ANTIGONE 143
He hovered o'er our land, With snow-white wing bedecked, Begirt with myriad arms, And flowing horsehair crests.
Antistrophe I.
He stood above our towers, 125
Encircling, with his spears all blood-bestained,
The portals of our gates ;
He went, before he filled
His jaws with blood of men,
Ere the pine-fed Hephaestus ^ 130
Had seized our crown of towers.
So loud the battle din That Ares loves was raised around his rear, A conflict hard e'en for his dragon foe.^
For breath of haughty speech 135
Zeus hateth evermore ;
And seeing them advance.
With mighty rushing stream.
And clang of golden arms,
With brandished fire he hurls 140
One who rushed eagerly
From topmost battlement
To shout out, " Victory ! "
Strophe II.
Crashing to earth he fell,^
Down-smitten, with his torch, 145
- 1 The god of fire is here used for the element itself.
^ As the Argive army was compared to the eagle, so Thebes to the eagle's great enemy, the serpent. Here, probably, is a reference to the mythos of the descent of the Thebans from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.
^ The unnamed leader whose fall is thus singled out for special men- tion was Capaneus, who bore on his shield the figure of a naked man brandishing a torch and crying, " I will burn the city."
