Pod Insights Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean Liv Reads Statius: The Thebaid (Part 10) About this episode Liv reads Book 10 of Statius' Thebaid, translated by JH Mozley. The war is in full swing and even the gods get involved. Submit to the quarterly 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
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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).
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Transcript 13,386 words · 7 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Liv 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 grouptrip.
0:43 Speaker 01 Hi, this is Paige from Giggly Squad and this episode is brought to you by Mattress Firm. You guys know I'm obsessed with my mattress and my adjustable base. My bed is my office, my movie theater, my everything. And if you're waking up sore, aches and pains can make sleeping tough. Mattress Firm's sleep experts can find you the right mattress firm approved support. Plus, Mattress Firm carries a curated premium selection of mattresses so you can get the upgrade you want. For the great sleep you deserve, visit Mattress Firm during the Black Friday sale. They make sleep easy.
1:12 Speaker 02 Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a Berry Chantilly Cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.
2:05 Liv Albert? Hello, this is Let's Talk About Myths, baby, and I am your host, Liv. Back with another reading episode. That's right, you've had Michaela in your ears the past few Tuesdays. And also, the first time in five years that I got so busy, I legit forgot to release an episode on a Friday. And I think, I'm not sure I'll ever recover, honestly. That hurt. It was a blow. In any case, Michaela has been regaling you all with some of Herodotus's history,
2:45 Liv Albert? which is utter, just an utter delight. I mean, who doesn't love some wacky history that's also just wacky? And I really hope you've all been enjoying that. Please tell us if and when you do. We are trying to, to pull in more of Michaela. Honestly, I want to be doing more books. I'm not giving up anything in the show, but I would love to do a little bit less of it with the help of Michaela, who would like to do a little bit more of it. So we're going to be bringing more things like that in the future. Especially if you tell us like what you want to hear.
3:25 Liv Albert? Today, though, we are back with the third to last section of the Thebaidur, which is wild. We're really powering through this. Still kind of figuring out exactly what we're going to do for the next reading bit, but we have a few episodes left. However, most importantly, I have to remind you all that I have a new group trip option that is currently accepting.
3:53 Liv Albert? Interested parties. Um, now I, I'm, I'm doing this one. Honestly, I, I kinda dropped it a little poorly because of all of the Odyssey stuff. Um, but I want to remind you all about this again. I'm really hoping, um, to get some interest. We, this is a totally different type of group trip than the last ones we've done. We're just trying out some options. And I had this company come to me and ask if I was interested in hosting this trip where again, it will be this magnificent listener group trip through Greece. Um, but in this case, it's a little bit more formal too. I'll be like actually sitting down and doing some talks along the way.
4:35 Liv Albert? And it's a bit more luxury. Honestly, I mean, it is more expensive. I will be honest, but you get what you pay for. Um, this trip is going through some of the Socratic islands. We start in Athens and then we go to Naxos, which is my favorite island. Oh, it has my heart and is the hometown of my kitten and his family still lives there. Yes, I went to visit them in the summer. I'm not crazy. You're crazy. Come to Naxos with me. It's the best. Um, and while on Naxos, we also get to go to Delos, which huh, oh my God. Delos is the island sacred to Apollo. It's just off the coast of Mykonos, but we don't go to Mykonos because that's for
5:20 Liv Albert? crazy partiers who don't actually want, um, to experience Greece at all. Um, but we're going to Delos off the coast and Delos is utterly unique because not only is it this sprawling ancient sanctuary ruins, but it also like has no modernity, save for the places where the archaeologists work and the museum. This island is completely dedicated to this archaeological site, which means that and, and then like also the waters are always like crashing around it. Like it feels like another world. You get dropped off on this ancient island and then you're just there. It's all, oh my God, it's incredible. Anyway, from there, we again, more of Naxos, which is amazing and my favorite. And then we go down to Santorini and go to Akrotiri,
6:05 Liv Albert? which is the Bronze Age city preserved by. Ugh, preserved by volcanic eruption. Phew, and it has the most incredible museum. Also, it's Santorini. It's beautiful. It's Santorini. And then we go south to Crete and do Knossos on Crete and Rethimno, um, and, uh, what's Gortin, which I've never even been to. I'm so excited. I've been to most of these places, which means I'm thrilled to bring all of you and we get to experience some new cities on Crete together because I've not really been through Rethimno either. It's pretty, it's really, it's really exciting. Um, and again, like this, this one, admittedly, it's more money. Um, we are looking into if we don't get enough bites on this, we might be able to do something different, totally flexible. But honestly, I think this one,
6:50 Liv Albert? if you can afford it and you've been wanting to do something like this, like this is the one. We get to go to some incredible places, like the islands just make these things more expensive. So if you're looking to do some islands, like this is a great opportunity, um, or just not. You could also just skip this bit and just keep going. That's fine, too. But if you are interested in learning more or, um, registering to, to come or just speak to the people who are running the whole thing, go to mythsbaby.com slash group trips. There is a whole PDF brochure linked up there. You can learn loads more, um, and you can, um, sign up if you want. I'm really excited about this
7:32 Liv Albert? one and I hope enough of you go so that I can go because also peek behind the curtain. This will be the first time ever that a group trip doesn't actively cost me lots of money. Because I have this really fun habit of being so anti-capitalist that I end up costing myself a fuck ton of money in my attempts to make it affordable for other people, which I'm trying not to do because the money isn't there. Um, anyways, that's rambly, but I'm really excited about this group trip. So if, if you want to come, you should. mythsbaby.com slash group trip for more information or link in the episode's description.
8:13 Liv Albert? And with that, out of the way. Let's return to the Thebaid. Wow, okay. So as usual, it's been like over a month since I last recorded one of these readings. And so I am here on Wikipedia reminding myself and you what last happened. So again, this is the Thebaid. It is an epic written in the Roman period, but explicitly about Greek myth and most likely a story that existed at least in large part already in the Greek mythos, but only survives from this Roman. It's a whole thing. You know, the deal. This is the story of the Seven Against Thebes, the, the children of Oedipus and all the
8:55 Liv Albert? absolute fuckery that they get up to after the fuckery of their dad also being their brother and their mom also being their grandmother. It's a whole thing. In this telling, I believe if I'm not wrong in recalling both Oedipus and Druasta are alive. The versions of this story vary greatly, primarily because what survives from Greece is all in plays and so it's already being dramatized. But in this case, they're alive, shit's just going down. And this is where I always get mixed up which brother is doing what. But Eteocles is king of Thebes. He was supposed to give up the kingship to his brother, Polynices. That was the deal they agreed on.
9:37 Liv Albert? But then Eteocles was like, no, I still want to be king. And so Polynices goes to Argos and he teams up with a bunch of people from the Peloponnese and they are ready to wage war on Thebes if they have to. One of the main guys he teams up with along in this moment is Tides, who is like another big hero and together they all intend to take Thebes. Or at least fuck everything up trying.
10:09 Liv Albert? And again, according to Wikipedia, where we last left off, and this is me quoting, because it's really good. "Both sides are horror-struck by Tidesys' horrific act and attempt to take possession of the body." The body is from the previous book, which is where we have Tidesys, "driven beyond sanity by hatred toward the man who fatally wounded him and in the pain of dying, Tidesys cracks open Melanippus' skull and devours his brains." Fucking delight. And in Book IX, people are horrified by this, surprise for surprise, and then Hippomidon fights against a whole host of Thebans to retain the corpse, but is tricked by Tisiphony, one of the Furies, into abandoning the scene.
10:53 Liv Albert? He goes on to fight in the bed of the river Ismenis, oh, we gotta, we always have to fight a river, but makes the mistake of killing the river god's grandson, Cronias. Wow, again, Wikipedia, but so provoked, the river joins the battle and drowns Hippomidon. And then Atalanta, Parthenopius' mother, has a vision of her son's death in a dream. The goddess Diana seeks to intervene on her behalf, but is told by Apollo that the youth cannot be saved. Parthenopius is granted one last killing spree before he is killed by Drius. And with that out of the way, let's return to Thebes.
