Eteocles' Moral Awareness in Aeschylus' Seven

Eteocles displays outstanding moral awareness for a tragic hero. He enters the Seven innocent of wrongdoing against father or brother. His religious understanding is extraordinary in the shield scene, and he rightly accepts the inevitable fratricide, choosing the ethic of the warrior and city-defender. He concedes that he is inspired by a Fury-driven battle lust, which is more amor fati than fraternal hatred. Though "free will" is strictly an anachronism, he and the chorus assume throughout that he possesses sufficient autonomy to decide and act, even if this restricts him to accepting stoically the inevitable.