Unto thee too, Epaphus, scion
Of our first mother Io, I moan,
Unto thee, of our lord Zeus sprung,
With my alien chant upflung
And with prayers of an alien tongue!680
Thy sons, who reared Thebes to thee, cry on
Their father—O come to thine own!
For Demeter, Persephonê, wearing
Twin names, have our land in ward—
Even gracious Demeter All-queen,
Who is Earth, nurse of all that hath been,—
O send them, thy people to screen
From the evil, the Queens Torch-bearing!—
Is there aught for the Gods too hard?
Eteokles (to attendant).
Go thou, and Kreon bring, Menoikeus' son,690
Who is my mother's, even Jocasta's brother.
This tell him, that I would commune with him
Touching our own advantage and the land's,
Ere we go battleward and range the spears.
But lo, he cometh, sparing thy foot's toil.695
Myself behold him drawing nigh mine halls.
Enter Kreon.
Kreon.
Seeking to see thee, far I have wended, King
Eteokles; round to all Kadmean gates
And guards, still searching for thy face, I passed.
Eteokles.
Sooth, Kreon, fain was I to look on thee:700