11:56 Liv Albert? This is The Thebaid, by Statius, translated by J. H. Mosley, Book 10.
12:07 Liv Albert? Dewy night overwhelmed Thebaid in the gateway of the west, hastened by the commands of Jove. Not pities he the Pelasgian camp, nor the Tyrian forces, but he grieved that beside the warriors so many innocent folk should fall by the sword. Far stretches the plain a vast unsightly sea of blood; there they leave their arms and the steeds whereon before they went so proudly, and the corpses deprived of their pyres and the neglected limbs. Then an unsightly troop with tattered ensigns, they withdrew their exhausted lines, and the gates that were so narrow as they thronged to battle are all too broad as they return.
12:52 Liv Albert? Each side is alike distressed, but Thebaid has solace in the four Danian bands wandering without a chief, like alder vessels on the billowy deep that are widowed of their helmsmen and steered by God and chance and all the storms. Therefore the Tyrians, the Thebans, are emboldened to keep watch no more on their own camp, but rather on their foes' retreat, lest haply they seek to return with all speed to Mycenae. The watchword gives the signal to the sentinels, and posts are set. Maggies by Lot and Lycus at his request are leaders of the knight's enterprise.
13:35 Liv Albert? And now in marshalled ranks they bring arms and food and fire; the king cheers them as they go. Conquerors of the Danians, for to-morrow's dawn is near, and the darkness that saved the cowards will not last forever. Raise your spirits high, and let your hearts be worthy of heaven's favour. All the glory of Lerna, all her foremost might, lies low. Tydeus is gone to avenging Tartarus; death starts to behold the black augur's sudden shade.
14:08 Liv Albert? Ismenos is swollen with the plunder of Hippomedon's spoils, the Arcadian we are ashamed to count among the trophies of war. Our reward is in our hands, gone are the proud leaders of the host and the chieftain's crests displayed along the sevenfold array. Formidable indeed is Adrastus's dotage and my brother's more cowardly manhood and Capanius's frenzied arms. Forward then and set your wakeful fires about their beleaguered camp. You need not fear the foe, it is booty, you watch, and wealth that at last is yours.
14:49 Liv Albert? Thus does he heap encouraging words upon the fierce Labdacadae. They rejoice to repeat the toils already endured. Just as they were, with dust and sweat and blood still caked upon their limbs, they turned to go, scarce heeding the farewells that would stay them, but shaking off the embracing arms and hand clasps of their friends. Then sharing between them front and rear and curving flanks they ring round the rampart with hostile flame. So gathers at nightfall a herd of ravening wolves whom all over the countryside hunger, that brings reckless daring, has starved with long privation. Already they are near the very sheepfold's hope,
15:34 Liv Albert? unfulfilled, and the feeble bleatings and juicy scents from the pens torture their throats. At last they break their claws against the cruel stakes and bruise their bodies and blunt their unfleshed fangs upon the doors. But far away a suppliant train of Pelopian dames, prostrate before their native altars and on the threshold of the argolic fain, implore the help of scepter Junno and the return of their loved ones and press their faces to the cold stones and painted doors and teach their little children to kneel. The day was already spent in entreaties, night comes and adds its cares,
16:17 Liv Albert? and the altars keep vigil with high piled fires. They bear, too, a gift in a basket, a robe whose marvelous texture no hand of childless wife, nor of any parted from her husband, had wrought, a garment full worthy of the chaste goddess. Thereon was much purple, gaily embroidered in manifold design, and blazing with interwoven gold. She herself was there, promised in marriage to the great thunderer, but not yet a bride, and timidly putting off her sisterhood. With downcast eyes she kisses the youthful Jupiter, a simple maid, nor yet offended by the secret loves of her husband.
17:02 Liv Albert? With this robe the argive matrons at that time veiled the sacred ivory image, and with tears and supplications made their prayer. Look upon the sacrilegious towers of the Cadmian harlot, queen of the starry pole, shatter that rebel hill, and hurl, for you can, another thunderbolt against Thebes. What can she do? She knows the fates are adverse to her Grecians, and Jove's favor is turned away, but she would that such prayers and gifts were not wasted. Nevertheless, a ready chance gave occasion for potent aid. From lofty heaven she sees the city gates closed, and the rampart guarded by sleepless sentinels.
17:46 Liv Albert? The stings of anger thrilled her frame, and stirred her hair, and shook the awful diadem. No more fiercely did she rage, when alone in heaven she felt wrath against Alcmene for her offspring, and for the thunderer's twofold adultery. Therefore she determines to make the Aeonians, sunk in the timeless bliss of slumber, a prey to death, and bids her own iris gird herself with her wanton circles, and commits to her all her task. Obedient to command, the bright goddess leaves the pole, and wings her way down, her long arc to earth.
18:25 Liv Albert? Beyond the cloud-wrapped chambers of western gloom and Ethiopia's other realm, there stands a motionless grove, impenetrable by any star. Beneath it the hollow recesses of a deep and rocky cave run far into a mountain, where the slow hand of nature has set the halls of lazy sleep and his untroubled dwelling. The threshold is guarded by shady, quiet, and dull forgetfulness and torpid sloth with every drowsy countenance. Ease and silence with folded wings sit mute in the forecourt and drive the blustering winds from the rooftop
19:05 Liv Albert? and forbid the branches to sway and take away their warblings from the birds. No roar of the sea is here, though all the shores be sounding, nor yet of the sky, the very torrent that runs down the deep valley nigh the cave is silent among the rocks and boulders. By its side are sable herds and sheep reclining one and all upon the ground. The fresh buds wither and a breath from the earth makes the grasses sink and fail. Within, glowing Vulcan has carved a thousand likenesses of the god. Here, wreathed pleasure clings to his side; here, labor drooping to repose bears him company;
19:49 Liv Albert? here, he shares a couch with Bacchus; there, with love, the child of Mars. Further within, in the secret places of the palace, he lies with death also, but that dread image is seen by none. These are but pictures; he himself beneath humid caverns rests upon coverlets heaped with slumberous flowers. His garments reek, and the cushions are warm with his sluggish body; and above the bed a dark vapor rises from his breathing mouth. One hand holds up the locks that fall from his left temple; from the other drops his neglected horn. Vague dreams of countless shapes stand round about him,
20:32 Liv Albert? true mixed with false, flattering with sad, the dark brood of night, and cling to beams and door-posts or lie on the ground. The light about the chamber is weak and fitful, and languid gleams that woo to earliest slumbers vanish as the lamps flicker and die.
20:53 Liv Albert? Here, from the blue sky came in balanced flight the very colored maid, The forests shine out, and the shady glens smile upon the rainbow goddess; And smitten with her zones of radiance the palace stars from its sleep; But he himself awoke it, neither by the bright glow nor by the sound or voice of the goddess, Lay motionless as ever, Till the Thaumantian shot at him all her splendors, And sank deep into his drowsy vision. Then thus began to speak the golden fashioner of clouds: "Sleep, gentlest of the gods, Juno bids you bind fast The Sidonian leaders and the folk of ruthless Cadmus,
21:37 Liv Albert? Who, now puff'd up by the issue of the fight, are watching in ceaseless vigil The Akian rampart, and refuse your sway; Grant so solemn a request, rarely is this opportunity vouchsafed To win the favor of Jove with Juno on your side." She spoke, and with her hand beat upon his languid breast, And charged him again, and yet again lest her message be lost; He, with his own nodding visage, nods assent to the goddess's command, Overwaited with the cavern's gloom, Iris goes forth, And tricks out her beams made dim by showers of rain. Himself too he bestir'd both swift progress and wind-torn temples,
22:22 Liv Albert? And, filling his mantles folds, and with the chill dark air, is borne in silent course through heaven, And from afar swoops in might upon the aeonian fields; The wind of his coming sets birds and beasts and cattle prostrate on the ground, And whatsoever region of the world he passes in his flight, The waves slide languidly from the rocks, More lazily cling the clouds, the forests bow their summits, And many a star drops from the loosened vault of heaven. The plain first felt the gods' presence by the sudden coming of a mist, and the countless voices and cries of men were hushed.
