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

THE THEBAIDand the gathering his brother Eteocles might have awaitinghim, and also he thought great shame that no friends or companionscheered his journey by righting and smiting for oneanother at his side. Now this was the likeness of that Thebanchampion of the brave seed of Cadmus, son of Agenor. He wason the paths of that way as a steersman is, with his heavy-ladedhuge ship on the expanse of the rough cold wintry sea, seeingno point, no star whereby to steer a course, but the roar andtumult of the vast main full of ships, confusing and wreckinghim, so that he knew not what haven or port of refuge heshould make. And then Polynices fared forward, and with suchstrength and vigour did he journey by night that he shook andremoved the thick lofty oaks while he drew his great soldier'sshield through the forests with their secret shelters, and hebroke the woods and the groves with his breast and his bosomby the roughness of his advance and the urgence of that houruntil he saw a conspicuous bright light. And that light wassituated in the royal lofty tower in the city named Larissa, inlittle Greece ; and the light which he looked upon there was aflaming precious stone, equally bright day and night, which wasadorning that lofty royal house.Then he fared forward in his course of swift running towardsthe city of Larissa, having the left hand towards the nobletemples of Juno which stood in the lofty pleasant city of Proshymna,and the right hand towards the broad marshes ofLerna ; and then he fared forward away through the very loftyand pleasant open gates of that city, and he saw round abouthim the wide well-defined foundations of that city. And helaid his well-proportioned body at full length weakly and inertlyalong the floor and the bare ground after the anxiety of thatnight, against the doorpost of that house and against the doorpostof that royal palace, in a hard narrow bed, and he slept there.Then, however, the noble venerated high-king, Adrastus,chanced to be in the broad pure most beautiful city of Larissa.And it was that long-lived contemporary Adrastus that washigh-king over the purely great youth of the Greeks. For on21