HERALD

 I bear command to tell to one and all

What hath approved itself and now is law,

Ruled by the counsellors of Cadmus' town.

 For this Eteocles, it is resolved

To lay him on his earth-bed, in this soil,

Not without care and kindly sepulture.

For why? he hated those who hated us,

And, with all duties blamelessly performed

Unto the sacred ritual of his sires,

He met such end as gains our city's grace,-

With auspices that do ennoble death.

Such words I have in charge to speak of him:

But of his brother Polyneices, this-

Be he cast out unburied, for the dogs

To rend and tear: for he presumed to waste

The land of the Cadmeans, had not Heaven-

Some god of those who aid our fatherland-

Opposed his onset, by his brother's spear,

To whom, tho' dead, shall consecration come!

Against him stood