ABSTRACT
In the central scene in which Eteocles makes his decision, the purpose of the impious shouts, the noisy trappings, and all of the shield devices, of the first five attackers is to terrify the Theban defenders. Eteocles fears the noise of the chorus inside the city, as a kind of magic practiced by woman, which can unman the citizens, and help those outside by causing the citizens “to be sacked by themselves from, within”. The engulfing force which destroys Eteocles and Polyneices is, like the attacking army and the terror-stricken chorus, described in images of storm and of violent animality. To all the shield devices, including that of Tydeus, and to all the ill-omened words of the attackers, Eteocles responds with the traditional defense against magic. The hatred and violence masked by Eteocles’ reverent and controlled manner breaks out only at the end of his response to the messenger’s description of Polyneices and his shield.
