As generous youths should die. Severer doom
Falls on his brother Polynices. He
Shall lie in the breeze unburied, food for dogs,
Most fit bestowal of a traitor’s corpse;
For, had some god not stept between to save us,
And turned the spear aside, Cadméan Thebes
Had stood no more. His country’s gods demand
Such stern atonement of the impious will
That led a hireling host against their shrines.
On him shall vultures banquet, ravening birds