23:02 Liv Albert? But when he brooded with dewy wings and entered the camp unsubstantial as a pitchy shadow, eyes wavered and heads sank, and words were left unfinished in mid-speech. Next shining bucklers and cruel spears are dropped from their hands, their faces fall in weariness upon their breasts, and now universal silence reigns. Even the horn-footed steeds refuse to stand, even the fires are quenched in sudden ashes. But slumber woo's not the anxious Greeks to the same repose, and the night-wandering persuasive deity keeps his mists from the camp hard by. On every side they stand to arms,
23:44 Liv Albert? in wrath at the hateful gloom and their foes' proud sentinels. Lo! A frenzy, a sudden frenzy, heaven-inspired, seizes Theodamas, and in awful tumult bids him show forth the fates, whether Saturnia fired him with this resolve, or kindly Apollo incited his new attendant. He rushes in the midst, fearful to see and to hear, and impatient of the god, whom his frail mind had received but could not contain. His pangs overwhelm him, stark madness reigns upon his face, and the uncertain blood now distends, now ebbs, from his trembling cheeks. His gaze darts here and there,
24:26 Liv Albert? he shakes and scatters on his shoulders the wreaths entwined in his locks. Thus does the idean mother summon from the terrible shrine the blood-stained Phrygian, and make him unconscious of his knife-hacked arms. He beats the holy pine-brands against his breast, and tosses his gory hair, and deadens his wounds by running all the countryside, and the bespattered votary tree feels terror, and the panic-stricken lions rear the chariot high.
24:59 Liv Albert? Now had he reached the inner council chamber and the revered home of the standards, where a drastis, long distressed by dire disasters, takes fruitless counsel for their desperate plight. The new appointed chiefs stand about him, each the next successor to the slain, and gaze at the empty places of the mighty princes, feeling no joy but rather grief that they are raised so high. Even so, when a bark has lost its helmsman and stopped in mid-voyage, either the watchman of the sides or the wave-breasting prow succeeds to the guidance of the widowed helm, the ship herself is all aghast and the very tackling is slow to obey the word,
25:42 Liv Albert? nor does she brook the protection of a lesser lord. Therefore with spirited words the prophet rouses the hearts of the downcast Acadians: "Chieftains, it is the high commands and awful counsels of the gods that I bring you; these words come not from my own breast; he gives the oracle, whom your solemn word, he too consenting, constrained me, to serve and to assume his phillits." The divine augury reveals a knight fruitful in achievement and well fitted for glory-winning guile. Valor meets and beckons us and fortune implores our arms; the Ioni legions are sunk beneath the spell of slumber.
26:24 Liv Albert? Now is the time to avenge our princes' deaths and that unhappy day. Snatch up your weapons and break through the hindering gates. This means the lighting of our comrades' pyres, this means their burial. This saw I during the battle of the day, when our arms were stricken and we fled defeated to the rear; I saw it by the tripods and the strange fate of my lost master; I saw it, and the birds around me sang a favoring strain.
26:57 Liv Albert? But now my belief is sure, only now beneath the silent night he himself, himself Amphiarius, rose up again from the chasm of earth, even as he was. The shades had touched his team alone and came towards me. It is of no vain phantom of night or vision of sleep that I tell. Will you allow the idle sons of Anakis? He cries, "Restore then those Parnassian wreaths, give me back my own gods." To lose so favorable a knight, degenerate one, was it thus I taught you all the secrets of the sky and the wandering flight of birds? Begone, for me at least take vengeance with the sword.
27:39 Liv Albert? He spoke and seemed to raise his lance and to drive me with all his chariot's force unto these doors. Arouse you then and use heaven's favor. This is no hand-to-hand slaying of the foe, his men lie prostrate and you may take your revenge. Will any come forward, ready to exult themselves to mighty fame while the fates allow? Lo, once again the birds of night are auspicious. I follow them and though my comrades' troops lie idle, I go alone. Yes, and there he too comes, shaking his reins. With such cries did he disturb the night, the chiefs pour forward, fired as though the same god inspired the hearts of all.
28:24 Liv Albert? They burn to accompany him and share his fortunes. By command he chooses thirty himself, the flower of all the host, the rest of the youth demand in wrathful clamor, why remain they in the camp ingloriously at ease? Some plead their noble birth, some their kinsman's deeds, others their own, others again shout for the lot and take up the cry of Drastus, exults that they oppose him, and his spirits rise. Thus upon Fallouie's height a rearer of swift coursers rejoices when the breeding time of prolific spring has renewed his stud, and he beholds some straining up steep mountain paths, some swimming the stream, others avying with their sires.
29:09 Liv Albert? Then, in idle thought, he ponders, which he shall tame to bear a gentle yoke, which will make good riders, which are born for trumpets and arms, which best fitted to win the palm of Ellis. Such was the aged chieftain of the Akian host. Nor does he fail the enterprise. Where of a sudden comes so late the favor of heaven? What gods are you who have turned again to Argos in her distress? Is this the valor born of misfortune? Does the vigor of our race still survive and seeds of courage endure in spite of adversity? Yes, I praise you heroic youths and enjoy my warriors glorious mutiny, but it is fraud and a hidden assault that we devise.
29:54 Liv Albert? Our movements must be concealed, a crowd ill fits a secret ruse. Nurse then your rage, lo, dawn will bring vengeance on our foes. Then shall the fight be open and all take the field. These words at length restrained and allayed their ardor. Even so mighty Father Aeolus, when the cave is in a tumult and the winds are already yearning for the deep, sternly set another rock against the door and wholly barred their passage.
30:25 Liv Albert? Beside the rest, the seer takes with him Agolias, son of Heracles, an actor, persuasive of speech is actor. The other boasts strength equal to his father's. With each go ten companions, a troop that even in open fight the Ionians would fear. He himself, since he goes to unwonted battle and ruse of war, lays down the sacred leaves, the emblems of Phoebus, and entrusts the glory of his brow to the bosom of the aged prince, and dons helm and corselet, the welcome gift of Polynides. Fierce Capanius fastens his heavy sword on actor, not deigning himself to go by stealth against the foe or to follow where heaven leads.
31:10 Liv Albert? Agolias borrows the arms of truculent Nomius, for what would the bow and shafts of Heracles have availed him, battling amid deceiving shades.
31:20 Liv Albert? Then lest the brazen hinges groan too loudly, They leap down from the steep battlements of the fortress wall; Nor is it long before lo their prey lies vast upon the ground, As though already lifeless and slain by many a sword. Forward, friends, wheresoever delight in carnage unsated Takes you, and have strength for the work, I pray, Since heaven shows us favour. Now, with loud voice the seer exhorts them: See you, the cohorts lying in base torpor? Shame on them, dared they beleaguer argive gates And keep watch on heroes? So spoke he, and drew his flashing sword,
32:03 Liv Albert? And with swift hand passed over the doomed lines. Who would reckon up the slaughter, Or give names to all the crowd of corpses? At random he goes over backs and breasts, And leaves behind him groans stifled in their helms, And mingled all his victims in a welter of blood. One stretched carelessly upon a couch, Another slipping with reeling steps upon his shield, Too late and fumbling with arms, Others lie in a throng amid wine and weapons, Others propped against their shields, Each one just as ill-fated slumber; And the knight that was their last Had bound and cast them to the ground. Nor lack they divine power, But armed Juno frees her right hand,
32:48 Liv Albert? And, brandishing a lunar torch, Makes clear their path, And strengthens their courage, And displays the bodies. Theodamas feels her presence, But conceals his joy in silence. Already his hand grows slow and his blade weak, And his fury is dimmed by too much success. Not otherwise does a Caspian tigress, Amid a mighty slaughter of bullocks, When fury appeased by streams of gore Has wearied out her jaws, And stained her stripes in foul, clotted corruption, Behold her work, and grieve that her appetite fails? So wanders the augur, foredone among the Ionian corpses.
