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

THE THEBAIDcrash thereof were heard throughout the four quarters of Greece,to wit, as far as Mount Parnassus in the East, the river Eurotasin the West, fair Mount Oete in the South, and to the fringedborders of Isthmos in the North. And that sound, distinct, wellmarked and very loud, reached the brave contentious enviousTheban stock, and Oedipus' large fair sons, to wit, Eteocles andPolynices, so that a lasting feud and intense mutual jealousyabout the sovereignty arose through Tisiphone's instigationbetween those two sons, like two strong, vicious, envious bullsunder a huge intolerable yoke, so that they strained andweakened their bonds and fetters, as they mutually strove andpulled one against another.Now concerning the Thebans, they could not endure themutual strife of those two sons about the sovereignty, and theplan they then adopted was that the kingdom should belong toeach of the sons every alternate year, and that a decision by lotshould be made between them as to which of them should cometo the kingdom first ; and it was so done. And from a decisionby lot the kingdom fell to Eteocles for the space of that year,and for so long Polynices should be on adventures and in exile.Now when that plan had been decided on by the vast Echionianpeople, mutual jealousy and tedium possessed them at the kingthey had, and love and lasting affection came to them for theman who was on adventures and exiled from them, to wit,Polynices. It was^then, moreover, that a certain rich wealthywell-born man of the great pure Theban race said that it wasnot right for the strong chosen people to alternate the sovereigntyover them between the young restless kings :" For this is asimile of us, we are like a capacious very large ship being beatenby two contrary winds so that it knows not with which wind itshould go, for vast is the suffering and the weakness thereof forus, to dwell under the kingly rule and kingly authority of ourpresent king, to wit, Eteocles, and under the dread and menaceof the other king, to wit, Polynices."As to Polynices, however, son of Oedipus, he had been on themove wandering throughout the upland Echionian district.15