The great Greek tragedian Aeschylus introduced a second actor or deuteragonist into drama. The first actor was the protagonist. Each actor might play multiple roles with a change of mask.
Dramatis personae refers to the roles of the actors of the play. In Greek, the actors were called hypokrites, meaning one who answers, in this case, the chorus. The Latin word personae, so obviously related to the English 'person,' refers to the mask of an actor, perhaps because it's through that mask that the sound comes, although that etymology has been questioned. The masks in Greek drama allowed the actors to play multiple roles. They may have served as resonance chambers so actors could be heard even when their backs were turned.
Eteocles
Eteocles is one of the four children of Oedipus and his wife-mother Jocasta. The other son is Polynices. Eteocles and Polynices were supposed to take alternate years ruling the city of Cadmus (Thebes, but never so-named in this play), but Eteocles wouldn't give up his rule. To get what he felt was rightfully his, Polynices brought a band of Greek warriors he had acquired at Argos (where he married a princess) to take Thebes from his brother.
See Hesiod 933-978 on the Family of Cadmus.
The Spy, Scout, or Messenger
Whatever the most accurate title might be, Eteocles sent someone to do reconnaissance work among the Argive attackers. He returns to Eteocles with the names and shield devices of the individuals who have been assigned to attack Thebes at each of her 7 gates.Chorus of Cadmean Maidens
As noted above, the city of Thebes is not called Thebes, but the city of Cadmus. The Cadmean maidens are therefore unmarried young women of Thebes. They do a lot of moaning and groaning which leads Eteocles to scold them for frightening the troops. He can't seem to get them to shut up, as later Antigone can't seem to do with the herald. The maidens keep praying to the gods and are genuinely concerned that if the city is captured, they will suffer from a dishonorable marriage, by rape, in this case, but mirroring the dishonorable marriage of Oedipus and his mother that produced the cursed princes, Eteocles and Polynices.Antigone and Ismene
Antigone and Ismene enter to mourn and bury their brothers and both participate with the chorus in the dirge. It is Antigone, however, who challenges the councilors of the city when they decide that Polynices, as an enemy of the city, can not be buried, but must be left to the dogs.
The Herald
With Polynices and Eteocles dead, the councilors of the city have put themselves in charge. Since Polynices brought outsiders, the Argives, to the city of Cadmus and besieged the city, he is an enemy. That Polynices should have been king means nothing. The councilors want to dishonor Polynices by denying him burial. The Herald is the one who takes this message to the mourning sisters, Antigone and Ismene.
