<\/a>Mythological<\/h2>\r\nIn mythology, Thebes was founded by the Phoenician prince [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary]. He arrived in Greece while searching for his sister, [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], who had been kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Crete. The royal family of Thebes was then descended from [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and Harmonia, the daughter of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. The family was famously plagued by curses, murders, and vendettas. The city was known for its fortified citadel, the Cadmea, and its walls with seven gates built with magic by the demigod [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary].<\/p>\r\n\r\n
<\/a>Historical<\/h2>\r\nThe archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the [pb_glossary id=\"5127\"]Bronze Age[\/pb_glossary] and became a powerful [pb_glossary id=\"4671\"]Mycenaean[\/pb_glossary] palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the [pb_glossary id=\"5123\"]Archaic[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"5125\"]Classical[\/pb_glossary] periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the [pb_glossary id=\"5125\"]Classical[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"5112\"]Hellenistic[\/pb_glossary] periods; however, part of the [pb_glossary id=\"4671\"]Mycenaean[\/pb_glossary] palace is still visible in the city centre.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>Mythology<\/h1>\r\n\r\nSections & Primary Sources<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe House of Cadmus<\/a>\r\n\r\n \t- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe Theban Cycle<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_4215\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]![\"Family](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/08\/Untitled-presentation-1-2.png\")
Family tree of the house of Cadmus[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\r\nGreek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\r\n[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\r\nAfter Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\r\n[3.4.1] When [pb_glossary id=\"1728\"]Telephassa[\/pb_glossary] died, [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to inquire about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary]. The god told him not to worry about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary], he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary], guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] killed the dragon, and by the advice of [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Sparti[\/pb_glossary].\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.4.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary], to atone for the slaughter, served [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.\r\n\r\nAfter his servitude, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] procured for him the kingdom, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] gave to him [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as wife, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"882\"]Aphrodite[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], which some say was given to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], but Pherecydes[footnote]Pherecydes was a mythology writer from the 6th century BCE. He is quoted by other famous authors such as Aristotle and Plutarch, but his works are lost.[\/footnote] says that it was given by [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], who had received it from [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. And to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] were born daughters, [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary], and a son Polydorus. [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] was married to [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] to Echion.\r\n\r\n[3.4.3] But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] and slept with her, unknown to [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Unable to refuse, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] died of fright, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], the other daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] spread a report that [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] undid the stitches and gave birth to [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary], and entrusted him to [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary]. And he conveyed him to [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[footnote]The practise of \"raising a boy as a girl\" may be in reference to a custom of dressing boys as girls in order to avert the evil eye. Other figures in Greek mythology, such as Achilles, were also raised in this way (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer taken from Theoi.com<\/a>). For further discussion of the birth and raising of Dionysus, see chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] But [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] indignantly drove them mad, and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary] hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] threw [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary] into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Leucothea[\/pb_glossary], and the boy is called [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Palaemon[\/pb_glossary], such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by [pb_glossary id=\"1213\"]Sisyphus[\/pb_glossary] in honour of [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] escaped the wrath of [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] by turning [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] into a goat kid, and [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] took him and brought him to the [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymphs[\/pb_glossary] who dwelt at [pb_glossary id=\"607\"]Nysa[\/pb_glossary] in Asia, whom [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] afterwards changed into stars and named them the [pb_glossary id=\"4470\"]Hyades[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.4.4] [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary] had a son [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[footnote]Acusilaus of Argos was a Greek mytholographer and logographer of the late 6th Century BCE. His work only survive in fragments or in summaries by later authors.[\/footnote] because [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] 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. [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary], who fashioned an image of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief.\r\n\r\n[The names of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s dogs from the ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing section of the text.[\/footnote] . . . 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] perished at the instigation of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]\r\n\r\n[ . . . ]\r\n\r\n[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] bore to Echion, had succeeded [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] to spy on the Bacchanals [ [pb_glossary id=\"887\"]Bacchantes[\/pb_glossary] ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[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.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from [pb_glossary id=\"211\"]Hades[\/pb_glossary] and named her [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Thyone[\/pb_glossary], he ascended up with her to heaven.\r\n\r\n[3.5.4] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary], turned into a serpent and sent away by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] to the [pb_glossary id=\"4196\"]Elysian Fields[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary] because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], the government was usurped by [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], brother of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], so long as [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was a child. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary]. So after being chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, [pb_glossary id=1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] compassed the supreme power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] for the following reason. [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] was a daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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, [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] killed himself, after charging [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] with the task to punish Epopeus and [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[footnote]The process of \"exposure\" in ancient Greece was a fairly common method of getting rid of an undesired child (often a female child when a male child was wanted) by abandoning them out in nature.[\/footnote] but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and the other [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] paid attention to cattle-breeding, but [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] practiced music, for [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] had given him a lyre. But [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and his wife [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] imprisoned [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], but they tied [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s music; and they expelled [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary]; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary], to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.\r\n\r\n[3.5.6] [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] said that she was more blessed with children than [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary]. Stung by the taunt, [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary] incited [pb_glossary id=\"180]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] against them, and [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] shot down the females in the house, and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] killed all the males together as they were hunting on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. Of the males [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom [pb_glossary id=\"1394\"]Neleus[\/pb_glossary] married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] also was shot by them. But [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] herself left Thebes and went to her father [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary] at Sipylus, and there, on praying to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[footnote]For Ovid's account of the myth of Niobe, see chapter 13<\/a>.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.5.7] After [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s death, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[footnote]Oedipus roughly translates to \"swollen foot\".