33:31 Liv Albert? Now would he have a hundred arms, a hundred hands to fight with? Already it irks him to squander menaces in vain, And he could wish the foe would rise against him.
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35:41 Liv Albert? Here, the son of mighty Hercules, there, actor destroys the sluggish Sidonians, each followed by his own band along a path of slaughter. "The grass is black and stagnant with gore, the tents totter and sway in streams of blood. The earth reeks, and the breathing of sleep is mingled with the gasps of death. None of the slumberers lifts his head or turns his gaze so deep the shade wherewith the winged god broods over the wretched ones, and unseals their eyes but as they die." A almanes had spent his last night in unsleeping merriment, And with the loot never to behold to-morrow's dawn, And was singing a sidonian pion.
36:26 Liv Albert? Under the influence of the god, his languid neck sank leftward, And his lyre pillowed his drooping head. Through his breast Agolias drives the blade, And pierces the right hand that grasps the tortoise-shell, And the fingers trembling among their well-known strings. The tables are flooded by the dreadful stream, Everywhere flows blood and water mingled, And the wine returned to the goblets and deep mixing bowls. Fierce actor catches Thamyrus in his brother's embrace, Tagus stabs garlanded Ectus in the back, Danias shears off the head of Hibris, Unwitting, alas, he meets his fate, And mirthlessly his life passes to the shades,
37:11 Liv Albert? Saving the pains of cruel death. Calpatus, lying on the cold ground beneath his trusty chariot-wheels, Scared with his heavy breathing his aeonian steeds As they cropped their native grass, His mouth overflows with liquid, And his slumber wine inflamed grows agitated. Lo, the Anakian prophet pierces his throat as he lies, The wine is forced out in a great rush of blood, And his murmurs perish in the stream. Perchance his sleep foretold his doom, And in his dream he saw with dismay Theodamas And a black ruin that was Thebes.
37:51 Liv Albert? The fourth period of slumberous night remained, When the clouds have shed their dew, And not all the stars shine bright, And Boates flies before the paint-pantings of a mightier care. And now, the task itself failing them, Prudent actor calls Theodamas. "Sufficient for the Pelasgians is this unhoped-for triumph, Scare Sanimi thinks of so large a company Have escaped cruel death, Save the base cowards whom the gory flood conceals, Polluted but alive, set a limit to success. Dread Thebes, too, has her deities. Perchance we may too lose those who, late, have favored us." He consented, and, raising his dripping hands to the stars, said,
38:35 Liv Albert? "These spoils, o Phoebus, the trophies of the night you did reveal, I present to you." I, the bold champion of your tripods and your faithful priest, not let, not yet cleansed with water, for this is my sacrifice to you. If I have not disgraced your commands and have not borne your instancy, come often to me, often deign to take possession of my mind. Rude is your girdon now, maimed limbs and human blood, but if ever, oh, pion, you will bestow on me my native home and the temples that I long for? Oh, Lycean god, forget not my vow, but demand as many sumptuous gifts and as many bulls for your sacred portals.
39:20 Liv Albert? He spoke, and recalled his comrades from the glad work of arms.
39:26 Liv Albert? Among these, by the will of fate, had come Caledonian Hoplius and Menaean Dimas, both favourites and close companions of their princes, after whose death they grieve and think scorn of living. First, Hoplius insights the Arcadian. Renowned Dimas, have you no care for your hapless prince, once slain, though perchance already birds and Thebaid dogs possess him? What then will you bring home to your country? Yet, Arcadians, lo, his stern mother meets you returning, and asks, "Where is his body?" But in my heart unburied, Tydeus gives me no rest, though more enduring of limb, nor so worthy of lament for an untimely death. Yet fain would I go and search everywhere, high and low,
40:12 Liv Albert? over the ruthless plain, or break into the midst of Thebes. Dimas makes reply. "I swear by these moving stars, by my chieftain's wandering shade, to me, a power divine, my grief inspires my resolve, my downcast mind has long looked for a companion, but now I will lead the way." And straight he stares upon the road and turns his sad face to heaven, thus speaks.
40:40 Liv Albert? Kynthea, queen of the mysteries of night, if, as they say, you do very and threefold wise the aspect of your godhead, and in different shape comes down to the woodland, it is he who was lately your companion, and the glorious nursling of the groves, it is your own boy, Diana. Now at least look upon us, it is he we search for. The goddess stooped her horns, and made bright her kindly star, and illuminated the battlefield with near approaching chariot. The plain appears, and thieves and lofty cytheron, so when fell Jupiter cleaves the sky at night with thunder, the clouds divide, and the bright flash reveals the stars,
41:23 Liv Albert? and the world is suddenly shone to watching eyes. He caught the rays, and by the same piercing light hoplius sees Tydeus. From afar they joyfully beckoned to each other through the darkness, and each lifts his beloved burden on his bowed shoulders, as though it were restored to life and rescued from cruel death. No word do they utter, nor for a long while dare to weep. Unfriendly day is nigh at hand, and the sunrise that threatens to betray. Mute they go with long strides through the sad silences, and grieve that the exhausted gloom is paling to the dawn.
42:06 Liv Albert? Fate is envious of devoted souls, and good luck grows rarely with great ventures. Already they see the camp, and in thought are at the gates, and lighter grows the burden, when there is a sudden cloud of dust and a sound behind them. It was bold Amphion, at the head of his troop, bidden by his chief to explore the night and the guarded camp. He is the first to see far away on the pathless plain. Not yet had the light dispersed all the shadows, something stirring, faint and doubtful to the sight, and bodies moving. Then on a sudden he discovers the fraud, and cries, "Halt, whoever you are!" But it is plain they are foe, and on go the hapless ones,
42:50 Liv Albert? and fear, though not for themselves. Then he threatens the anxious pair with death, and flings his spear, but aiming and purposed error sends it high and far beyond them. Before the eyes of Dimas it fell, who, by chance, was in front. He halted, but Epetus, proud of soul, cared not to lose his throw, and transfixed the back of Hoplius, grazing there by the shoulder of Tydeus as he hung. Hoplius falls, not yet forgetful of his peerless chieftain, and dies, still clutching him. Happy were he ignorant that the corpse was lost, and in such wise descends to the cruel shades.
43:33 Liv Albert? Dimas had turned and seen and knew that battle was joined, and doubted whether to use arms or prayers against the oncoming foe. Wrath urges arms, fortune bids him try prayer, not daring. Neither resource brings confidence. Anger forbade entreaty, before his feet he places the hapless body, and flings on his left arm a heavy tiger's hide that he wore by chance upon his back, and, holding out his bared blade, he stands on guard and turns to face every dart, prepared both to slay and to be slain. As a lioness lately whelped, beset by numidian hunters, in her savage lair stands above her young, erect but doubting in her mind,
44:17 Liv Albert? and utters a wild and melancholy roar. Full well could she scatter their array and snap their weapons in her jaws, but love of her offspring overcomes the fierceness of her heart, and from the midst of her rage she looks round upon her cubs. And now the hero's left hand has been cut away, though Amphion bade them use no violence, and the boy is dragged along by his hair, with face upturned. Then, at last, too late a suppliant, he lets fall his blade and makes entreaty. Carry him less roughly, I pray you by the cradle of lightning-born Bacchus and the flight of Ino and your own Palymon's tender years.
