SOURCE: "Seven Against Thebes: The Tragedy of War," in The Masks of Tragedy: Essays on Six Greek Dramas, University of Texas Press, 1963, pp. 7-48.

In the following essay, Rosenmeyer conducts a scene-by-scene analysis of Seven against Thebes.

This is a play about war, a play "full of Ares," as an ancient critic put it. Perhaps we should say: a play about a war, for the attack of the Argive champions on Thebes, the struggle of Greek against Greek, brother against brother, is a particular chapter in history. Aeschylus does all he can to remind us of the uniqueness of the event. But the nature of war is such that the chroniclers of particular wars always transcend their immediate focus and touch upon the archetype. War, "the father of all," is a more intrusive reality than other universals operating behind and through the events.

How, then, does one go...