Part 4 Summary

The Scout rushes on, and tells the Chorus of Women they have no reason to be afraid: the battle is over. Things have gone well, he says, at six of the gates – but at the seventh, the curse of Laius has come to its conclusion. When the Chorus asks what happened, the Scout tells them that Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other. Before he leaves, he calls the moment an occasion for "both rejoicing and weeping" – rejoicing that the city is safe, but weeping that the kings have destroyed each other.

The Chorus then has a long dirge (a poem about death) as they raise a victory cry to Zeus at the same time as they raise a cry of grief at the death of Eteocles (whose name could be translated as "cause of weeping"). As soldiers bring in the bodies of...