45:01 Liv Albert? If any of you know at home the joy of children, if any here is a father, grant the lad some few handfuls of dust and a little fire. Lo, he implores, thee implores you, with mute countenance, better that I should sate the accursed fowls, cast me to the wild beasts. It was I that made him dare the fight.
45:23 Liv Albert? If so great be your desire to bury the prince, Amphion cried, tell us, what plan of war have the scared Pelasgians, what purpose they in their broken, heartless state? Quick, out with it all, and we grant you to depart alive and give burial to your chief. The Arcadian shuddered, and on the instant plunged his sword up to the hilt in his own breast. Was this then lacking, he cried, to crown our woes, that I should dishonor and betray Argos in her hour of need? That were too dearly bought, nor would he himself wish for the pyre at such a cost. So speaking, he tore a mighty gash in his breast, and, casting him down upon the lad
46:06 Liv Albert? with his last breath, murmured, "Yet receive meanwhile this burial with me. Thus, in the longed-for embraces of their chiefs do both the noble-minded pair, Etolion alike and famed Arcadian, breathe out their peerless souls and taste of death. You two are consecrate, though my sons soar for a less lofty lyre, and will go down the unforgettable years. Perchance, too, Eurilis will not spurn his comrade shades, and the glory of Phrygian Nissus will not say them nay."
46:47 Liv Albert? But fierce Amphion sends in triumph heralds to report his doings to the king, and informs him of the crafty attack, and deliver back the captured bodies. He himself proceeds to insult the beleaguered Pelasgians and display their comrades severed heads. Meanwhile, from the summit of the walls, the Greeks perceive Theodamas returning, nor conceal any more of their joyous outbursts. But when they saw their naked swords and arms all red with recent carnage, a fresh shout leaps upward to the broad sky, and eager throngs hang from the ramparts top, while each one looks for his own.
47:29 Liv Albert? Even so, a crowd of nestlings, seeing their mother returning through the air afar, would fain go to meet her, and lean gaping from the edge of the nest, and would even now be falling? Did she not spread all her motherly bosom to save them, and chide them with loving wings? And while they recount their hidden deeds and the swift work of silent war and clasp their friends in a long embrace, they look for Hoplius and complain of Demas's slowness. And lo, Amphion, the commander of the Thebaid band, had drawn nigh in haste, no long delight had he of his late bloodshed, when he saw the ground a heap of countless bodies, and whole race in the death throes of one universal doom.
48:14 Liv Albert? Such a tremor as falls on those whom the brand called forth from heaven has smitten, seiz'd now the warrior, and in one spasm, voice, sight, and blood all fail; and as he still attempts a groan, his charger, unbidden wheels him round amid a whirl of dust, the troops flee back. Not yet had they entered the bard-gates of Thebes, when the Argive band, flushed with their nocturnal triumph, leapt forth into the plain, over weapons and prostrate bodies and earth befouled by heaps of slain and blood still warm with life, men and horn-footed steeds go rushing.
48:57 Liv Albert? The heavy hoof crushes the limbs, and a rain of gore bathes and clogs the axles. Sweet is it to the heroes to go by such a road, as if they proudly trampled Cydonian homes and Thebes herself in blood. Capanius cheers them on, long enough Pelasgans has our valor lain in hiding. Now, now is victory fair in my eyes, in the full blaze of day. On, men, with me, to open conflict, raise the dust and shout your battle cry. Sure is the omen of my right hand, terrible the fury of my drawn sword. So he speaks, Adrastus and the Argive prince with eagerness inflame their ire, and the
49:41 Liv Albert? augur follows in sadder mood. Already they are nigh the walls, and still Amphion is telling of the new disaster, and would straight have entered the hapless city had not Megarius. From a high watch-tower exclaimed in haste, "Shut the gates, sentry everywhere, the enemy comes!"
50:01 Liv Albert? Overmastering fear sometimes gives strength. Quick closes every gate, only while Ekion is slow to bar the Ogagian, courageous Spartan warriors break in and fall in the threshold slain. Panopius, dweller upon Tygetis, and Iballus, swimmer of Rafiorotas, you two, Alcadamas, who did prove your worth in every wrestling ground, and of late win victory in Nemean dust, you for whom the son of Tindarius himself fastened your first gloves, dying you look toward the vault where your master shines straightway, the god sinks with averted star.
50:43 Liv Albert? You, the Iballian woodland, you the Laconian maiden's deceitful riverbank shall mourn, and the flood that the feigned swan once sang of, you shall be wept by Trivia's Amiclean nymphs, and your mother, who taught you the laws and valiant rules of war, shall lament that you were too apt a scholar. Thus does Mavors wreak his fury on the threshold of Ekion's town. At length, Akron, heaving with his shoulders, and Ialmenides, leaning all his body's weight, forced to the bronze-clad doors, with such strength do groaning bullocks cleave
51:25 Liv Albert? side by side the long unplowed fields of Pangium. Yet equal is the loss to their labors' gain, for they have kept the foe within and shut out their own countrymen. Ominous, the Grecian is slain within the walls, and while a mentor stretches imploring arms and pours out prayer, his head is severed, and words and face alike fall to earth, and at the blow a shapely necklace drops from his neck into the hostile dust.
51:58 Liv Albert? Meanwhile, the rampart is breached, the first lines give way, and already troops of infantry are at the walls, but the horses fear to leap the wide trenches and shrink back in alarm. And panic struck at the vast abyss marvel that they are driven on. Now they start forward from the edge now of their own accord recoil upon the reins. Some tier from the ground, the planted palisades, others hack at the defenses of the gates and sweat to force away the iron barriers, and with beams and sounding bronze drive stones from their places. Some hurl torches roofwards and exult when they stick fast, others assail foundations,
52:42 Liv Albert? and with the blind tortoise sap the base of hollow towers.
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54:46 Liv Albert? But the Tyrians, their only means of safety, crown the summit of the battlements and hurl charred stakes and shining darts of steel against the foe, and stones torn from their own walls, and missiles that catch fire as they go through the void of air. A fierce deluge streams from the rooftops and the barred windows spew forth hissing javelins. As when the tempests sit motionless in the clouds over Malia or tall Caronia's mount and are ranged about the darkened hills, then suddenly swoop upon the sails beneath, so is the argive host overwhelmed by the Agonorian arms.
55:29 Liv Albert? Yet the relentless rain turns aside neither faced nor breast; the warriors keep their gaze steady upon the walls, forgetful of death and seeing naught but their own weapons. While Antheus drives his scythed car round the Thebaid walls, the violent impact of an Ogagian spear strikes him from above. The reins are torn from his grasp, and scarce alive he is hurled to the rear upon his back, but stays caught by his greaves. Strange sight and horrible fate of war! His arms are dragged along the smoking wheels and the spear, with third furrow plowing the earth.
56:11 Liv Albert? Tossed to and fro, the head follows in a long wake of dust, and the broad track of the outspread locks shows clear.
56:22 Liv Albert? But now the trumpet's clangor smites the city with dismay, and its harsh sound penetrates the barricaded doors. They divide the approaches, and in every gate there stands a fierce ensign bearer, raising high for all to see their sufferings or their joys. Dreadful is the sight within, scarce Mars himself would rejoice to behold it. Grief and fury and panic and rout, enwrapped in blinding gloom, rend with many voiced discord the frenzied, horror-stricken town. One would think the battle was within. Men are hurrying to and fro about the citadel, the streets are full of clamor.
57:03 Liv Albert? Everywhere they see in imagination sword and fire, everywhere cruel chains. Fear anticipates the future, already houses and temples are thronged, and the ungrateful shrines are ringed with lamentation. Old and young alike are in the grip of one universal terror. The old men pray for death, the young flush with ardor and grow pale by turns, the houses rock with the shriek of women's wailing. Children weep, nor know the cause of their weeping, but stand aghast, and tremble at their mothers' sobs. Them love constrains, nor does utmost need admit of shame. With their own hands they give weapons to the men,
57:48 Liv Albert? with their own voices they fire them to wrath and valor, and exhort them, and rush with them to battle, nor cease amid their tears to show them their ancestral homes and helpless babies. So when a husbandman or plunder-bent has aroused the armed bees from their rocky cavern, the angry swarm is in an uproar, inciting each other with loud buzzing, and all fly in the enemy's faces. But soon, with failing wings, they clasp their waxen home and bewail the rifled store of honey, and press to their bosoms the labored combs.
