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The Tragedies of Aeschylus, Tr. Into Engl. Prose
The Tragedies of Aeschylus Tr Into Engl Prose Author:Aeschylus General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1827 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: THE SEVEN CH1EFS AGAINST THEBES. ETEOCLES. Ye citizens of Cadmus, it becomes him to deliver seasonable counsels, whoever is the guardian of affairs in the vessel of the state, directing aright its helm without lulling his eyelids to repose. For if our fortunes prosper, all is ascribed to the God ; but if, on the other hand -- which may Heaven forbid! -- calamity should befall us, the name of Eteocles would alone be loudly resounded through the city by the people, in tumultous reproaches and lamentations : of which, may Jupiter, in accordance with his name, prove the averter from the city of the Cadmseans! But it behoves you now, both him who hath not yet attained the flower of youth, and him who through age hath passed his prime, buoying up the full vigour of the body -- and each in the manner that befits the season of his life -- to assist his country, and the altars of his country's Gods, so that their honours may never be defaced, and his children, and the land that gave him birth and reared him with fondest affection. For your country, enduring all the labour of your nurture, hath brought you up, since you first planted your infant steps on her friendly soil, to dwell within her borders in valour and faith, that ye might be ready to her aid in emergency like this. And now, indeed, up to this period, our fortunes go well; for to us already, so long invested within these walls, the war for the most part succeeds favourably, by the blessing of the Gods. But now, as theprophet declares, the feeder of birds', passing in array before his ears and mind " their auguries, without the aid of fire, by the ...« less