Their sound was heard, there lay the press of war,
And Death was busiest there.”—Madoc. II. 18.
“His race from those whom Ares spared he draws.”
That is to say, he belonged to one of the oldest originally Theban families—was one of the children of the soil, sprung from the teeth of the old Theban dragon, which Cadmus, by the advice of Athena, sowed in the Earth; and from that act, the old race of Thebans were called σπαρτόι, or the Sown. See Stan.’s note.
“Proud Capaneus before the Electran gate.”
This gate was so called from Electra, the sister of Cadmus. Pausan. IX. 8-3. And was the gate which led to Platæa and Athens. Unger. p. 274.
“. . . The third lot to Eteocles