Chapter XLIV: Book X: Theban troops, inspirited by Eteocles’s harangue, plan to

surround the Argives and prevent a retreat; but are themselves overcome by a divinely contrived sleep and surprised by the Argives, who break their lines and do much slaughter. At daybreak a fierce attack is delivered on Thebes, when Creon’s son Menoeceus devotes himself for his city, plunging to death from a rampart-tower. Capaneus, defiantly scaling the town walls, is struck dead by Jupiter’s thunderbolt.