Togail na Tebe = The Thebiad of Statius : the Irish text

THE THEBAIDI had rede those riddles, we fought a fierce, wary, manly duel,and in consequence thereof the monster fell in the end."Thenmoreover Oedipus said : " It is by thine aid and help that Ihave done these deeds, both slain my sire, and wronged mymother ; and through thine instigation I have plucked my widegrey liquid-cool eyes out of my head, and thereafter thou hastawakened a fury of bitter rage between these my sons, to wit,Eteocles and -Polynices, that they have rent and violently disruptedthe kingdom, so that the one of them can have no headshipor control of the other; for pride and folly have filled themby reason of the dishonour and contempt they have shown tome because of my living blind and dark in a cave-dwelling ofearth."Now when Tisiphone had heard these words of Oedipus, thenthe fiendish mad Fury arose with her locks of venomous serpentsabout her head, puffing, croaking, whistling, fluttering, andsucking the welling fiery stream named Cocytus, because uponthe borders of that stream her dwelling-place was.Then sheleaped swiftly impatiently madly from the stream like dartingfiery levin, or like a swift star lighting up the quivering firmament; and this was the way she came, through the fierce idleand fiendishrabble, and through the weak and sad assembliesof souls that dwelt in the gravelly abodes of hell, so that horrorand vast fear seized them as they beheld the fiendish duskyface of that fiery red-lipped scald of war. And thereupon sheadvanced forth through Taenaros, baleful door of hell. And whenshe had arrived, thick darkness like night overspread all earth'sface, so that terror and intense fear seized the people of thebounds and districts before her ; and then she came by the wellknownand excellent road on hilly sloping glens, till she arrivedat Thebes. Then a hundred venomous and hostile serpents withcrests and stings arose about her head. Her coloured and darkgreyeyes were sucked and swallowed into the depths of herhead and crown. Then she arose and shook the venomous serpentthat was in her hand at the hosts, so that the sound and