At Argos, a group of women pray to Juno to come to their army's help. The goddess sends her messenger Iris to the cave of sleep where she ask Sleep himself to intervene. He obliges and casts deep sleep onto the Theban army. Led by Thiodamas, a band of Argives invades the Theban siege camp and commits a massacre. Two youths, Dymas and Hopleus, attempt to retrieve the bodies of Tydeus and Parthenopaeus. Apprehended by the Thebans, they die on top of the bodies they sought to steal.