Chapter XLII: Book VIII: Excitement reigns in the lower world over the sudden descent

of Amphiaraus; and the querulous utterances of Pluto, almost Lucianesque in their scoffing spirit, have a wholly different ring from the consistent solemnity of Virgil in _Aeneid_ VI. The Argives are inwardly shaken and fall back: so there is joy in Thebes. Adrastus summons a council to choose a successor to the prophet. The battle is renewed on the Theban side by a sally, and a narrative of wounds and death ensues. The daughters of Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene, a pair of contrasting characters (_par aliud morum_), lament the sorrows of their house with divided sympathies in the conflict:

Both, ways their fears incline: whom would they wish
The vanquished, whom the victor in the war?
The exile wins their preference unowned.
(_tacite praeponderat exsul_).[1397]

Real pathos marks the end of Ismene’s lover, Atys, the warrior brought home dying, with her name the only word on his chill lips.[1398] Tydeus works havoc among the enemy, and sends whirling through the air helmets with heads inside (_galeasque rotat per nubila plenas_, 699). He and Melanippus mortally wound each other, and the book closes with the horrible spectacle of Tydeus gnawing the head of his adversary.