ANT.  Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my youth, raising up the steps of my feet.

TUT.  Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one another.

ANT.  O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass[8] gleaming like lightning.

TUT.  For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of horsemen, and ten thousand shields.

ANT.  Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the stone-work of Amphion’s wall?

TUT.  Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first chief, if thou desirest to know.

ANT.  Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?

TUT.  He is a leader, lady.

ANT.  Who is he?  From whom sprung?  Speak, aged man, what is he called by name?

TUT.  He indeed is called by birth a Mycenaean, and he dwells at the streams of Lerna,[9] the king Hippomedon.

ANT.  Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant, starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,[10] he corresponds not with the race of mortals.

TUT.  Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?

ANT.  Here is another, another fashion of arms.  But who is he?

TUT.  He is the son of Oeneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the AEtolian Mars.

ANT.  Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my brother’s wife?[11] In his arms how different of color, of barbaric mixture!

TUT.  For all the AEtolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the lance, most certain in their aim.

ANT.  But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?

TUT.  Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I recognize the warriors.

ANT.  But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?

TUT.  A general he is. [See Note [A].]

ANT.  How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind![12]

TUT.  This is Parthenopaeus, son of Atalanta.

ANT.  But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my city to destroy it.

TUT.  May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.

ANT.  Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?

TUT.  He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe, close by Adrastus.  Seest thou him?