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The Phoenician Maidens (638-718)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg015.perseus-eng2:638-718
Refs {'start': {'reference': '638', 'human_reference': 'Line 638'}, 'end': {'reference': '718', 'human_reference': 'Line 718'}}
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Cadmus of Tyre came to this land, and at his feet a four-footed,
untamed heifer threw itself down, fulfilling an oracle, where the god’s prophecy told him to make his home in the plains rich with wheat,
and where the lovely waters of Dirce pour over the fields, the green and deep-seeded fields; here Bromius’ mother gave birth
from her union with Zeus; Bromius, round whom the ivy twined its wreaths while he was still a baby, covering him and blessing him in the shades of its green foliage,
a Bacchic dance for the maids and wives inspired in Thebes.
657
Chorus
There was Ares’ murderous dragon, a savage guard,
watching with wandering eye the watery rivers and fresh streams. Cadmus destroyed it with a jagged stone, when he came there to draw lustral water; smiting the deadly head
with a blow of his beast-slaying arm; and by the counsel of PalIas, the motherless goddess, he cast the teeth upon the deep fields to fall to the earth,
from which the earth brought forth a sight fully-armed, above the surface of the soil; but grim slaughter once again united them to the earth they loved, bedewing with blood the ground that had
shown them to the sunlit breath of heaven.
676
Chorus
And you, Epaphus, born from Io, our first mother, and child of Zeus: you I summon in foreign cry,
oh! in foreign prayers: come, come to this land; your descendants settled here; and the goddesses of twofold name, Persephone and the kindly
goddess Demeter the queen of all, Earth the nurse of all, won it for themselves; send to the help of this land those torch-bearing goddesses; for to gods all things are easy.
690
Eteoclesto an attendant
Go, bring Creon, son of Menoeceus, the brother of Jocasta my mother; tell him I want to consult with him on matters public and private, before we set out to battle and the arrangement of the army.
But he is here, saving you the trouble; I see him on his way to my house.
Creon
I have been everywhere, lord Eteocles, in my desire to see you, and have gone all round the gates and sentinels of Thebes hunting for you.
Eteocles
And I wanted to see you, Creon; for I found the terms of peace far from satisfactory, when I came to confer with Polyneices.
Creon
I hear that he has wider aims than Thebes, relying on his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But we must leave this dependent on the gods;
I have come to tell you our chief obstacle.
Eteocles
What is that? I do not understand what you say.
Creon
Someone has come who was captured from the Argives.
Eteocles
What news does he bring from there?
Creon
He says the Argive army intend at once to wind about the city of Thebes and its towers, with their army.
Eteocles
In that case the city of Cadmus must lead out its army.
Creon
Where? Are you so young that your eyes do not see what they should?
Eteocles
Across those trenches, to fight at once.
Creon
Our forces are small, while theirs are plentiful.
Eteocles
I know well they are brave in argument.
Creon
Argos has some weight among the Hellenes.
Eteocles
Never fear! I will soon fill the plain with their dead.

Tokens

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of 1 w 8
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to 1 w 18
this 1 w 22
land 1 w 26
and 2 w 30
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his 2 w 35
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a 6 w 40
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s 5 w 113
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to 3 w 130
make 1 w 134
his 3 w 137
home 1 w 141
in 2 w 143
the 2 w 146
plains 1 w 152
rich 1 w 156
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wheat 1 w 165
and 3 w 169
where 2 w 174
the 3 w 177
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the 4 w 207
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a 19 w 346
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stone 1 w 590
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the 13 w 684
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the 17 w 742
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a 60 w 799
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