Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)

Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE

[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]

[3.4.1] When Telephassa died, Cadmus buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi to inquire about Europa. The god told him not to worry about Europa, but to be guided by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down for weariness. After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis; then falling in with a cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed it behind. And after traversing Boeotia, it sank down where is now the city of Thebes. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athena, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti. These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus.

[3.4.2] But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.

After his servitude, Athena procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus gave to him Harmonia as wife, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus, which some say was given to Cadmus by Hephaestus, but Pherecydes^[1] says that it was given by Europa, who had received it from Zeus. And to Cadmus were born daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and a son Polydorus. Ino was married to Athamas, Autonoe to Aristaeus, and Agave to Echion.

[3.4.3] But Zeus loved Semele and slept with her, unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele died of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of Semele, the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.^[2] But Hera indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called Leucothea, and the boy is called Palaemon, such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus in honour of Melicertes. But Zeus escaped the wrath of Hera by turning Dionysus into a goat kid, and Hermes took him and brought him to the nymphs who dwelt at Nysa in Asia, whom Zeus afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades.

[3.4.4] Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son Actaeon, who was raised by Chiron to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,^[3] because Zeus was angry at him for wooing Semele; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad the fifty dogs in his pack, which devoured him unknowingly. Actaeon being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of Chiron, who fashioned an image of Actaeon, which soothed their grief.

[The names of Actaeon‘s dogs from the ((lacuna))^[4] . . . So now surrounding his fair body, as if it were that of a beast, the strong dogs tore it. Near Arcena first ((lacuna)) . . . after her a mighty brood, Lynceus and Balius goodly-footed, and Amarynthus. — And these he listed continuously by name. And then Actaeon perished at the instigation of Zeus. For the first that drank their master’s black blood were Spartus and Omargus and Bores, the swift on the track. These first fed on Actaeon and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]

[ . . . ]

[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, Dionysus arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron. But Pentheus, whom Agave bore to Echion, had succeeded Cadmus in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron to spy on the Bacchanals [ Bacchantes ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.^[5] And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus came to Argos, and there again, because they did not honour him, he drove the women mad, and they on the mountains devoured the flesh of the infants whom they carried at their breasts.

[3.5.3] And wishing to be ferried across from Icaria to Naxos he hired a pirate ship of Tyrrhenians. But when they had put him on board, they sailed past Naxos and made for Asia, intending to sell him. Howbeit, he turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes. And the pirates went mad, and leaped into the sea, and were turned into dolphins.^[6] Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from Hades and named her Thyone, he ascended up with her to heaven.

[3.5.4] But Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ Apollo ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus and Harmonia as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus to the Elysian Fields.

[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus, son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after Pentheus because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, Laius, the government was usurped by Lycus, brother of Nycteus, so long as Laius was a child. Lycus and Nycteus had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of Ares and Dotis the Boeotian, and they took up their abode at Hyria, and having come to Thebes since then, they were made citizens through their friendship with Pentheus. So after being chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, Lycus compassed the supreme power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by Zethus and Amphion for the following reason. Antiope was a daughter of Nycteus, and Zeus had intercourse with her. When she was with child, and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus at Sicyon and was married to him. In a state of hopelessness, Nycteus killed himself, after charging Lycus with the task to punish Epopeus and Antiope. Lycus marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led Antiope away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,^[7] but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus and the other Amphion. Now Zethus paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion practiced music, for Hermes had given him a lyre. But Lycus and his wife Dirce imprisoned Antiope and treated her poorly. However, one day her bonds fell off themselves, and unknown to her keepers she came to her sons cottage, begging that they would take her in. They recognized their mother and slew Lycus, but they tied Dirce to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirce after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with Amphion‘s music; and they expelled Laius. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by Pelops; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of Pelops, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.

