Aeschylus

One of the earliest surviving Greek tragedies, Seven Against Thebes is an extraordinarily rich poetic text. It dramatises the civil war between the sons of Oedipus ' Polynices, the exile, and Eteocles, reigning king of Thebes. Polynices marches on Thebes to regain his throne along with six other champion warriors and their armies, but the expedition is doomed, and the meaning of Oedipus' enigmatic curse on his sons ultimately becomes clear in their simultaneous fratricide and the extinction of the Theban house. This book places the drama in the context of the connected trilogy of which it was a part. It investigates the play's tensions between city and family and the omnipresence of curse and ritual in fifth-century Greece. The play's focus on the world of male warriors, and its stark opposition of the sexes through the female Chorus, is analysed in terms of warrior ideology in epic and Greek understanding of appropriate behavior. Finally, it explores the complex legacy of the play.

Isabelle Torrance is Assistant Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Notre Dame.