58:28 Liv Albert? The crowd is filled with the strife of opposing tongues and spread discordant passions, some with no muttered voice but outspokenly and in open tumult bid the brother restore the kingdom. In their distress all reverence for their prince is lost. Let him come and here make up the count of his bargained year and salute unhappy exile, his cadmean home and his father's blindness. Why should my blood atone the fraud and the royal miscreants' traitorous crime? Then others, too late is good faith now, he would rather conquer. Others in tearful,
59:07 Liv Albert? suppliant throng implore Tyresius and ask, the only solace in adversity, to learn the future. But he withholds and keeps hidden the destinies of heaven. Is it because our monarch so trusted my warning counsels before, when I forbade perfidious warfare? Yet unhappy Thebes, he cries, you are doomed to destruction should I be dumb. I cannot endure miserably to hear of your fall and with these empty eyes to drink in our Gallic flames. Let me yield, oh piety, oh maiden, set the altars, let us inquire of the gods above.
59:48 Liv Albert? She obeys, and keenly gazing informs him of blood-red points of flame and a twofold fire upon the altar, and now the middle blaze yet rises high and clear. Then she teaches her doubting father that the ruddy flame is rolled and shaped with double coil into the ghostly likeness of a serpent, and illuminates her father's gloom. He straightway spreads his arms around the garlanded fire and absorbs the prophetic vapors with glowing countenance.
1:00:21 Liv Albert? His hair rises in horror and dismay, and the gray locks madly lift high the covering fillets. One would think his eyes were open, and the lost glow had returned again to his cheeks. At length he gave vent in words to the flood of his frenzy: "Listen, you guilty sons of Labdakis, and hear the last sacrifice of all. Kindly salvation comes but by a hard path. The snake of Mars demands a victim and a cruel offering. The latest born of the serpent brood must fall. At this price alone can victory come. Happy is he whose death shall win so great a gerdin."
1:01:05 Liv Albert? Creon, sad at heart and mourning as yet only for his country and the common fate, stood by the stern altar of the prophetic seer. When, with the shock of a sudden blow, as if flung lance had pierced his breath, he heard, near dead with horror, and new Menichius was demanded. Fear points the truth, nor suffers doubt it, but he is benumbed by anguish and an icy dread assails the father's heart. Even so, does the Threnachian coast sustain the sea hurled back from the Libyan surge? Then humbly clasping the knees of the seer, who, full of Thebes, bids him make speed,
1:01:49 Liv Albert? and touching the lips that chant the oracle, he entreats him to be silent. All in vain, already rumor has seized the word and flies abroad, and Thebes proclaims the oracle. Come now, tell who fired the youth with joy in a noble death, for never, without heaven's aid, is this mind given to men. Begin you, unforgiving Cleo, for the ages are in your keeping, and all the storied annals of the past.
1:02:20 Liv Albert? The goddess Virtue, close companion of the throng of Jove, whence rarely she is wont to be vouchsafed to the world, and to bless the earth, whether the Almighty Father has sent her, or she herself has chosen to dwell in men worthy of her; how gladly then did she leap down from the heavenly places! The shining stars gave way before her, and those fires that she herself had fixed in heaven. Already she treads the earth, nor is her countenance far distant from the sky, but it pleased her to change her aspect, and she becomes sagacious manto, that her speech might have full credence, and by deceit puts off her former mien.
1:03:02 Liv Albert? The look of awe, the austerity, were gone, something of charm remained, and a softer beauty. The sword was laid aside, and she took instead the prophet's wand. Her robe falls to her feet, and on her stern brow the wool is bound, where before was laurel, yet her grave aspect and more than mortal bestrides betray the goddess. Even so, at Amphitrione's son did his Lydian mistress laugh, when putting off the bristling hide, he marred the Sidonian raiment with his vast shoulders, and wrought confusion in the distaff, and smashed the timbrels with his hand. Nor does she find you, O Menichius, an unworthy victim,
1:03:45 Liv Albert? nor unfit to receive so solemn a behest, as you stand before the Durcanian tower, the huge gate unbarred, you were slaying the Danians and Martian Hymon in like manner. But though you were of one blood, and in everything brothers, you had first place. Heaps of dead are piled around you, every dart finds its mark, no stroke but a victim falls, nor yet had virtue come to aid, neither mind nor hand is idle. The eager weapons are never still, even the Sphinx, the guardian of his casque, appears to rage; the image, animated by the sight of blood, flashes out, and the bespattered brass gleams.
1:04:30 Liv Albert? When the goddess stays the warrior's hand upon the sword-hilt, Great-hearted youth, than whom none were more surely known of Mars to be of Cadmus's fighting-seed, leave these mean a phrase, such is not the prowess reserved for you. The stars are calling you, you shall send your soul to heaven, conceive of a nobler destiny. This is that inspires my father's frenzy at the joyful altars, this the flames and the fibers demand, this does Apollo urge. They call for an earth-born one on behalf of our country's common life. Rumor, repeats the council, the folk of Cadmus, certain of you, rejoice.
1:05:15 Liv Albert? Take the gods' word to heart and snatch a glorious fate. Go, I pray you, and hasten, lest hymn on by your side stalls you. So speaking she assured his wavering mind with the silent touch of her mighty hand, and left herself within his heart. No more swiftly does the cypress blasted by the lightning flash drink up the deadly flame from stem to summit, than did the youth, possessed by the mighty deity, raise high his spirit and fall straight in love with death. But when he marked her gait in habit as she turned, and beheld manto, on a sudden rise from earth into the clouds, he was astounded.
1:05:59 Liv Albert? "I follow you," he cries, "whoever of the gods has called me, nor am I slow to obey." Yet even as he retired, he pierced Agrius of Pelos, who was threatening the rampart. His squires receive him weary from the battle, then, as he proceeds, the mob in joy hails him as peace-bringer, preserver, and god, and kindles within him a noble flame.
1:06:26 Liv Albert? And now he is making his way to the city in breathless haste, rejoicing to have avoided his unhappy parents, when his father, both stopped with speech cut short and eyes down cast, at length, his father began: "What new chance has taken you from a battle lately joined? What design have you that is weightier than war? Tell me, my son, I entreat you, why are you looking so fierce? Why this angry pallor in your face? Why do your eyes meet not your father's gaze? It's plain you have heard the oracle. By your years and mine, my son, and by your wretched mother's breast, I pray you, lad, listen not to the seer. Do the gods deign to inspire an impious dotard with sightless face and blinded eyes, stricken
1:07:10 Liv Albert? even as dread Oedipus? What if the king be using treachery and deceitful fraud, fearing in his desperate case our noble blood and your valor that is renowned above our chieftains? Perchance they are his words, which we deem to be the gods? It's that he gives this counsel. Suffer not your hot blood to carry you away, but delay a trifling space; passion is ever a bad guide. Grant this boon, I entreat you to your father. So may your temples be marked with the gray hairs of age, and yourself be a parent, and come, rash boy, to fear, like me. Lay not my home desolate. Do other fathers and the babes of strangers move you?
1:07:50 Liv Albert? If you have any shame, pity, first your own. This is duty, this is true honour; there lies but empty glory and wind-blown renown, and a name that will be lost in death. Nor is it from her father's fears that I urge you. Go, join in the fray, go, force your way through the Danian lines where swords are thickest. I don't hold you back. Let me but cleanse your quivering wounds, and staunch with my tears your welling blood, and send you back again and yet again to the cruel battle. This does Thebes rather choose."