[3.5.6] Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, who bore seven sons, Sipylus, Eupinytus, Ismenus, Damasichthon, Agenor, Phaedimus, Tantalus, and the same number of daughters, Ethodaia (or, as some say, Neaera), Cleodoxa, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia, Astycratia, and Ogygia, But Hesiod says that they had ten sons and ten daughters; Herodorus that they had two male children and three female; and Homer that they had six sons and six daughters. Being blessed with children, Niobe said that she was more blessed with children than Leto. Stung by the taunt, Leto incited Artemis and Apollo against them, and Artemis shot down the females in the house, and Apollo killed all the males together as they were hunting on Cithaeron. Of the males Amphion alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom Neleus married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and Amphion also was shot by them. But Niobe herself left Thebes and went to her father Tantalus at Sipylus, and there, on praying to Zeus, she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.^[8]

[3.5.7] After Amphion‘s death, Laius succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was Jocasta, and some that she was Epicasta. The oracle had warned him not to have a son, for that son would kill his father; nevertheless, drunk with wine, he had intercourse with his wife. And when the infant was born he pierced the child’s ankles with brooches and gave it to a herdsman to expose. But the herdsman exposed it on Cithaeron; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea. She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him Oedipus, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.^[9]When the boy grew up and excelled among his peers in strength, they spitefully ridiculed him for being a substitute. He asked Periboea, but could learn nothing; so he went to Delphi and inquired about his true parents. The god told him not to go to his native land, because he would murder his father and lie with his mother. On hearing that, and believing himself to be the son of those who raised him, he left Corinth, and riding in a chariot through Phocis he met Laius who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.^[10] And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius, ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, Oedipus  killed both Polyphontes and Laius out of anger before arriving in Thebes.

[3.5.8] Laius was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and Creon, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera sent the Sphinx, whose mother was Echidna and her father Typhon; and she had the face of a woman, the breast and feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. And having learned a riddle from the Muses, she sat on Mount Phicium, and posited it to the Thebans. And the riddle was this: — What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed? Now the Thebans were in possession of an oracle which declared that they should be rid of the Sphinx whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the Sphinx used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all Creon‘s son Haemon, Creon made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius. On hearing that, Oedipus found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the Sphinx referred to man; for as a babe he is four-footed, going on four limbs, as an adult he is two-footed, and as an old man he gets besides a third support in a staff. So the Sphinx threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices and Eteocles, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.

[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus was driven from Thebes, after he had blinded himself and cursed his sons, who saw him cast out of the city without lifting a hand to help him. And having gone with Antigone to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the Eumenides, he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus, and died not long afterwards.

[3.6.1] Now Eteocles and Polynices made a contract with each other concerning the kingdom and resolved that each should rule alternately for a year at a time. Some say that Polynices was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles; but some say that Eteocles was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was Adrastus, son of Talaus; and Polynices went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry Adrastus appeared and parted them, and remembering the words of a certain seer who told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion,^[11] he accepted them both as bridegrooms, because they had on their shields, the one the forepart of a boar, and the other the forepart of a lion. And Tydeus married Deipyle, and Polynices married Argia; and Adrastus promised that he would restore them both to their native lands. And first he was eager to march against Thebes, and he mustered the chiefs.

[3.6.2] But Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now Amphiaraus had forbidden Eriphyle to accept gifts from Polynices; but Polynices gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus, he reconciled with him and sworn to let Eriphyle decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus and opposed by Amphiaraus, Eriphyle accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.

[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: Adrastus, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes; Tydeus, son of Oeneus, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree Tydeus and Polynices among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.^[12]

[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus was king, they asked for water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice and Lycurgus. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold Hypsipyle into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.^[13] They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and Adrastus won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus the boxing match, Amphiaraus the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus the archery match.

[3.6.5] When they came to Cithaeron, they sent Tydeus to tell Eteocles in advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices, as they had agreed among themselves. As Eteocles paid no heed to the message, Tydeus, by way of testing the Thebans, challenged them to single combat and was victorious in every encounter; and though the Thebans set fifty armed men to lie in wait for him as he went away, he slew them all but Maeon, and then came back to the camp.

[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the Argives approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus at the Crenidian. Eteocles on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match those of the enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination to learn how they might overcome the foe.

[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Teiresias, son of Everes and a nymph Chariclo, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the Spartoi ] and he had lost the sight of his eyes. Different stories are told about his blindness and his power of soothsaying. For some say that he was blinded by the gods because he revealed their secrets to men. But Pherecydes says that he was blinded by Athena^[14]; for Chariclo was dear to Athena ((lacuna)). . . and Teiresias saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when Chariclo asked her to restore his sight, she could not do so, but by cleansing his ears she caused him to understand every note of birds; and she gave him a staff of cornel-wood, with which he walked like those who see. But Hesiod says that he saw snakes copulating on Cyllene, and that having wounded them he was turned from a man into a woman, but that on observing the same snakes copulating again, he became a man. Hence, when Hera and Zeus disputed whether the pleasures of love are felt more by women or by men, they referred to him for a decision. He said that if the pleasures of love be reckoned at ten, men enjoy one and women nine. For this reason Hera blinded him, but Zeus bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of Teiresias to Zeus and Hera, “Of ten parts a man enjoys one only; but a woman enjoys the full ten parts in her heart.” He also lived to a great age.

So when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of Creon, would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to Ares. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of Creon, slew himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a crowd as far as the walls, and Capaneus, seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt.

[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the Argives turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles and Polynices, by the resolution of both armies, fought a single combat for the kingdom, and slew each other. In another fierce battle the sons of Astacus did brave deeds; for Ismarus slew Hippomedon, Leades slew Eteoclus, and Amphidicus slew Parthenopaeus. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus was slain by Periclymenus, son of Poseidon. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus in the belly. As he lay half dead, Athena brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus, and by which she intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus hated Tydeus for thwarting him by persuading the Argives to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to Tydeus, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. Amphiaraus fled beside the river Ismenus, and before Periclymenus could wound him in the back, Zeus cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and Zeus made him immortal. Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon begot by Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted with him.

[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon cast out the Argive dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polynices, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon himself, she was interred alive in the grave. Adrastus fled to Athens and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant’s bough^[15] he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus was burning, his wife Evadne, the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.

[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ Apollo ] predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon. So Alcmaeon joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices, and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Thersander, son of Polynices; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.

[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles, they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon, and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as Teiresias told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives, and themselves to take to flight, they did send a herald to the enemy, and, mounting their children and women on the wagons, themselves fled from the city. When they had come by night to the spring called Tilphussa, Teiresias drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.

[3.7.4] But the Argives, on learning afterwards the flight of the Thebans, entered the city and collected the booty, and pulled down the walls. But they sent a portion of the booty to Apollo at Delphi and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.

[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaeon learned that his mother Eriphyle had been bribed to his undoing along with his father’s, he was more angry than ever, and in accordance with an oracle given to him by Apollo he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon was visited by the Fury of his mother’s murder, and going mad he first sought help from his paternal grandfather, Oicles, in Arcadia, and then to Phegeus at Psophis.^[16] And having been purified^[17] by him he married Arsinoe, daughter of Phegeus, and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards the ground became barren on his account, and the god told him in an oracle to depart to Achelous and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to Oeneus at Calydon and was hosted by him; then he went to the Thesprotians, but was driven away from the country; and finally he went to the springs of Achelous, and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the Achelous had formed by its silt, and he took up his abode there. But afterwards Callirrhoe coveted the necklace and robe, and said she would not live with him if she did not get them. So away Alcmaeon went to Psophis and told Phegeus how it had been predicted that he should be rid of his madness when he had brought the necklace and the robe to Delphi and dedicated them. Phegeus believed him and gave them to him. But a servant having let out that he was taking the things to Callirrhoe, Phegeus commanded his sons, and they lay in wait and killed him. When Arsinoe reproached them, the sons of Phegeus shoved her into a chest and carried her to Tegea and gave her as a slave to Agapenor, falsely accusing her of Alcmaeon‘s murder.

[3.7.6] Being informed of Alcmaeon‘s untimely end and courted by Zeus, Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon might be full grown in order to avenge their father’s murder. And being suddenly full-grown, the sons went forth to right their father’s wrong. Now Pronous and Agenor, the sons of Phegeus, carrying the necklace and robe to Delphi to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon. The sons of Alcmaeon killed their father’s murderers, and going to Psophis and entering the palace they slew both Phegeus and his wife. They were pursued as far as Tegea, but saved by the intervention of the Tegeans and some Argives, and the Psophidians took to flight.

[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to Delphi and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of Achelous. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.

But Euripides says that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Teiresias and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon, king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by Creon‘s spouse, who feared that Creon might make her his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon bought her and kept her as a handmaid, not knowing that she was his daughter, and coming to Corinth to get back his children he recovered his son also. And Amphilochus colonized Amphilochian Argos in obedience to oracles of Apollo.

Taken from: https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#4