[\/footnote]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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[footnote]The \u201cnarrow road\u201d is the famous Cleft Way (Pausanias. 10.5.3) now called the Crossroad of Megas (Stavrodromi tou Mega<\/em>), where the road from Daulis and the road from Thebes and Lebadea meet and unite in the single road ascending through the long valley to Delphi.[\/footnote] And when Polyphontes, the herald of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary]\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] out of anger before arriving in Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.5.8] [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] sent the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary], whose mother was [pb_glossary id=\"643\"]Echidna[\/pb_glossary] and her father [pb_glossary id=\"602\"]Typhon[\/pb_glossary]; 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 [pb_glossary id=\"348\"]Muses[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s son Haemon, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] threw herself from the citadel, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], and daughters, Ismene and [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary]. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.\r\n\r\n[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary] hanged herself in a noose, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary] to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Eumenides[\/pb_glossary], he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], and died not long afterwards.\r\n\r\n[3.6.1] Now [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary]; but some say that [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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,[footnote]Adrastus received an oracle from Apollo telling him to \"yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion.\" According to one interpretation the boar on the shield of Tydeus referred to the Calydonian boar, while the lion on the shield of Polynices referred to the lion-faced [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary]. Others preferred to suppose that the two chieftains were clad in the skins of a boar and a lion respectively (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] married Deipyle, and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] married Argia; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] had forbidden [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] to accept gifts from [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], he reconciled with him and sworn to let [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] decide any future dispute he might have with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and opposed by [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Thus forced to go to the war, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles; [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], came from Thebes; [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], was an Aetolian; [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2590\"]Melanion[\/pb_glossary], was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[footnote]The list of the Seven Against Thebes varies between sources, and many sources also list a number other than seven.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] was king, they asked for water; and [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of [pb_glossary id=\"4159\"]Eurydice[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary]. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[footnote]\"Archemorus\" translates to \u201cbeginner of doom\u201d; hence \u201cominous,\u201d \u201cforeboding.\u201d[\/footnote] They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] the boxing match, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] the wrestling match, and [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] the archery match.\r\n\r\n[3.6.5] When they came to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary], they sent [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] to tell [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] in advance that he must cede the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], as they had agreed among themselves. As [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] paid no heed to the message, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] at the Ogygian, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] at the Crenidian. [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary], son of Everes and a [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymph[\/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary], of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Spartoi[\/pb_glossary] ] 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[footnote]See chapter 11<\/a>.[\/footnote]; for [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] was dear to [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] ((lacuna)). . . and [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] blinded him, but [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary], \"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.\r\n\r\nSo when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], slew himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a crowd as far as the walls, and [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] smote him with a thunderbolt.\r\n\r\n[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] turned to flee. And as many fell, [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]. But Euripides says that [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] was slain by [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary]. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] in the belly. As he lay half dead, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] brought a medicine which she had begged of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and by which she intended to make him immortal. But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] hated [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] for thwarting him by persuading the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] fled beside the river Ismenus, and before [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary] could wound him in the back, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] made him immortal. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary] begot by [pb_glossary id=\"351\"]Demeter[\/pb_glossary], when in the likeness of a [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] she consorted with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] cast out the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argive[\/pb_glossary] dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary], one of the daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], stole the body of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and secretly buried it, and having been detected by [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] himself, she was interred alive in the grave. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] fled to [pb_glossary id=\"4669\"]Athens[\/pb_glossary] and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant's bough[footnote]A \"suppliant\" (\u03b1\u1f30\u03b4\u03ce\u03c2) in ancient Greece had a more formal definition, such that if someone performed the gestures of supplication towards someone, they would be honour-bound to respect the suppliant's need. The \"suppliant's bow\" refers to the branch of olive which a suppliant laid on the altar of a god as a token to show that they sought divine protection (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] was burning, his wife [pb_glossary id=\"4590\"]Evadne[\/pb_glossary], the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the [pb_glossary id=\"4591\"]Epigoni[\/pb_glossary], purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] predicted victory under the leadership of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. So [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle [\/pb_glossary]had received the robe from Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] and Amphilochus, sons of [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary]; Aegialeus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id=\"1192\"]Diomedes[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary]; Promachus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]; Sthenelus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary]; Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.\r\n\r\n[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary], and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] told them to send a herald to treat with the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.\r\n\r\n[3.7.4] But the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] at [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and with it Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary]; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.\r\n\r\n[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] learned that his mother [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] was visited by the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] 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.[footnote]Compare the myth of Orestes and the Furies in chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having been purified[footnote]\"purification\" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma<\/em>, the idea that death defiles someone or makes them impure. For further explanation, see\u00a0Mythology Unbound<\/em><\/a>.[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary], and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s murder.\r\n\r\n[3.7.6] Being informed of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s untimely end and courted by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. The sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], and the Psophidians took to flight.\r\n\r\n[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary]. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.\r\n\r\nBut Euripides says that in the time of his madness [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s spouse, who feared that [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] might make her his wedded wife. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTaken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\r\n[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\r\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.\r\nThe Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus' exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nThe Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.\r\nSophocles' third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon's orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon's living son), and Eurydice (Creon's wife).<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.\r\nThe Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\r\nThe Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\r\n[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3967\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2308\"]![\"Cadmus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/08\/DP232623-scaled.jpg\")
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[\/caption]\r\n
There are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to Artemis<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nFor the first one, the scene usually shows Cadmus fighting a giant snake. As the scene takes place at the Ismenian Spring, the hero is often portrayed holding a water jug alongside his weapons. Athena is usually represented behind Cadmus, as she assisted him in this feat, while Ares, to whom the dragon was sacred, is standing behind the monster.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3760\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"304\"]![\"Cadmus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Pittore_di_napoli_2074_cratere_a_campana_con_thiasos_da_paestum_380-370_ac_ca.-e1628025883275.jpg\")
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 380 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3757\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"341\"]![\"Cadmus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Cadmus_dragon_Louvre_N3157.jpg\")
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 350 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3756\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]![\"Cadmus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Kadmos_dragon_Louvre_E707-e1628025686326-300x241.jpg\")
Cadmus and the dragon, black-figure amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n
The encounter between Oedipus and the Sphinx was another very popular theme in ancient Greek art. The hero is usually represented wearing the cloak and hat of travelers (as he was indeed on the road) and holding a walking stick, while the monster, a winged lion with a human head, is perching either on a column or a rock.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3763\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1292\"]![\"Oedipus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Achilles_Painter_ARV_990_49_Oedipus_and_the_Sphinx_-_man_01-scaled-e1627697629146.jpg\")
Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[\/caption]\r\n
The third myth is usually represented in two ways: either the leaders of the Argive expedition arming themselves, or episodes from the battle at the gates.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3764\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1555\"]![\"A](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Altorilievo_del_frontone_posteriore_del_tempio_A_di_pyrgi_con_scene_della_saga_tebana_470-460_ac._ca._01-scaled-e1627697549165.jpg\")
The Seven Against Thebes, terracotta relief, ca. 470 BCE (Villa Giulia, Rome)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]![\"Campaneus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/800px-Seven_against_Thebes_Getty_Villa_92.AE_.86.jpg\")
Capaneus scales the walls of Thebes, red-figure amphora, ca. 340 BCE (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[\/caption]\r\n
Two popular scenes from the second category are the fall of Capaneus from the walls, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices. The siege of Thebes became very popular in Etruscan art, so that the expedition of the Seven was represented on at least two temple pediments from the 5th and 2nd century BCE, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices was a common decorative motif funerary urns during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3758\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1590\"]![\"Left](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Luni_pediment_group.jpg\")
Duel of Eteocles and Polynices and the siege of Thebes, terracotta pediment from the temple of Talamone, 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3779\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]![\"5](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Urnette_fittili_di_produzione_chiusina_210-90_ac_ca._16_combattimento_di_eteocle_e_polinice-scaled.jpg\")
The duel of Eteocles and Polynices, Etruscan funerary urns, ca. 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Siena)[\/caption]\r\n
The last mythological episode from the Theban Cycle to be fairly common in art is the death of Pentheus. Greek and Roman artists usually represented the moment of\u00a0or the moments immediately his ritual dismemberment (sparagmos<\/em>) at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. The women are generally shown carrying away their macabre trophies, and Agave, Pentheus' mother, is the one holding his head.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3781\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"603\"]![\"Two](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/08\/1200px-Death_Pentheus_Louvre_G445.jpg\")
Death of Pentheus, red-figure lekane lid, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3780\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"600\"]![\"Two](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/08\/Raffigurazione_di_Penteo_su_un_vaso_greco-_2014-02-08_01-13.jpg\")
Death of Pentheus, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nMedia Attributions and Footnotes<\/h1>","rendered":"
![\"Oedipus,](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greekromanmyth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1141\/2021\/07\/Oedipus_being_questioned_by_the_Sphinx_Attic_red-figured_kylix_by_the_Oedipus_Painter_470-460_BC_inv._16541_-_Museo_Gregoriano_Etrusco_-_Vatican_Museums_-_DSC01041-scaled-e1627697489163.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure kylix, ca. 460 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Estrusco, Vatican City)<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Foundation<\/h1>\n<\/a>Mythological<\/h2>\nIn mythology, Thebes was founded by the Phoenician prince Cadmus<\/a>. He arrived in Greece while searching for his sister, Europa<\/a>, who had been kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Crete. The royal family of Thebes was then descended from Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia, the daughter of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. The family was famously plagued by curses, murders, and vendettas. The city was known for its fortified citadel, the Cadmea, and its walls with seven gates built with magic by the demigod Amphion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>Historical<\/h2>\nThe archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the Bronze Age<\/a> and became a powerful Mycenaean<\/a> palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the Archaic<\/a> and Classical<\/a> periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the Classical<\/a> and Hellenistic<\/a> periods; however, part of the Mycenaean<\/a> palace is still visible in the city centre.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Mythology<\/h1>\n\n\nSections & Primary Sources<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\nThe House of Cadmus<\/a><\/p>\n\n- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Theban Cycle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\nFamily tree of the house of Cadmus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\nGreek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\n[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\nAfter Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\n[3.4.1] When Telephassa<\/a> died, Cadmus<\/a> buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi<\/a> to inquire about Europa<\/a>. The god told him not to worry about Europa<\/a>, 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<\/a>, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares<\/a>. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares<\/a>, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus<\/a> killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena<\/a> sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti<\/a>.\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.4.2] But Cadmus<\/a>, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares<\/a> for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.<\/p>\nAfter his servitude, Athena<\/a> procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus<\/a> gave to him Harmonia<\/a> as wife, daughter of Aphrodite<\/a> and Ares<\/a>. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus<\/a> gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus<\/a>, which some say was given to Cadmus<\/a> by Hephaestus<\/a>, but Pherecydes[1]<\/sup><\/a> says that it was given by Europa<\/a>, who had received it from Zeus<\/a>. And to Cadmus<\/a> were born daughters, Autonoe<\/a>, Ino<\/a>, Semele<\/a>, Agave<\/a>, and a son Polydorus. Ino<\/a> was married to Athamas<\/a>, Autonoe<\/a> to Aristaeus<\/a>, and Agave<\/a> to Echion.<\/p>\n[3.4.3] But Zeus<\/a> loved Semele<\/a> and slept with her, unknown to Hera<\/a>. Now Zeus<\/a> had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera<\/a> she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera<\/a>. Unable to refuse, Zeus<\/a> came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele<\/a> died of fright, and Zeus<\/a>, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of Semele<\/a>, the other daughters of Cadmus<\/a> spread a report that Semele<\/a> had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus<\/a>, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, Zeus<\/a> undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus<\/a>, and entrusted him to Hermes<\/a>. And he conveyed him to Ino<\/a> and Athamas<\/a>, and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[2]<\/sup><\/a> But Hera<\/a> indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas<\/a> hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and Ino<\/a> threw Melicertes<\/a> into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called Leucothea<\/a>, and the boy is called Palaemon<\/a>, such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus<\/a> in honour of Melicertes<\/a>. But Zeus<\/a> escaped the wrath of Hera<\/a> by turning Dionysus<\/a> into a goat kid, and Hermes<\/a> took him and brought him to the nymphs<\/a> who dwelt at Nysa<\/a> in Asia, whom Zeus<\/a> afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades<\/a>.<\/p>\n[3.4.4] Autonoe<\/a> and Aristaeus<\/a> had a son Actaeon<\/a>, who was raised by Chiron<\/a> to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron<\/a> by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[3]<\/sup><\/a> because Zeus<\/a> was angry at him for wooing Semele<\/a>; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis<\/a> 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<\/a> being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of Chiron<\/a>, who fashioned an image of Actaeon<\/a>, which soothed their grief.<\/p>\n[The names of Actaeon<\/a>‘s dogs from the ((lacuna))[4]<\/sup><\/a> . . . 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<\/a> perished at the instigation of Zeus<\/a>. 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<\/a> and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]<\/p>\n[ . . . ]<\/p>\n
[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, Dionysus<\/a> arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron<\/a>. But Pentheus<\/a>, whom Agave<\/a> bore to Echion, had succeeded Cadmus<\/a> in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron<\/a> to spy on the Bacchanals [ Bacchantes<\/a> ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave<\/a> in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[5]<\/sup><\/a> And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[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]<\/sup><\/a> Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from Hades<\/a> and named her Thyone<\/a>, he ascended up with her to heaven.<\/p>\n[3.5.4] But Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus<\/a> reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia<\/a>, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus<\/a> to the Elysian Fields<\/a>.<\/p>\n[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after Pentheus<\/a> because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, Laius<\/a>, the government was usurped by Lycus<\/a>, brother of Nycteus<\/a>, so long as Laius<\/a> was a child. Lycus<\/a> and Nycteus<\/a> had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of Ares<\/a> 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<\/a>. 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<\/a> and Amphion<\/a> for the following reason. Antiope<\/a> was a daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> killed himself, after charging Lycus<\/a> with the task to punish Epopeus and Antiope<\/a>. Lycus<\/a> marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led Antiope<\/a> away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[7]<\/sup><\/a> but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus<\/a> and the other Amphion<\/a>. Now Zethus<\/a> paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion<\/a> practiced music, for Hermes<\/a> had given him a lyre. But Lycus<\/a> and his wife Dirce<\/a> imprisoned Antiope<\/a> 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<\/a>, but they tied Dirce<\/a> to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirce<\/a> after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with Amphion<\/a>‘s music; and they expelled Laius<\/a>. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by Pelops<\/a>; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of Pelops<\/a>, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.<\/p>\n[3.5.6] Zethus<\/a> married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married Niobe<\/a>, daughter of Tantalus<\/a>, 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<\/a> said that she was more blessed with children than Leto<\/a>. Stung by the taunt, Leto<\/a> incited Artemis and Apollo<\/a> against them, and Artemis<\/a> shot down the females in the house, and Apollo<\/a> killed all the males together as they were hunting on Cithaeron<\/a>. Of the males Amphion<\/a> alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom Neleus<\/a> married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and Amphion<\/a> also was shot by them. But Niobe<\/a> herself left Thebes and went to her father Tantalus<\/a> at Sipylus, and there, on praying to Zeus<\/a>, she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n[3.5.7] After Amphion<\/a>‘s death, Laius<\/a> succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was Jocasta<\/a>, 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<\/a>; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him Oedipus<\/a>, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[9]<\/sup><\/a>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<\/a> 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<\/a> who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[10]<\/sup><\/a> And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius<\/a>, ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, Oedipus<\/a>\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and Laius<\/a> out of anger before arriving in Thebes.<\/p>\n[3.5.8] Laius<\/a> was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and Creon<\/a>, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera<\/a> sent the Sphinx<\/a>, whose mother was Echidna<\/a> and her father Typhon<\/a>; 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<\/a>, 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<\/a> whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the Sphinx<\/a> used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all Creon<\/a>‘s son Haemon, Creon<\/a> made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius<\/a>. On hearing that, Oedipus<\/a> found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the Sphinx<\/a> 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<\/a> threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus<\/a> both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices<\/a> and Eteocles<\/a>, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone<\/a>. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.<\/p>\n[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta<\/a> hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus<\/a> 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<\/a> to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the Eumenides<\/a>, he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus<\/a>, and died not long afterwards.<\/p>\n[3.6.1] Now Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> 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<\/a> was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles<\/a>; but some say that Eteocles<\/a> was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices<\/a> came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; and Polynices<\/a> went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry Adrastus<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> married Deipyle, and Polynices<\/a> married Argia; and Adrastus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.2] But Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus<\/a> were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices<\/a> went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus<\/a> could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle<\/a> got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now Amphiaraus<\/a> had forbidden Eriphyle<\/a> to accept gifts from Polynices<\/a>; but Polynices<\/a> gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus<\/a> to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus<\/a>, he reconciled with him and sworn to let Eriphyle<\/a> decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus<\/a>. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus<\/a> and opposed by Amphiaraus<\/a>, Eriphyle<\/a> accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus<\/a>. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus<\/a> laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.<\/p>\n[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus<\/a> hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles; Capaneus<\/a>, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices<\/a>, son of Oedipus<\/a>, came from Thebes; Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus<\/a>, son of Melanion<\/a>, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree Tydeus<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus<\/a> was king, they asked for water; and Hypsipyle<\/a> showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice<\/a> and Lycurgus<\/a>. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold Hypsipyle<\/a> into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus<\/a> as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus<\/a> and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus<\/a> told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[13]<\/sup><\/a> They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and Adrastus<\/a> won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus<\/a> the boxing match, Amphiaraus<\/a> the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices<\/a> the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus<\/a> the archery match.<\/p>\n[3.6.5] When they came to Cithaeron<\/a>, they sent Tydeus<\/a> to tell Eteocles<\/a> in advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices<\/a>, as they had agreed among themselves. As Eteocles<\/a> paid no heed to the message, Tydeus<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the Argives<\/a> approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus<\/a> was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus<\/a> at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus<\/a> at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus<\/a> at the Crenidian. Eteocles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Teiresias<\/a>, son of Everes and a nymph<\/a> Chariclo<\/a>, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the Spartoi<\/a> ] 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]<\/sup><\/a>; for Chariclo<\/a> was dear to Athena<\/a> ((lacuna)). . . and Teiresias<\/a> saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when Chariclo<\/a> 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<\/a> and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> blinded him, but Zeus<\/a> bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of Teiresias<\/a> to Zeus<\/a> and Hera<\/a>, “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.<\/p>\nSo when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to Ares<\/a>. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, 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<\/a>, seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when Zeus<\/a> smote him with a thunderbolt.<\/p>\n[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the Argives<\/a> turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a>, 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<\/a>. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus<\/a> was slain by Periclymenus<\/a>, son of Poseidon<\/a>. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus<\/a> in the belly. As he lay half dead, Athena<\/a> brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus<\/a>, and by which she intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus<\/a> hated Tydeus<\/a> for thwarting him by persuading the Argives<\/a> 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<\/a>, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus<\/a> split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena<\/a> saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. Amphiaraus<\/a> fled beside the river Ismenus, and before Periclymenus<\/a> could wound him in the back, Zeus<\/a> cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus<\/a> vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and Zeus<\/a> made him immortal. Adrastus<\/a> alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon<\/a> begot by Demeter<\/a>, when in the likeness of a Fury<\/a> she consorted with him.<\/p>\n[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon<\/a> cast out the Argive<\/a> dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone<\/a>, one of the daughters of Oedipus<\/a>, stole the body of Polynices<\/a>, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon<\/a> himself, she was interred alive in the grave. Adrastus<\/a> fled to Athens<\/a> and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant’s bough[15]<\/sup><\/a> he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus<\/a>, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus<\/a> was burning, his wife Evadne<\/a>, the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.<\/p>\n[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni<\/a>, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon<\/a>. So Alcmaeon<\/a> joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle <\/a>had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>, and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon<\/a> as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon<\/a> and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus<\/a>; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus<\/a>; Diomedes<\/a>, son of Tydeus<\/a>; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus<\/a>; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus<\/a>; Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.<\/p>\n[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles<\/a>, they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon<\/a>, and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as Teiresias<\/a> told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.<\/p>\n[3.7.4] But the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> at Delphi<\/a> and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a>; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.<\/p>\n[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaeon<\/a> learned that his mother Eriphyle<\/a> 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<\/a> he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon<\/a> was visited by the Fury<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> And having been purified[17]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to Oeneus<\/a> 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<\/a>, and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the Achelous<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a>‘s murder.<\/p>\n[3.7.6] Being informed of Alcmaeon<\/a>‘s untimely end and courted by Zeus<\/a>, Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a> to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon<\/a>. The sons of Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>, and the Psophidians took to flight.<\/p>\n[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to Delphi<\/a> and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of Achelous<\/a>. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.<\/p>\nBut Euripides says that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon<\/a> had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a> and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon<\/a>, king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by Creon<\/a>‘s spouse, who feared that Creon<\/a> might make her his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Taken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\n[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\nFor further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus’ exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\nSophocles’ third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon’s orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon’s living son), and Eurydice (Creon’s wife).<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\nThe Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\n
For further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\n[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\nCadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to
The archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the [pb_glossary id=\"5127\"]Bronze Age[\/pb_glossary] and became a powerful [pb_glossary id=\"4671\"]Mycenaean[\/pb_glossary] palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the [pb_glossary id=\"5123\"]Archaic[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"5125\"]Classical[\/pb_glossary] periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the [pb_glossary id=\"5125\"]Classical[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"5112\"]Hellenistic[\/pb_glossary] periods; however, part of the [pb_glossary id=\"4671\"]Mycenaean[\/pb_glossary] palace is still visible in the city centre.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n
<\/a>Mythology<\/h1>\r\n\r\nSections & Primary Sources<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe House of Cadmus<\/a>\r\n\r\n \t- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe Theban Cycle<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_4215\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"] Family tree of the house of Cadmus[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\r\nGreek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\r\n[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\r\nAfter Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\r\n[3.4.1] When [pb_glossary id=\"1728\"]Telephassa[\/pb_glossary] died, [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to inquire about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary]. The god told him not to worry about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary], he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary], guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] killed the dragon, and by the advice of [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Sparti[\/pb_glossary].\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.4.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary], to atone for the slaughter, served [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.\r\n\r\nAfter his servitude, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] procured for him the kingdom, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] gave to him [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as wife, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"882\"]Aphrodite[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], which some say was given to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], but Pherecydes[footnote]Pherecydes was a mythology writer from the 6th century BCE. He is quoted by other famous authors such as Aristotle and Plutarch, but his works are lost.[\/footnote] says that it was given by [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], who had received it from [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. And to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] were born daughters, [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary], and a son Polydorus. [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] was married to [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] to Echion.\r\n\r\n[3.4.3] But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] and slept with her, unknown to [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Unable to refuse, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] died of fright, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], the other daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] spread a report that [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] undid the stitches and gave birth to [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary], and entrusted him to [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary]. And he conveyed him to [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[footnote]The practise of \"raising a boy as a girl\" may be in reference to a custom of dressing boys as girls in order to avert the evil eye. Other figures in Greek mythology, such as Achilles, were also raised in this way (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer taken from Theoi.com<\/a>). For further discussion of the birth and raising of Dionysus, see chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] But [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] indignantly drove them mad, and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary] hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] threw [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary] into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Leucothea[\/pb_glossary], and the boy is called [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Palaemon[\/pb_glossary], such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by [pb_glossary id=\"1213\"]Sisyphus[\/pb_glossary] in honour of [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] escaped the wrath of [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] by turning [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] into a goat kid, and [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] took him and brought him to the [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymphs[\/pb_glossary] who dwelt at [pb_glossary id=\"607\"]Nysa[\/pb_glossary] in Asia, whom [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] afterwards changed into stars and named them the [pb_glossary id=\"4470\"]Hyades[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.4.4] [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary] had a son [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[footnote]Acusilaus of Argos was a Greek mytholographer and logographer of the late 6th Century BCE. His work only survive in fragments or in summaries by later authors.[\/footnote] because [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] 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. [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary], who fashioned an image of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief.\r\n\r\n[The names of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s dogs from the ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing section of the text.[\/footnote] . . . 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] perished at the instigation of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]\r\n\r\n[ . . . ]\r\n\r\n[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] bore to Echion, had succeeded [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] to spy on the Bacchanals [ [pb_glossary id=\"887\"]Bacchantes[\/pb_glossary] ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[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.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from [pb_glossary id=\"211\"]Hades[\/pb_glossary] and named her [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Thyone[\/pb_glossary], he ascended up with her to heaven.\r\n\r\n[3.5.4] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary], turned into a serpent and sent away by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] to the [pb_glossary id=\"4196\"]Elysian Fields[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary] because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], the government was usurped by [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], brother of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], so long as [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was a child. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary]. So after being chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, [pb_glossary id=1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] compassed the supreme power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] for the following reason. [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] was a daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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, [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] killed himself, after charging [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] with the task to punish Epopeus and [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[footnote]The process of \"exposure\" in ancient Greece was a fairly common method of getting rid of an undesired child (often a female child when a male child was wanted) by abandoning them out in nature.[\/footnote] but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and the other [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] paid attention to cattle-breeding, but [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] practiced music, for [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] had given him a lyre. But [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and his wife [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] imprisoned [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], but they tied [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s music; and they expelled [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary]; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary], to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.\r\n\r\n[3.5.6] [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] said that she was more blessed with children than [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary]. Stung by the taunt, [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary] incited [pb_glossary id=\"180]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] against them, and [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] shot down the females in the house, and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] killed all the males together as they were hunting on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. Of the males [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom [pb_glossary id=\"1394\"]Neleus[\/pb_glossary] married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] also was shot by them. But [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] herself left Thebes and went to her father [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary] at Sipylus, and there, on praying to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[footnote]For Ovid's account of the myth of Niobe, see chapter 13<\/a>.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.5.7] After [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s death, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[footnote]Oedipus roughly translates to \"swollen foot\".[\/footnote]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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[footnote]The \u201cnarrow road\u201d is the famous Cleft Way (Pausanias. 10.5.3) now called the Crossroad of Megas (Stavrodromi tou Mega<\/em>), where the road from Daulis and the road from Thebes and Lebadea meet and unite in the single road ascending through the long valley to Delphi.[\/footnote] And when Polyphontes, the herald of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary]\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] out of anger before arriving in Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.5.8] [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] sent the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary], whose mother was [pb_glossary id=\"643\"]Echidna[\/pb_glossary] and her father [pb_glossary id=\"602\"]Typhon[\/pb_glossary]; 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 [pb_glossary id=\"348\"]Muses[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s son Haemon, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] threw herself from the citadel, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], and daughters, Ismene and [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary]. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.\r\n\r\n[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary] hanged herself in a noose, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary] to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Eumenides[\/pb_glossary], he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], and died not long afterwards.\r\n\r\n[3.6.1] Now [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary]; but some say that [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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,[footnote]Adrastus received an oracle from Apollo telling him to \"yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion.\" According to one interpretation the boar on the shield of Tydeus referred to the Calydonian boar, while the lion on the shield of Polynices referred to the lion-faced [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary]. Others preferred to suppose that the two chieftains were clad in the skins of a boar and a lion respectively (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] married Deipyle, and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] married Argia; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] had forbidden [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] to accept gifts from [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], he reconciled with him and sworn to let [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] decide any future dispute he might have with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and opposed by [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Thus forced to go to the war, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles; [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], came from Thebes; [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], was an Aetolian; [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2590\"]Melanion[\/pb_glossary], was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[footnote]The list of the Seven Against Thebes varies between sources, and many sources also list a number other than seven.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] was king, they asked for water; and [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of [pb_glossary id=\"4159\"]Eurydice[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary]. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[footnote]\"Archemorus\" translates to \u201cbeginner of doom\u201d; hence \u201cominous,\u201d \u201cforeboding.\u201d[\/footnote] They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] the boxing match, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] the wrestling match, and [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] the archery match.\r\n\r\n[3.6.5] When they came to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary], they sent [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] to tell [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] in advance that he must cede the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], as they had agreed among themselves. As [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] paid no heed to the message, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] at the Ogygian, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] at the Crenidian. [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary], son of Everes and a [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymph[\/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary], of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Spartoi[\/pb_glossary] ] 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[footnote]See chapter 11<\/a>.[\/footnote]; for [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] was dear to [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] ((lacuna)). . . and [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] blinded him, but [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary], \"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.\r\n\r\nSo when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], slew himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a crowd as far as the walls, and [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] smote him with a thunderbolt.\r\n\r\n[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] turned to flee. And as many fell, [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]. But Euripides says that [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] was slain by [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary]. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] in the belly. As he lay half dead, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] brought a medicine which she had begged of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and by which she intended to make him immortal. But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] hated [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] for thwarting him by persuading the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] fled beside the river Ismenus, and before [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary] could wound him in the back, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] made him immortal. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary] begot by [pb_glossary id=\"351\"]Demeter[\/pb_glossary], when in the likeness of a [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] she consorted with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] cast out the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argive[\/pb_glossary] dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary], one of the daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], stole the body of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and secretly buried it, and having been detected by [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] himself, she was interred alive in the grave. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] fled to [pb_glossary id=\"4669\"]Athens[\/pb_glossary] and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant's bough[footnote]A \"suppliant\" (\u03b1\u1f30\u03b4\u03ce\u03c2) in ancient Greece had a more formal definition, such that if someone performed the gestures of supplication towards someone, they would be honour-bound to respect the suppliant's need. The \"suppliant's bow\" refers to the branch of olive which a suppliant laid on the altar of a god as a token to show that they sought divine protection (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] was burning, his wife [pb_glossary id=\"4590\"]Evadne[\/pb_glossary], the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the [pb_glossary id=\"4591\"]Epigoni[\/pb_glossary], purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] predicted victory under the leadership of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. So [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle [\/pb_glossary]had received the robe from Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] and Amphilochus, sons of [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary]; Aegialeus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id=\"1192\"]Diomedes[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary]; Promachus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]; Sthenelus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary]; Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.\r\n\r\n[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary], and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] told them to send a herald to treat with the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.\r\n\r\n[3.7.4] But the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] at [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and with it Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary]; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.\r\n\r\n[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] learned that his mother [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] was visited by the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] 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.[footnote]Compare the myth of Orestes and the Furies in chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having been purified[footnote]\"purification\" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma<\/em>, the idea that death defiles someone or makes them impure. For further explanation, see\u00a0Mythology Unbound<\/em><\/a>.[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary], and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s murder.\r\n\r\n[3.7.6] Being informed of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s untimely end and courted by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. The sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], and the Psophidians took to flight.\r\n\r\n[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary]. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.\r\n\r\nBut Euripides says that in the time of his madness [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s spouse, who feared that [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] might make her his wedded wife. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTaken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\r\n[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\r\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.\r\nThe Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus' exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nThe Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.\r\nSophocles' third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon's orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon's living son), and Eurydice (Creon's wife).<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.\r\nThe Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\r\nThe Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\r\n[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3967\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2308\"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[\/caption]\r\n
There are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to Artemis<\/a>.<\/p>\r\nFor the first one, the scene usually shows Cadmus fighting a giant snake. As the scene takes place at the Ismenian Spring, the hero is often portrayed holding a water jug alongside his weapons. Athena is usually represented behind Cadmus, as she assisted him in this feat, while Ares, to whom the dragon was sacred, is standing behind the monster.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3760\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"304\"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 380 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3757\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"341\"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 350 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3756\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"] Cadmus and the dragon, black-figure amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n
The encounter between Oedipus and the Sphinx was another very popular theme in ancient Greek art. The hero is usually represented wearing the cloak and hat of travelers (as he was indeed on the road) and holding a walking stick, while the monster, a winged lion with a human head, is perching either on a column or a rock.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3763\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1292\"] Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[\/caption]\r\n
The third myth is usually represented in two ways: either the leaders of the Argive expedition arming themselves, or episodes from the battle at the gates.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3764\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1555\"] The Seven Against Thebes, terracotta relief, ca. 470 BCE (Villa Giulia, Rome)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"] Capaneus scales the walls of Thebes, red-figure amphora, ca. 340 BCE (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[\/caption]\r\n
Two popular scenes from the second category are the fall of Capaneus from the walls, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices. The siege of Thebes became very popular in Etruscan art, so that the expedition of the Seven was represented on at least two temple pediments from the 5th and 2nd century BCE, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices was a common decorative motif funerary urns during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3758\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1590\"] Duel of Eteocles and Polynices and the siege of Thebes, terracotta pediment from the temple of Talamone, 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3779\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"] The duel of Eteocles and Polynices, Etruscan funerary urns, ca. 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Siena)[\/caption]\r\n
The last mythological episode from the Theban Cycle to be fairly common in art is the death of Pentheus. Greek and Roman artists usually represented the moment of\u00a0or the moments immediately his ritual dismemberment (sparagmos<\/em>) at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. The women are generally shown carrying away their macabre trophies, and Agave, Pentheus' mother, is the one holding his head.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3781\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"603\"] Death of Pentheus, red-figure lekane lid, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3780\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"600\"] Death of Pentheus, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nMedia Attributions and Footnotes<\/h1>","rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure kylix, ca. 460 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Estrusco, Vatican City)<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Foundation<\/h1>\n<\/a>Mythological<\/h2>\nIn mythology, Thebes was founded by the Phoenician prince Cadmus<\/a>. He arrived in Greece while searching for his sister, Europa<\/a>, who had been kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Crete. The royal family of Thebes was then descended from Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia, the daughter of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. The family was famously plagued by curses, murders, and vendettas. The city was known for its fortified citadel, the Cadmea, and its walls with seven gates built with magic by the demigod Amphion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>Historical<\/h2>\nThe archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the Bronze Age<\/a> and became a powerful Mycenaean<\/a> palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the Archaic<\/a> and Classical<\/a> periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the Classical<\/a> and Hellenistic<\/a> periods; however, part of the Mycenaean<\/a> palace is still visible in the city centre.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Mythology<\/h1>\n\n\nSections & Primary Sources<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\nThe House of Cadmus<\/a><\/p>\n\n- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Theban Cycle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\nFamily tree of the house of Cadmus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\nGreek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\n[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\nAfter Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\n[3.4.1] When Telephassa<\/a> died, Cadmus<\/a> buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi<\/a> to inquire about Europa<\/a>. The god told him not to worry about Europa<\/a>, 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<\/a>, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares<\/a>. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares<\/a>, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus<\/a> killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena<\/a> sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti<\/a>.\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.4.2] But Cadmus<\/a>, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares<\/a> for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.<\/p>\nAfter his servitude, Athena<\/a> procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus<\/a> gave to him Harmonia<\/a> as wife, daughter of Aphrodite<\/a> and Ares<\/a>. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus<\/a> gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus<\/a>, which some say was given to Cadmus<\/a> by Hephaestus<\/a>, but Pherecydes[1]<\/sup><\/a> says that it was given by Europa<\/a>, who had received it from Zeus<\/a>. And to Cadmus<\/a> were born daughters, Autonoe<\/a>, Ino<\/a>, Semele<\/a>, Agave<\/a>, and a son Polydorus. Ino<\/a> was married to Athamas<\/a>, Autonoe<\/a> to Aristaeus<\/a>, and Agave<\/a> to Echion.<\/p>\n[3.4.3] But Zeus<\/a> loved Semele<\/a> and slept with her, unknown to Hera<\/a>. Now Zeus<\/a> had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera<\/a> she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera<\/a>. Unable to refuse, Zeus<\/a> came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele<\/a> died of fright, and Zeus<\/a>, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of Semele<\/a>, the other daughters of Cadmus<\/a> spread a report that Semele<\/a> had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus<\/a>, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, Zeus<\/a> undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus<\/a>, and entrusted him to Hermes<\/a>. And he conveyed him to Ino<\/a> and Athamas<\/a>, and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[2]<\/sup><\/a> But Hera<\/a> indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas<\/a> hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and Ino<\/a> threw Melicertes<\/a> into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called Leucothea<\/a>, and the boy is called Palaemon<\/a>, such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus<\/a> in honour of Melicertes<\/a>. But Zeus<\/a> escaped the wrath of Hera<\/a> by turning Dionysus<\/a> into a goat kid, and Hermes<\/a> took him and brought him to the nymphs<\/a> who dwelt at Nysa<\/a> in Asia, whom Zeus<\/a> afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades<\/a>.<\/p>\n[3.4.4] Autonoe<\/a> and Aristaeus<\/a> had a son Actaeon<\/a>, who was raised by Chiron<\/a> to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron<\/a> by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[3]<\/sup><\/a> because Zeus<\/a> was angry at him for wooing Semele<\/a>; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis<\/a> 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<\/a> being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of Chiron<\/a>, who fashioned an image of Actaeon<\/a>, which soothed their grief.<\/p>\n[The names of Actaeon<\/a>‘s dogs from the ((lacuna))[4]<\/sup><\/a> . . . 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<\/a> perished at the instigation of Zeus<\/a>. 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<\/a> and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]<\/p>\n[ . . . ]<\/p>\n
