The Progeny

The Progeny was the third in a tetrology of plays written by Sophocles about Thebes. Taking place between Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, it chronicles the war that occurs when Polyneices attacks his home city to regain the throne from Eteocles, his brother who decided not to step down when it was Polyneices' turn to rule.

The play was completely lost for centuries, but in 2005 Oxford classicists used infrared technology to discover a fragment of it, which translates to:

Speaker A: … gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.

Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.

''Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail. ''

The Progeny, so far as it can be reconstructed, contained examples of:

 * Costume Porn: The only surviving lines seem to be in the middle of describing military outfits and equipment.
 * Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Speakers A and B.
 * Missing Episode: Progeny itself within Sophocles' Theban Cycle.
 * Mutually Assured Destruction: Eteocles and Polyneices go to war despite knowing the prophecy guarantees both will kill each other.
 * Sole Survivor: Adrastus is the only survivor of the Seven Against Thebes.
 * Spin Offspring: About the conflict between Oedipus' sons for the throne he vacated.