1:08:25 Liv Albert? So spoke he, with his arms in close embrace about his son's neck, but the youth once vowed to the gods was moved by neither tears nor words. No, at their prompting, he met his father with secret fraud, and turned his fears. Good father, you're mistaken, your fears are in vain. No warning or speech of frenzied seers disturbs me, or troubles me with empty terrors. Let crafty Tyresius keep his chantings for himself and his own daughter. I don't care. If Apollo himself were to open his shrine and confront me with his ravings. No, it's the sore hurt of my loved brother that makes me back of my own will to my city.
1:09:07 Liv Albert? My hymon grows from the wound of an Anakian spear, scares out of the dust of battle from between the lines the archives that already seized him. But I waste time. Go, cheer his distress, and tell his bearers to spare him and carry him gently. I go to find Eteon, who is skilled in joining up wounds and recall the life-blood's ebbing stream. He breaks off and speeds away, and the other breast confusion reigns and a dark cloud of woe. He wavers uncertainly between devoted love and harsh discordant fears. But fate impels him to believe.
1:09:48 Liv Albert? Meanwhile, impetuous Capanius drives over the battle plain, the troops that issue from the breached gate, now squadrons of horse, now regiments of foot, now chariots that trample the corpses of their own charioteers. He it is that rends high towers with stones and many a whizzing dart, he it is that routs the cohort and reeks in gore. Now he whirls the winged bullet and scatters strange wounds all around, now he swings his arm aloft and sends the javelin flying, nor ever a lance mounts the rooftop that brings not down its man and falls back streaming with blood.
1:10:31 Liv Albert? No longer does the Peloponnesian phalanx believe Eunides, or Hippomedon slain, or the bard, or yet the Arcadian, but rather that their comrade souls are all rejoined in his one frame. So fills he all the battlefield. Nor age, nor dress, nor beauty moves him. Alike on those that fight and those that entreat he pours his fury. None dare resist, or try the chances of war. afar as he rages, they shudder at his armor and terrible crest and helmets front. But the devoted Menichius stood on a chosen part of the wall, sacred already to behold,
1:11:13 Liv Albert? and majestic and mean beyond his wont, as though suddenly descended to earth from heaven above, bareheaded and manifest to view, he gazed down upon the lines of warriors, instilled the clamors of the field, and bade the war be silent. You gods of battle, and you, O Thebes, who grants me a death so glorious, vouchsafe to Thebes the joys which I have covenanted for, and bought with all my lavish life-blood, roll back the tide of war, and hurl against captive Lerna her base remnants. Let father Anakas turn away from his dishonored sons, as they nurse the spear-wound in their backs.
1:11:57 Liv Albert? But restore to the Tyrians by my death their temples, fields, and homes, children and wives, if I, your chosen victim, have pleased you, if I heard the prophet's oracle with no panic-stricken ear, and took it to my heart forever. Thebes believed it. Reward Amphion's town in my stead, and reconcile, I pray, the father who I deceived.
1:12:24 Liv Albert? So he speaks, and with his glittering blade tears at the noble soul that long has disdained its body and grieved to be held fast, and probes for the life and rends it with one wound. Then with his blood he sprinkled the towers and purified the walls, and grasping still his sword hurled himself into the midst of the lines and strove to fall upon the fierce Achaeans. But piety and virtue clasped and bore his body lightly to the earth, for his spirit long since is at the throne of Jove, and demands for itself a crown amid the highest stars.
1:13:08 Liv Albert? And now rejoicing they bear the hero within the walls, recovering his body with no labor. Of its own accord the tantalid host in reverence withdrew. He is borne on the necks of youths in a long train, and is acclaimed by the glad praise of all the populace as patron of the town above Cadmus and Amphion. With garlands and all the honor of the spring they heap his lifeless limbs, and lay his venerated body in his forefather's tomb. Then when their lauds are finished they resume the fight, and his father, his wrath appeased, sheds tears and joins in the lament, and his mother can weep her fill at last.
1:13:52 Liv Albert? Was it then to make atonement and devote your life for cruel Thebes that I nourished you, illustrious boy, as though I were some worthless mother? What crime then had I wrought, what gods so hated me? No incestuous offspring have I borne in unnatural intercourse, nor given unhallowed progeny to my own son? But what does that matter? Jocasta has her sons, and sees them leaders and kings, but we must make cruel expiation for the war? That the brothers, sons of Oedipus, may exchange their diadems? Does this please you, O author of the blow? But why complain I of men and gods?
1:14:33 Liv Albert? You, cruel Manichius, you before all did hasten to slay your unhappy mother. Where did this love of death come from? What cursed madness seized your mind? What did I conceive? What misbegotten child did I bear, so different from myself?
1:14:53 Liv Albert? Verily, it's the snake of Mars and the ground that burgoned fresh with our armed fathers. From there comes that desperate valor, that overmastering love of war. Not comes of his mother, lo, of your own will and pleasure slain, yes, even against the will of fate, you forced an entrance to the gloomy shades. I was fearing the Danians and the shafts of Capanius. It was this hand, this hand of yours, that I should have feared, and the sword I myself once gave you in my folly. See how the glade is wholly buried in his throat? None of the Danians could have made a deeper thrust.
1:15:36 Liv Albert? Even yet would the unhappy woman be speaking and making her sorrow known on every side, but her companions and her handmaids bear her away, hating those who would console her and keep her in her chamber. There she sits, her cheeks deep ploughed by her nails, nor looks toward the light, nor listens to entreaties, nor turns her face that is ever fixed on the ground. Her voice, her reason, lost. So a fierce tigress, robbed of her cubs, lies desolate in her scythian lair and licks the traces off the warm stone. Her fury is gone, the savagery and hunger of her ravenous jaws are abated, and the flocks and herds go careless by.
1:16:19 Liv Albert? She sees them and lies still, for where are they for whom she should feed, or long awaited heap up the abundant prey?
1:16:29 Liv Albert? So far of arms and trumpets, of swords and wounds I tell. But now Capanius must be raised high to do battle with the star-bearing vault. No more may I sing after the wonted way of bards, a mightier frenzy must be summoned. From the Ionian groves, dare with me, goddesses all, whether that madness of his was sent from deepest night, and the stygian sisters dogged the banner of Capanius and forced him to the assault against Jove, or whether it was valor that brooked no boughs, nor headlong love of glory, or utter destructions appointed doom, or success that goes before disaster and heaven luring to ruin in its wrath.
1:17:15 Liv Albert? Now, earthly battles grow mean in her hero's eyes, he is tired of the endless slaughter. Long ago of his weapons and those of the Greeks been spent, his right arm grows weary, he looks up to the sky. Soon with frowning gaze he measures the lofty battlements and gets him a skyward leading path of steps innumerable, a tree guarding its either flank, and terribly from afar he brandishes a flaring torch of oak and wood, his armor glows red, and a glaze is kindled on his shield. "By this road, he cries, by this road my lofty valor bids me go to Thebes, where yonder tower is slippery with Manichaeus's blood.
1:17:59 Liv Albert? I shall try what sacrifice avails and whether Apollo is false." He speaks and climbs with alternate step exultant against the captured wall, even as the vault beheld the elodi amid the clouds, when impious earth rose high and was like to look down upon the gods. Not yet had mighty Pelion been added and also already touched the affrighted thunderer.
