The Orations of Lysias | Page 2

through their unjust
desire for a country not their own, justly lost their own.
7. After Adrastus and Polyneices had joined in the expedition against
Thebes and had been worsted in battle, the Thebans would not let them
bury their dead. So the Athenians, who believed that if these men did
wrong they had (already) the greatest punishment in death, and that the
gods of the lower world were not receiving their due, and that by the
pollution of holy places the gods above were being insulted, first sent
heralds and demanded them to grant the removal of the dead, (8)
thinking it the part of brave men to punish their enemies while alive,
but of men who distrusted themselves to show their courage on the
bodies of the dead. As they were unable to obtain this favor, they
marched against the Thebans, although previously there was no reason
for hostility against them, and not because they were trying to please
the living Argives, (9) but because they believed those who died in
battle should obtain the customary rites, they ran into danger against
the Thebans in the interests of both, on the one hand, that they might
never again offer insult to the gods by their treatment of the dead, and
on the other, that they might not return to their country with disgrace
attached to their names, without fulfilling Greek customs robbed of a
common hope. 10. With this in mind, and thinking that the chances of
war are common to all men, they made many enemies, but with right
on their side they came off victorious. And they did not, roused by
success, contend for a greater punishment for the Thebans, but they
exhibited to them their own valor instead of their impiety, and after
they had obtained the prizes they struggled for, the bodies of the
Argives, they buried them in their own Eleusis. Such were they (who
fought) for the dead of the Seven at Thebes.
11. And afterwards, after Heracles had disappeared from men, and his
children fled from Eurystheus and were hunted by all the Greeks, who,

though ashamed indeed of what they did, feared the power of
Eurystheus, they came to this city and took refuge at the altars. 12. And
though Eurystheus demanded it, the Athenians would not give them up,
but they reverenced the bravery of Heracles more than they feared their
own danger, and they thought it more worthy of themselves to contend
for the weak on the side of justice than to please those in power and
surrender those wronged by them. 13. And when Eurystheus marched
on them at that time at the head of the Peloponnesus, they did not
change their minds on the approach of danger, but held the same
opinion as before, though the father (_Heracles_) had done them no
special good, and the Athenians did not know what sort of men these
(children) would turn out to be. 14. But they thought it was a just
course of action, though there was no previous reason for enmity with
Eurystheus, and they had no longer hope of reward except that of a
good reputation; so they incurred this danger for the boys, because they
pitied the down-trodden, and hated the oppressors, and tried to hinder
the latter and aid the former, believing it a mark of liberty to do nothing
by compulsion, and of justice to aid the wronged, and of courage to die,
if need be, fighting for both. 15. And both were so proud that
Eurystheus and his party did not seek to gain any favor from willing
men, and the Athenians were unwilling that Eurystheus, even if he
came as a suppliant, should drive out their suppliants. So they
summoned a force and fought and conquered the army from the whole
of Peloponnesus, and brought the children of Heracles to safety,
dispelled their fear and freed their souls, and because of their father's
courage they crowned them with their own perils. 16. And they, while
children, were much more fortunate than their father; for he, though
bringing much happiness to all men, made his own life full of toil and
strife and emulation, and punished others who were wrong-doers, but
he could not punish Eurystheus who was his enemy and had sinned
against him. But his sons through this city saw on the same day their
own safety and the punishment of their enemies.
17. So many occasions came to our ancestors for fighting for this idea
of justice. For the commencement of their life was just. For they were
not, like many, collected from all quarters, and they did not settle here
after expelling the earlier inhabitants, but they sprang from the soil and
it was both their mother and country.