Messenger monologue — Specimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles

The order of our foemen you shall hear, And at which gate each champion has his post. Tydeus stands ready at the Proetian gate, Fuming, for still the seer forbids to ford Ismenus, since the omens are not fair. Thereat the chieftain, mad with warlike rage As is a snake with heat at noonday, raves; And on the prudent seer Oeclides heaps Taunts of faint-heartedness and craven fear. While thus he storms, wild on his helmet waves, The shaggy crest threefold, and on his shield The brazen bells ring out a fearful note. Upon that shield a proud device he wears, A firmament all luminous with stars, While in the centre shines the moon full-orbed, Empress of constellations, eye of night. Thus in his boastful panoply he stalks Along the river panting for the fray, As a proud charger at the trumpet sound Frets, paws the earth, and flecks his bit with foam. Think whom thou hast to cope with this dread chief, Who of that gate unbarred shall warder be.