=Theag´enes and Chariclei´a= (_The Loves of_), a love story, in Greek, by Heliodorus, bishop of Trikka (fourth century). A charming fiction, largely borrowed from by subsequent novelists, and especially by Mdlle. de Scudéri, Tasso, Guarini and D’Urfé. The tale is this: Some Egyptian brigands met one morning on a hill near the mouth of the Nile, and saw a vessel, laden with stores, lying at anchor. They also observed that the banks of the Nile were strewn with dead bodies and the fragments of food. On further examination they beheld Charicleia sitting on a rock, tending Theagĕnês, who lay beside her severely wounded. Some pirates had done it, and to them the vessel belonged. We are then carried to the house of Nausĭclês, and there Calasīris tells the early history of Charicleia, her love for Theagenês, and their capture by the pirates. =Thea´na= (_3 syl._) is Anne, countess of Warwick. No less praiseworthy I Theana read ... She is the well of bounty and brave mind, Excelling most in glory and great light, The ornament is she of womankind, And court’s chief garland with all virtues dight. Spenser, _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_ (1595). =Thebaid= (_The_), a Latin epic poem in twelve books, by Statius (about a century after Virgil). Laïos, king of Thebes, was told by an oracle that he would have a son, but that his son would be his murderer. To prevent this, when the son was born he was hung on a tree by his feet, to be devoured by wild beasts. The child, however, was rescued by some of the royal servants, who brought him up, and called his name Œdĭpos or Club-foot, because his feet and ankles were swollen by the thongs. One day, going to Thebes, the chariot of Laïos nearly drove over the young Œdipos; a quarrel ensued, and Laïos was killed. Œdipos, not knowing whom he had slain, went on to Thebes, and ere long married the widowed queen, Jocasta, not knowing that she was his mother, and by her he had two sons and two daughters. The names of the sons were Et´eoclês and Polynīcês. These sons in time dethroned their father, and agreed to reign alternate years. Etĕŏclês reigned first, but at the close of the year refused to resign the crown to his brother, and Polynicês made war upon him. This war, which occurred some forty-two years before the siege of Troy, and about the time that Debŏrah was fighting with Sisĕra (_Judges_ iv.), is the subject of the _Thebaid_.