A part of one of the choruses is of singular beauty, and it is doubtless to them that the preservation of the play is due.  The play hardly seems to be a tragedy, for it ends without bloodshed.  Further, it lacks dramatic interest, for the action almost stands still.  It is a cantata rather than a tragedy.  Both considerations, however, are sufficiently explained by the fact that this was the first play of a trilogy.  The remaining plays must have furnished, in the death of forty-nine of the sons of Aegyptus, both action and tragedy in sufficient measure to satisfy the most exacting demands.

The ‘Seven Against Thebes’ deals with the gloomy myth of the house of Laius.  The tetralogy to which it belonged consisted of the ‘Laius,’ ‘Oedipus,’ ‘Seven Against Thebes,’ and ‘Sphinx.’  The themes of Greek tragedy were drawn from the national mythology, but the myths were treated with a free hand.  In his portrayal of the fortunes of this doomed race, Aeschylus departed in important particulars, with gain in dramatic effect, from the story as it is read in Homer.

Oedipus had pronounced an awful curse upon his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, for their unfilial neglect,—­“they should one day divide their land by steel.”  They thereupon agreed to reign in turn, each for a year; but Eteocles, the elder, refused at the end of the first year to give up the throne.  Polynices appealed to Adrastus King of Argos for help, and seven chiefs appeared before the walls of Thebes to enforce his claim, and beleaguered the town.  Here the play opens, with an appeal addressed by Eteocles to the citizens of Thebes to prove themselves stout defenders of their State in its hour of peril.  A messenger enters, and describes the sacrifice and oath of the seven chiefs.  The Chorus of Theban maidens enter in confusion and sing the first ode.  The hostile army is hurrying from its camp against the town; the Chorus hear their shouts and the rattling din of their arms, and are overcome by terror.  Eteocles reproves them for their fears, and bids them sing a paean that shall hearten the people.  The messenger, in a noteworthy scene, describes the appearance of each hostile chief.  The seventh and last is Polynices.  Eteocles, although conscious of his father’s curse, nevertheless declares with gloomy resoluteness that he will meet his brother in single combat, and, resisting the entreaties of the Chorus, goes forth to his doom.  The attack on the town is repelled, but the brothers fall, each by the other’s hand.  Thus is the curse fulfilled.  Presently their bodies are wheeled in.  Their sisters, Antigone and Ismene, follow and sing a lament over the dead.  A herald announces that the Theban Senate forbid the burial of Polynices; his body shall be cast forth as prey of dogs.  Antigone declares her resolution to brave their mandate, and perform the last sad rites for her brother.

     “Dread tie, the common womb from which we sprang,—­
     Of wretched mother born and hapless sire.”