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.