1:18:26 Liv Albert? Then, indeed, aghast upon the utmost verge of doom, as though the last destruction threatened, or Bologna with blood-stained brand drew nigh to raise their towers to the ground, from every roof in emulous haste they hurl huge stones and stakes, and whirl the strong lash of the beleric sling. What hope is there in javelins and the vague flight of arrows? No, they eagerly ply their engines and impel great rocks against him, but he, unmoved by missiles assailing him in front or rear, hovers aloft in empty air, yet sure as though he planted his steps on the flat earth,
1:19:07 Liv Albert? and strives onward and draws nigh in the teeth of fell destruction. Just as a river pressing upon the timbers of an ancient bride assaults it with unresting waters, and now the stones gape and the beams are loosened. With the more violence for he knows it, and greater surge he shakes and drags at the weakening mass, till the swift current has burst all the fastenings, and triumphantly draws breath again, and flows on with unhampered course. And when he stood out high above the long-attempted summit, and in towering height looked down upon the trembling city, and terrified Thebes with his huge shadow,
1:19:51 Liv Albert? he taunted the astounded folk. Are these Amphion's insignificant towers, for shame? Are these the compliant walls that followed an unwarlike song? That ancient lying tale of Thebes, and what glory is there in overthrowing a fortress built by a feeble liar? Therewith he falls with foot and hand upon the masonry, and fiercely destroys the jointing and the flooring that would stay him. Connecting bridges fall, the stone curbs of the covering roof give way, and again he uses the dismembered mass, and hurls down rocky fragments on temples and on houses, and now he is shattering the city with its own fortress walls.
1:20:36 Liv Albert? Meanwhile, about Jove's throne, the Argive, and the Tyrian deities were clamoring in diverse factions. The impartial father beholds their wrath blaze high around him, and marks that he restrain it. Beneath his stepmother's gaze, Libere, regards his father askance, and makes lament: "Where now is that ruthless hand?" Bacchus cries: "Where, alas, is my cradle of fire, the thunderbolt! Ah, where the thunderbolt!" Apollo too laments the homes with which once his command appointed. The Tyrrhenian weighs Lerna against Thebes and hesitates with ready-strung bow. The winged Danian grieves for his mother's Argos.
1:21:22 Liv Albert? Venus weeps for Harmonia's folk, and fearing her husband, stands apart and gazes at Mars in silent anger.
1:21:32 Liv Albert? Bold Tritonia blames the Tyrian gods while speechless rage tortures the heart of silent Juno. Yet undisturbed is the peace of Jove, and lo, their quarrels ceased when in mid-heaven Capanius was heard. "Are there no gods among you?" he cries, "who stand for panic-stricken Thebes? Where are the sluggard sons of this accursed land, Bacchus and Heracles? Any of lesser name I am ashamed to challenge. Rather come you, what worthy your antagonist? For lo, Semele's ashes and her tomb are in my power. Come you and strive with all your flames against me, you, Jupiter,
1:22:14 Liv Albert? or are you braver at frightening timid maidens with your thunder and raising the towers of your father-in-law Cadmus?"
1:22:23 Liv Albert? Loud rose the gods' indignant clamor at his words, Jove himself laughed at the madman, and shaking the thick mass of sacred locks said, "What hope has man after Phlegra's arrogant assault?" He says, "And must you too be struck down?" As he hesitates, the gods throng round him, gnashing their teeth and crying for their avenging weapons. Nor any longer dares his anxious consort resist the fates. The heavenly palace itself thunders, though no sign is given. The clouds themselves gather and the storms collect without the blast of any wind. One would think Iappidis had burst his stygian chains
1:23:05 Liv Albert? and that feathered Enamore, or Aetna, had been lifted to the heights above. Such things the denizens of heaven feel shame to fear, but when they see the hero stand midway in the dizzy height of air and summon them to insane battle, they marvel in silence and grow pale, doubting the thunderbolt's power.
1:23:29 Liv Albert? Then, above the summit of the Ogai-Gian Tower, the vault began to bellow strangely, and the sky to be lost in darkness. Yet still he grasps the battlements that he no longer sees, and as often as the lightnings flashed through the rent storm clouds, "Yes, here!" he shouts, "Here at last are the fires it is right to use against Thebes. From them I may renew my torch and awaken my smoldering oaken brand." Even as he spoke, the thunderbolt struck him, hurled with the whole might of Jove. His crest first vanished into the clouds, the Black and Shield boss dripped, and all
1:24:12 Liv Albert? the hero's limbs are now illuminated. The armies both give way, in terror where he may fall, what squadrons he may strike with his burning body. He feels the flame hissing within him and his helmet and hair of fire, and trying to push away the galling cuirass with his hand touches the scorched steel beneath his breast. He stands nevertheless and, turning towards heaven, pants out his life, and leans his smoking breast on the hated battlements, lest he should fall, but his earthly frame deserts the hero, and his spirit is released.
1:24:50 Liv Albert? Yet had his limbs been consumed a whit more slowly, he might have expected a second thunderbolt.
1:25:14 Liv Albert? Oh, that ending was so good. Sometimes I get so into it that I am not totally sure what I'm reading, even though I'm reading it aloud, and I feel like I miss things. But like...
1:25:29 Liv Albert? The guy just became like huge and on fire and had to be killed by the gods because he was gonna like kill everybody? I don't know. That's kinda seemed to go to nowhere and I I am here for it, honestly. I really liked that. Um, you know, Creon is involved again. He's famous from the Oedipus stories. Now I'm just kind of recalling um, things I said. It's that was a really, we're getting into like the real just battle and yet this is a really interesting epic because it really like it plays with a lot of standard things from like the Iliad and the Odyssey and then it also like does some wackier stuff, which I'm enjoying and I hope that you are too. But now it's almost been an hour and a half of me talking straight after recording
1:26:10 Liv Albert? um, an incredible conversation that is coming soon. Oh my God, I got somebody to talk about women and weaving. Oh, it's gonna be so good. But for now I'm done. Um, I will say I I have so much trouble reading stuff like this, just the horrors of war right now and I all I do um, is imagine the people living through unimaginable horrors in Palestine. And so I just want to make sure that we don't forget them, even though our governments have decided that
1:26:47 Liv Albert? I don't even know, that they don't matter. A bunch of our governments recognized the state of Palestine, but they didn't say whether it would include Gaza, nor did they make any moves to stop funding and weaponizing the genocide or any intention of punishing Israel for doing it.
1:27:12 Liv Albert? Because Western civilization is morally bankrupt.
1:27:19 Liv Albert? Um, and if I don't sing in that way to make it lighter, then I'll just cry and I don't have time for that. We have a deadline. So thank you all so much for listening. I really, I really love these reading episodes and I'm perpetually thrilled that you all do too.
1:27:40 Liv Albert? Back with more soon. Let's talk about Myths Baby is written and produced by me, Liv Albert. Michaela Penguish is the Hermes to my Olympians, my incredible producer. The podcast is part of the Memory Collective Podcast Network, which is still a thing we're working on making into a bigger thing. But if you're listening to this, then tomorrow, wait, or maybe Sunday, you should check the internet. We're doing a big livestream event for International Podcast Day and the Memory Collective. Go check it out. It's on everybody's socials, either mine, Myths Baby, Movies We Dig, where Christie is really the one putting in all the work for this, Partial Historians, everyone is talking about it. Come join us for some or all of the livestream. We're gonna be doing
1:28:23 Liv Albert? Q and A's and we're going to be reading stuff, playing games, just being weird. Last time, we had a ball. This time, we have a raffle too, which again, Christie is handling. Go to socials for more information. But we're giving away a bunch of books, written by people in the collective, and in many cases, signed if we can. What with, you know, just the economic horrors. But anyway, I'm giving away a copy of both my Greek Myth Handbook and Nectar of the Gods, as well as one of just two copies I have to give away of the
1:29:02 Liv Albert? Medusa book that I wrote the introduction for. Check all of that out. This is me realizing I don't have an exact call to action. But yeah, just go, go find Myths Baby on Instagram or Movies We Dig, and you will find more. We're gonna have fun. Thank you all. I am Liv, and I love this chat.
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Previous The Definitely Real, Totally Accurate Story of Cyrus (Herodotus The Histories Bk 1, Part 3) Next She Crashes into the Scene, Wine Skin Filled with Human Blood (Herodotus The Histories Bk 1, Part 4) Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated