and declares that she will bury Polynices. The chorus divide into two parties, one supporting Antigone, the other giving obedience to the State. This tragedy won the prize. The trilogy consisted of _Laius_, _Œdipus_, the _Seven_, with the _Sphinx_ as satyric play. Aristeas and Polyphradmon, the sons of Pratinas and Phrynichus respectively, were second and third. Very little is known about the companion plays. The _Laius_ contained a reference to the exposure of the infant Œdipus; the _Œdipus_ described the death of Laius. The _Seven_ is a magnificently vigorous and graphic presentment of war in one of its aspects. As such it is eulogized by Aristophanes, who puts into the mouth of Æschylus the boast that he “composed a drama full of the War-God—my _Seven against Thebes_”.[222] The chief excellences are the first chorus and the celebrated Choosing of the Champions. This latter contained the best-known passage in the play, where the messenger says of Amphiaraus:—[223] σῆμα δ’ οὐκ ἐπῆν κύκλῳ οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ’ εἶναι θέλει, βαθεῖαν ἄλοκα διὰ φρενὸς καρπούμενος, ἐξ ἧς τὰ κεδνὰ βλαστάνει βουλεύματα. His buckler bore no blazon; for he seeks Not to seem great, but to be great indeed, Reaping the deep-ploughed furrow of his soul Wherefrom the harvest of good counsel springs. As these lines were declaimed in the theatre, Plutarch[224] tells us, every one turned and gazed at Aristides the Just. The first half of the play is in strictness not dramatic[225] at all—a merely static presentment of the situation: a city in a state of siege, panic among the women, resolution in the mind of the general. The later portion gives us decisive action. The King rushes to his fratricidal duel, spurred on by the invisible curse; but even here there is no dramatic conflict of personalities like the altercation between the brothers in the _Phœnissæ_ of Euripides. Such a collision is, however, provided at the very end, where Antigone defies the State. As regards the PROMETHEUS VINCTUS (Προμηθεὺς δεσμώτης, “Prometheus Bound”) we are in doubt as to the date, the arrangement of the cast, and the other parts of the trilogy.