_Eteoc._ Fie on the chance that brings the righteous man Close-mated with the ungodly! In all deeds Nought is there worse than evil fellowship, A crop men should not reap. Death still is found The harvest of the field of frenzied pride; For either hath the godly man embarked With sailors hot in insolence and guile,[112] And perished with the race the Gods did loathe; 600 Or just himself, with citizens who wrong The stranger and are heedless of the Gods, Falling most justly in the self-same snare, By God's scourge smitten, shares the common doom. And thus this seer I speak of, Œcleus' son, Righteous, and wise, and good, and reverent, A mighty prophet, mingling with the godless *And men full bold of speech in reason's spite, Who take long march to reach a far-off city,[113] If Zeus so will, shall be hurled down with them. 610 And he, I trow, shall not draw nigh the gates, Not through faint-heart or any vice of mood, But well he knows this war shall bring his death, If any fruit is found in Loxias' words; And He or holds his speech or speaks in season. Yet against him the hero Lasthenes, A foe of strangers, at the gates we'll set; Old in his mind, his body in its prime, His eye swift-footed, and his hand not slow To grasp the spear from 'neath the shield laid bare:[114] 620 Yet 'tis by God's gift men must win success. ANTISTROPHE III _Chor._ Hear, O ye Gods! our prayers, Our just entreaties grant, That so our State be blest. Turn ye the toils of war Upon the invading host. Outside the walls may Zeus With thunder smite them low! _Mess._ The seventh chief then who at the seventh gate stands, Thine own, own brother, I will speak of now, What curses on our State he pours, and prays 630 That he the towers ascending, and proclaimed By herald's voice to all the territory, And shouting out the captor's pæan-cry, May so fight with thee, slay, and with thee die; Or driving thee alive, who did'st him wrong, May on thee a vengeance wreak like in kind. So clamours he, and bids his father's Gods, His country's guardians, look upon his prayers, [And grant them all. So Polyneikes prays.] And he a new and well-wrought shield doth bear, And twofold sign upon it riveted; 640 For there a woman with a stately tread Leads one who seems a warrior wrought in gold: Justice she calls herself, and thus she speaks: “I WILL BRING BACK THIS MAN, AND HE SHALL HAVE THE CITY AND HIS FATHER'S DWELLING-PLACE.” Such are the signs and mottoes of those men; And thou, know well whom thou dost mean to send: So thou shalt never blame my heraldings; And thou thyself know how to steer the State.