“Όμοια σχεδόν τα γυμνά σώματά τους, ρωμαλέα” : Τέσσερα ποιήματα του Γιάννη Ρίτσου για τον μύθο των Επτά επί Θήβας

The most emblematic depiction of the theme of civil war in an­cient Greek literature is the myth of the Seven Against Thebes. In YiannisRitsos’ Testimonies, Second Series (1964–1965) one comes across a cluster offour homocentric poems thematising the fateful siege of Thebes. The Thebanpoems, short and epigrammatic, with that characteristic, densified theatric­ality which Ritsos perfects in the 1960s, initially recall scenes from the ritualpreparations for the battle, as presented in Aeschylus’ Seven (the drawing ofthe lots in “The Seven” and the bull’s sacrifice in “Description”); then, mov­ing past Aeschylus, they dramatise the effect of Theban victory on the victorsthemselves (“After the victory”, “Variation”).