copyright issues. Um, and usually, you know, they're, they're very much translated by white men 200 years ago.

• 1:16:34Liv Albert?

  They're difficult. So it's not always like that easy to find another one to read. It's been a bit of a trial. But, but. So I recently found, um, this translation of the Odyssey, which was done like, 10 years ago.

• 1:16:49Liv Albert?

  But which was done with the intention of being copyright free. And originally it, because I found this years ago, actually, but the copyright originally was like non-commercial use, which means I can't read it, which is like totally fair and I respect that. But they've updated the copyright. And I think I can now read it, which means that this translation of the Odyssey is only 10 years old, done very recently. Um, and the thing that actually blows my mind, because like, what are the chances? Because I swear, this is the only recent translation of the Odyssey that I've ever found that's like literally donated, like this scholar did it just so that it was publicly accessible, which is so cool. And they happened to work, I think it's a guy, but I'm just gonna say they, because I'm not totally sure.

• 1:17:33Liv Albert?

  Um, they happened to work at Vancouver Island University, which 99% of the people listening are like, what are you talking about, Liv? Anyway, Vancouver Island University is this like tiny university, like two hours outside of the city I grew up in, in Nanaimo. It's small and local, and I think that's so cool. And I just think like, it was maybe made for me, because I grew up on this weird enormous island. I was gonna say little, it's really big. Um, but yeah, so that's all to say, this is rambly. Um, but I am seriously considered, considering doing another reading of the Odyssey to prepare for the movie, for my book, all of these things. Um, but obviously I've already done the Odyssey, but like, it was like 2020 that I read the

• 1:18:16Liv Albert?

  Odyssey for you all, and it was a really old translation. So this one, I think, would be like quite different, but it's still the Odyssey. That's all to say, if you got to this point and you're still listening and you're like, Liv, I have thoughts, please tell me. If you're listening on Spotify, amazing, it's super easy, just comment. Um, if you're not listening on Spotify, which like, respect, um, because horrors, uh, then send me a note, if you can, um, Instagram or wherever, or, or email or anything. Um, because I would really be interested to know if people want me to read the Odyssey again, because I want to read the Odyssey again. So like, I might convince myself that you all want me to, but like, if you actually want me to, I'd like to hear it. Because like it would be cool for me. Again, it would be like interspersed, you know, but I would also try to get it done before the movie came out because that would be really

• 1:19:00Liv Albert?

  cool. So maybe we're doing bonus. I don't even know. Um, so this is gonna be watch you know. Oh my God. Now I'm fully rambling you guys. I'm not gonna edit this out. You get it. It's right at the end. Um, this is almost the last new episode of the year, but on Friday, uh, Michaela and I, so like when this episode drops, Michaela and I are recording, um, another, the now second annual Battle of the Bastards. Um, but this one's Battle of the Bad Vitches, as Michaela has named it. Um, we're gonna have some fun. I'm defending Helen. She's defending Clytemnestra. We will both be siding with both of them because this is not actually an either or situation, but we are going to be rambling about those two incredible women for an episode, um, for next week. But otherwise I will be back with Q and As, uh, and then

• 1:19:43Liv Albert?

  new stuff in the new year. My Odyssey book is going to print at the end of January, which means like it's gonna be crunch time in January, but once that's done, I am really, really looking forward to like bringing back regular new episodes. I really want to go back to like the roots and like just the purest mythology. I already know I'm gonna start with some wild episode, looking again at Zeus. Like that episode, I think is like episode three of the podcast, Zeus creepy old man who tricks women or something. That's a good name. Um, I'm gonna be doing that one because I think it's interesting to kind of look again at all of these stories associated with the gods like this, um, from my new perspective. So stay tuned for that and I'm gonna stop talking right now. Let's talk about Myth Baby is written, produced by me, Liv Albert, Michaela Pankow, which is the Hermes to my

• 1:20:27Liv Albert?

  Olympians, my incredible producer, select music by Luke Chaos. Thank you all so fucking much. Thank you for being with me throughout 2025, which has been one of the most horrifying years, um, in, uh, modern history and also really hard on my personal side, just because last year was like the worst year of my life. Um, and generally it's just been a trying time with this book that I'm so excited about, but which means that it's really hard to, um, bring new episodes of the podcast. And I'm just so grateful that you all have stuck with me through this because I really, I really do love this shit. I really do. I'm just trying to find ways of making it in a, a world that is so increasingly hard to be optimistic in.

• 1:21:11Liv Albert?

  Um, but you know, happy holidays. Uh, the horrors persist. I could list so many horrific things that I am aware of happening in the world right now. Um, I'm thinking of everyone in, uh, I mean, Australia broadly, Sydney and Bondi specifically, and even more specifically, the Jewish, the Jewish community there because fucking fuck. Things are not great.

• 1:21:47Liv Albert?

  Anyway, um, I am Liv and I love this shit and let's all really just pray to all of the benevolent goddesses, let's be honest, for, uh, a bit of reprieve for the world's injustices, um, in 2026. I just like to see a handful of, of promising things happening for the not super rich among us. Ah, I don't know how to end anything anymore. It's just, it's also hard. I'm Liv and I love this shit. Thank you all so much. You're super cool. You're the best. Okay, bye.

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