Chapter XXXVIII: Book II: The woes of an accursed house work even beyond the grave. The

ghost of Laius, father of Oedipus, escapes—to the envy of the other dead—from the lower world for the purpose of hardening Eteocles against his brother. Meanwhile at Argos there are wedding festivities, but also bad omens, when Argia is married to Polynices and Deipyle to Tydeus. The story of the fatal necklace of Harmonia worn by Argia is told incidentally. After twelve days of rejoicing, Polynices turns to his claims on Thebes:

Grief and mad anger gnawed his mind, and that
Than which no heavier burden vexes men—
Hope long deferred.[1388]

Tydeus undertakes a mission to Thebes to require from Eteocles observance of his pact; but Eteocles refuses and plots to waylay the envoy on his way back by ordering an ambush of fifty men to await him. Tydeus’s fight against his foes in the pass is one of the most spirited and saga-like passages of the _Thebaid_. His challenge to the lurking assassins is given in ringing tones:

“Step forth and face me. Out! To open ground!
Why dread to dare? What cowardice is this?
’Tis I alone, alone, that offer fight.”[1389]

At the stone of the Sphinx he baffles their onset, slaying one after another:

Alarmed they miss their fellows, then they count.
Their murder-lust is changed amid their grief
Over the thinning of so strong a band (_rarescere turbam_).[1390]

One survivor is spared to take back the tidings to the treacherous king.