he shall gain by death?"

At the king's command the unhappy maiden was taken from his presence and
thrust into a sepulchre, where she was condemned to perish in hunger and
loneliness. But Antigone was not without her advocate. She had a
lover,--almost the only one in Greek literature. Haemon, the son of
Creon, to whom her hand had been promised in marriage, and who loved her
dearly, appeared before his father and earnestly interceded for her
life. Not on the plea of his love,--such a plea would have had no weight
with a Greek tribunal,--but on those of mercy and justice. His plea was
vain; Creon was obdurate: the unhappy lover left his presence and sought
Antigone's living tomb, where he slew himself at the feet of his love,
already dead. His mother, on learning of his fatal act, also killed
herself by her own hand, and Creon was left alone to suffer the
consequences of his unnatural act.

The story goes on to relate that Adrastus, with the disconsolate mothers
of the fallen chieftains, sought the hero Theseus at Athens, and begged
his aid in procuring the privilege of interment for the slain warriors
whose bodies lay on the plain of Thebes. The Thebans persisting in their
refusal to permit burial, Theseus at length led an army against them,
defeated them in the field, and forced them to consent that their fallen
foes should be interred, that last privilege of the dead which was
deemed so essential by all pious Greeks. The tomb of the chieftains was
shown near Eleusis within late historical times.

But the Thebans were to suffer another reverse. The sons of the slain
chieftains raised an army, which they placed under the leadership of
Adrastus, and demanded to be led against Thebes. Alkmaeon, the son of
Amphiaraues, who had been commanded to revenge him, played the most
prominent part in the succeeding war. As this new expedition marched,
the gods, which had opposed the former with hostile signs, now showed
their approval with favorable portents. Adherents joined them on their
march. At the river Glisas they were met by a Theban army, and a battle
was fought, which ended in a complete victory over the Theban foe. A
prophet now declared to the Thebans that the gods were against them, and
advised them to surrender the city. This they did, flying themselves,
with their wives and children, to the country of the Illyrians, and
leaving their city empty to the triumphant foe. The Epigoni, as the
youthful victors were called,