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

THE THEBAIDThen accordingly Tydeus said :" He will take," said he, " thesovereignty from thee ; and though three vast walls of iron wereround about thee, built by pre-eminent Amphion (and he is thefirst man by whom the wall of Thebes was built at the outset,and he did but sound his sweet-strained hollow harp, and bythe music of his harp beams and stones would come, and goupon the wall), and though it be arms and many weapons andfastnesses of the earth, they will not protect thee from beingkilled and destroyed by our arms. And thy kingly diadem willbe parted from thee along with thy head. And a sorrow to me,"said he, "is the vengeance' that will be inflicted on the valiantCalydonian bands that thou wilt bring with thee into that war!in thine own company. Ah " said Tydeus, " huge would be theslaughters and the dispersions on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron,and there will be from that encounter a profuse flood of bloodin the beautiful river of Ismenos. And I do not wonder," saidhe, " at every evil ye will do, for cruel and sinful was every racewhence ye have sprung, and there is not of all the Thebans aman that does not resemble his father in evil, except Polynices.And, O Eteocles," said he, " thine own evil will be avenged onthee unless thou give the kingdom for this year to us, for weseek but that."And when bold distinguished Tydeus had thus spoken on thethreshold of the king's house, he came forward keenly andrestlessly, as came the strong huge wild-boar which Diana sentto devastate and to swallow up the confines of Calydon. Forshe was angry that no sacrifice was offered her by the people ofCalydon. And his rough grey hairy bristles rose like a woodabove his head.so that bright lightnings gleamed from his curvedhard and sharp teeth about his very hideous cheeks, with a loudsmiting of his sword or his tusks when he would crush themtogether, that he might dig up and root out heavy earth-fastrocks and the long plantations of the wood from the borderedges of the river Achelous, when the ever-swift hunters of thethat boar left TelamonGreek youths were beating them untilbehind him, and overthrew the heroic champion Ixion, until thegreatly daring soldier Meleager slew him at last.55