Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D., Ed.

Enter a Herald.

Herald
It is my duty to announce the will and decrees of the council on behalf of the people of this our Cadmean city.

It is decreed, first, that Eteocles here, on account of his goodwill towards the city, is to be buried in a kindly grave in its soil; [1015] for hating the enemy he chose death in the city and driven by piety towards his ancestral shrines, he died without reproach where it is an honor for the young to die. This is how I was commanded to speak regarding him. But as for his brother, it is decreed that this corpse of Polyneices [1020] is to be cast out of the city unburied to be torn by dogs, since he would have been the destroyer of the land of the Cadmeans, if one of the gods had not used his brother's spear to prevent him. Even in death he will retain the stain of his guilt against his fathers' gods, whom he dishonored [1025] when he launched a foreign army against the city to take it. For this reason it is decreed that he will receive his reward by being buried without honor beneath the winged birds; and that no labor of the hands shall attend him by building up a burial mound nor shall anyone offer him reverence in shrill-sung laments. [1030] He is to be refused the honor of being carried in funeral procession by his loved ones. Such is the decree of the Cadmean authorities.