Chorus of Theban Elders
group · 3 works · 6 mentions · 27 anchored passages
Chorus · Chorus Leader · fellow citizens · Cadmeans · Elders · Princes of Thebes · Theban elders · Thebans · Thebes' lords · aged friends
in the texts
Heracles
A chorus of aged Theban men who witness and comment on the action, sympathize with Heracles' family, and later celebrate Lycus's death before recoiling in terror at the apparition of Madness.
Come, old friends, let us look within to see if someone has met the fate I hope.
where the earth-born crop sprang to view, a warrior-host with shields of brass, who are handing on their realm to children’s children, a divine light to Thebes.
still is my song of the triumphs of Heracles, whether Bromius the giver of wine is near, or the strains of the seven-stringed lyre and the Libyan pipe are rising;
Antigone
The collective Theban elders who comment on victory, law, human power, divine ruin, and the unfolding conflict.
But victory belongs to radiant Desire swelling from the eyes of the sweet-bedded bride.
For with wisdom did someone once reveal the maxim, now famous, that evil at one time or another seems good, to him whose mind a god leads to ruin.
Chorus:
Oedipus Tyrannus
The collective voice of Theban elders, praying for deliverance, responding to Oedipus' edict, and mediating disputes among the rulers.
Kinswoman, Oedipus, your husband, wants to do one of two terrible things to me, either to thrust me from the land of my fathers or to arrest and slay me.
In the name of the gods, believe it, Oedipus, first for the sake of this awful oath to the gods, then for my sake and for the sake of those who stand before you.
A plague is on all our people, and thought can find no weapon for defense.