Septem contra Thebas

Summary

TheSeptem carries the stamp of greatness: in the entrance-song of the chorus (for instance) and in the sombre rhetoric of the so-called Redepaare. Indeed, throughout we catch what Longinus called ‘the resonance of a great mind’. It has, moreover, a feature which was not to be found in the Persae and will not be found in the Supplices: the dramatic issues are focused upon an arresting individual figure. Eteocles has been called ‘the first Man of the European stage’, and the play ‘our earliest tragedy of character’. Yet what is the character of Eteocles? The question has fascinated recent writers, but no agreement has been reached upon the answer. This great play and this great dramatic figure continue to baffle us.

There are difficulties. The Persae is complete as a single play; the Oresteia is a complete trilogy. The remaining extant plays of Aeschylus are truncated works of art which cannot be fully under-stood in isolation from their lost companions. The Septem was the last play of a trilogy; it was preceded by the Laius and the Oedipus, and of these plays we know little. As though this were not obstacle enough, there is grave suspicion – amounting in the view of many to virtual certainty – that the ending of the play, as we find it in the manuscripts, is not genuine.