ven and earth must now "bear joint witness against him. Heaven spoke first."[1] For some cause unknown to the inhabitants, the wrath of the gods fell upon the state, and every source of life was blasted with that curse which was believed to follow upon crime. Thebes groaned under the worst plagues which smote the land of Egypt. Pestilence came upon the cattle; mildew blighted the fruits of the earth; the first-born of women were swept away by some fatal and mysterious malady. The whole city—and those among the poet's audience who had been in Athens during the Great Plague could realise the description—was "full of the dead and dying." It was to no purpose that unceasing prayers were offered, and that incense steamed upon the altars. The gods remained deaf and dumb to all entreaties. The citizens in the first chorus tell the tale of their sufferings thus:—
"The nurslings of the genial earth
Wane fast away;
The children, blighted ere the birth,
See not the day,
And the sad mother bows her head,
And, with her treasure lost, sleeps 'mid the crowded dead.
One upon another driven,
Fleeter than the birds of heaven,
Fleeter than the fire-flood's might,
Rush they to the realms of night,
Where, beyond the western sea,
Broods the infernal Deity,
While our city makes her moan
O'er her countless children gone."—(A.)
- ↑ De Quincey, The Theban Sphinx (Works, ix. 249).
