Mars unwittingly does the work of Vulcan when he ignores Venus' request for delay and rushes off to incite the Argives to march against Thebes (Theb. 3.273). The movement of characters within a work often corresponds to the advancement of the narrative itself, and in the Thebaid the Argives' advance towards Thebes does indeed symbolize the narrative interest in war. However, Venus' point that delay is an alternative to war does not disappear. In fact, she articulates a narrative struggle that pervades the epic but is especially prominent throughout the Nemean episode of Thebaid 4–6. When the Argive troops pass through Nemea, Bacchus dries up all sources of water and the army suffers a parching thirst. They meet Hypsipyle, who leads them to a stream where they refresh themselves. As the Argives are about to resume their march, however, they ask Hypsipyle who she is. She reveals her identity and tells them about the massacre that was perpetrated by the Lemnian women against their husbands and fathers that led to her departure from the island, whereupon she was captured by pirates and ended up as a nurse for the baby of king Lycurgus. She had just placed this child, Opheltes (also called Archemorus), in the grass before leading the Argives to the stream. While she recounts her story to the troops, the child is touched by the scales of a massive snake and dies.