The image meets us again in _Agam._ 980. Here the thought is, that a man too prosperous is like a ship too heavily freighted. He must part with a portion of his possession in order to save the rest. Not to part with them leads, when the storm rages, to an enforced abandonment and utter loss. Footnote 120: Another reading gives— “And race of those who crowd the Agora.” Footnote 121: This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of the curse which Œdipus had launched upon his sons, An alternative rendering is— And with a mind enraged At thought of what they were whom he had reared, He at his sons did hurl His curses dire and dark. Footnote 122: _Sc._, when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gate, and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebans. Footnote 123: I follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from Hermann. Footnote 124: There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are “borne on,” but it is as the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre. Footnote 125: Not here the curse uttered by Œdipus, but that which rested on him and all his kin. There is possibly an allusion to the curse which Pelops is said to have uttered against Laios when he stole his son Chrysippos. Comp. v. 837. Footnote 126: As in v. 763 we read of the brothers as made one in death, so now of the concord which is wrought out by conflict, the concord, _i.e._, of the grave. Footnote 127: The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pass from the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of mourners at a funeral, beating on their breasts. But, perhaps, the call is addressed to the mourners who are seen approaching with Ismene and Antigone. Footnote 128: The thought is drawn from the _theoris_ or pilgrim-ship, which went with snow-white sails, and accompanied by joyful pæans, on a solemn mission from Athens to Delos. In contrast with this type of joy, Æschylos draws the picture of the boat of Charon, which passes over the gloomy pool accompanied by the sighs and gestures of bitter lamentation. So, in the old Attic legend, the ship that annually carried seven youths and maidens to the Minotaur of Crete was conspicuous for its black sails. Footnote 129: The “Chalyb,” or iron sword, which the Hellenes had imported from the Skythians. Comp. vv. 70. 86. Footnote 130: