Closure or Indeterminacy in Septem and Other Plays?

Abstract:

I accept the general consensus that the transmitted end of Septem is not by Aeschylus; his play, as he wrote it, ends by giving an overwhelming impresssion that, while the brothers have killed each other, the city of Thebes has been saved. There are, however, three passages which seem to contradict that impression, by alluding to the usual version of the story in which the city will be destroyed by the Successors of the Seven in the next generation. I argue that all attempts by scholars to explain away this contradiction have been unsuccesssful. Aeschylus deliberately reminded his audience of the alternative version, and the question to be considered is why he did so.