Matheson Collection > Togail na Tebe

THE THEBAID
doors to be heard as they were being opened. And scarcely had
they gone when they found the men drunk and overcome with
sleep, and Thiodamas said : " O Greeks, are not these the folk
that were besieging you ? And it is easy for you now to be
avenged on them." And he plucked his sword out of its sheath,
and he came through the hosts, and he was hewing and slaying
them, so that it was not possible to count their number or to
remember the companies of their heroes that .fell there by
Thiodamas. For he left there heroes hal^ kiUeoon their litters,
A
-and warriors broken in the hollow of their shields, and champions
smitten on beds of grass and of sacred wood. Also the worship-
ful gods were there aiding the Greeks, and cutting at the
Thebans. As for Agylleus, son of Hercules, however, not less
were the slaughters he inflicted on the Thebans ; and he con-
tinued to destroy and exterminate till the sweet musician
Ialmenus, harper of the Thebans, met him after playing to the
hosts ; and his sweetness did not serve him, for he fell forthwith
by the hand of the son of Hercules. As for Actor, again, not
mild was his battle as he starkly slew the Thebans, till strong
and valiant Thamyris fell by his hand. Echeclus, a Theban,
also fell by Tagus, a Greek. Calpetus, a Theban, was sound
asleep between the yokes of the chariot till Thiodamas, a Greek,
came unto him and the awakening he bestowed on him was to
give him a sword-stroke, so that he was a bare trunk in con-
sequence of it.
Thus they continued starkly slaying the Thebans till the end
of the night approached them, and prudent Actor, a Greek, saw
that. He began to call Thiodamas to him, and this is what he
said to him: "Sufficient," said he, "is the victory we have
obtained, for all that were slayable here of Thebans have fallen
by us, and let us be going with this battle-triumphant victory we
have won." Thiodamas accepted that, and was extolling the
goddess of night, to wit, Phoebe, for the victory she had given
them that night. And every night-victory that anyone wins is
through the intercession of that goddess, Phoebe, according to age-
long heathen histories. And he promised her that he would sacri-
fice as many cattle to her as the whole of the hosts he had slain
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