[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, Dionysus<\/a> arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron<\/a>. But Pentheus<\/a>, whom Agave<\/a> bore to Echion, had succeeded Cadmus<\/a> in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron<\/a> to spy on the Bacchanals [ Bacchantes<\/a> ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave<\/a> in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[5]<\/sup><\/a> And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[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]<\/sup><\/a> Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from Hades<\/a> and named her Thyone<\/a>, he ascended up with her to heaven.<\/p>\n[3.5.4] But Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus<\/a> reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia<\/a>, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus<\/a> to the Elysian Fields<\/a>.<\/p>\n[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after Pentheus<\/a> because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, Laius<\/a>, the government was usurped by Lycus<\/a>, brother of Nycteus<\/a>, so long as Laius<\/a> was a child. Lycus<\/a> and Nycteus<\/a> had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of Ares<\/a> 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<\/a>. 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<\/a> and Amphion<\/a> for the following reason. Antiope<\/a> was a daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> killed himself, after charging Lycus<\/a> with the task to punish Epopeus and Antiope<\/a>. Lycus<\/a> marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led Antiope<\/a> away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[7]<\/sup><\/a> but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus<\/a> and the other Amphion<\/a>. Now Zethus<\/a> paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion<\/a> practiced music, for Hermes<\/a> had given him a lyre. But Lycus<\/a> and his wife Dirce<\/a> imprisoned Antiope<\/a> 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<\/a>, but they tied Dirce<\/a> to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirce<\/a> after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with Amphion<\/a>‘s music; and they expelled Laius<\/a>. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by Pelops<\/a>; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of Pelops<\/a>, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.<\/p>\n[3.5.6] Zethus<\/a> married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married Niobe<\/a>, daughter of Tantalus<\/a>, 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<\/a> said that she was more blessed with children than Leto<\/a>. Stung by the taunt, Leto<\/a> incited Artemis and Apollo<\/a> against them, and Artemis<\/a> shot down the females in the house, and Apollo<\/a> killed all the males together as they were hunting on Cithaeron<\/a>. Of the males Amphion<\/a> alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom Neleus<\/a> married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and Amphion<\/a> also was shot by them. But Niobe<\/a> herself left Thebes and went to her father Tantalus<\/a> at Sipylus, and there, on praying to Zeus<\/a>, she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n[3.5.7] After Amphion<\/a>‘s death, Laius<\/a> succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was Jocasta<\/a>, 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<\/a>; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him Oedipus<\/a>, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[9]<\/sup><\/a>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<\/a> 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<\/a> who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[10]<\/sup><\/a> And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius<\/a>, ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, Oedipus<\/a>\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and Laius<\/a> out of anger before arriving in Thebes.<\/p>\n[3.5.8] Laius<\/a> was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and Creon<\/a>, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera<\/a> sent the Sphinx<\/a>, whose mother was Echidna<\/a> and her father Typhon<\/a>; 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<\/a>, 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<\/a> whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the Sphinx<\/a> used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all Creon<\/a>‘s son Haemon, Creon<\/a> made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius<\/a>. On hearing that, Oedipus<\/a> found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the Sphinx<\/a> 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<\/a> threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus<\/a> both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices<\/a> and Eteocles<\/a>, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone<\/a>. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.<\/p>\n[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta<\/a> hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus<\/a> 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<\/a> to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the Eumenides<\/a>, he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus<\/a>, and died not long afterwards.<\/p>\n[3.6.1] Now Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> 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<\/a> was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles<\/a>; but some say that Eteocles<\/a> was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices<\/a> came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; and Polynices<\/a> went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry Adrastus<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> married Deipyle, and Polynices<\/a> married Argia; and Adrastus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.2] But Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus<\/a> were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices<\/a> went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus<\/a> could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle<\/a> got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now Amphiaraus<\/a> had forbidden Eriphyle<\/a> to accept gifts from Polynices<\/a>; but Polynices<\/a> gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus<\/a> to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus<\/a>, he reconciled with him and sworn to let Eriphyle<\/a> decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus<\/a>. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus<\/a> and opposed by Amphiaraus<\/a>, Eriphyle<\/a> accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus<\/a>. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus<\/a> laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.<\/p>\n[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus<\/a> hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles; Capaneus<\/a>, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices<\/a>, son of Oedipus<\/a>, came from Thebes; Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus<\/a>, son of Melanion<\/a>, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree Tydeus<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus<\/a> was king, they asked for water; and Hypsipyle<\/a> showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice<\/a> and Lycurgus<\/a>. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold Hypsipyle<\/a> into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus<\/a> as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus<\/a> and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus<\/a> told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[13]<\/sup><\/a> They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and Adrastus<\/a> won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus<\/a> the boxing match, Amphiaraus<\/a> the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices<\/a> the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus<\/a> the archery match.<\/p>\n[3.6.5] When they came to Cithaeron<\/a>, they sent Tydeus<\/a> to tell Eteocles<\/a> in advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices<\/a>, as they had agreed among themselves. As Eteocles<\/a> paid no heed to the message, Tydeus<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the Argives<\/a> approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus<\/a> was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus<\/a> at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus<\/a> at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus<\/a> at the Crenidian. Eteocles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Teiresias<\/a>, son of Everes and a nymph<\/a> Chariclo<\/a>, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the Spartoi<\/a> ] 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]<\/sup><\/a>; for Chariclo<\/a> was dear to Athena<\/a> ((lacuna)). . . and Teiresias<\/a> saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when Chariclo<\/a> 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<\/a> and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> blinded him, but Zeus<\/a> bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of Teiresias<\/a> to Zeus<\/a> and Hera<\/a>, “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.<\/p>\nSo when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to Ares<\/a>. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, 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<\/a>, seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when Zeus<\/a> smote him with a thunderbolt.<\/p>\n[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the Argives<\/a> turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a>, 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<\/a>. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus<\/a> was slain by Periclymenus<\/a>, son of Poseidon<\/a>. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus<\/a> in the belly. As he lay half dead, Athena<\/a> brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus<\/a>, and by which she intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus<\/a> hated Tydeus<\/a> for thwarting him by persuading the Argives<\/a> 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<\/a>, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus<\/a> split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena<\/a> saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. Amphiaraus<\/a> fled beside the river Ismenus, and before Periclymenus<\/a> could wound him in the back, Zeus<\/a> cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus<\/a> vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and Zeus<\/a> made him immortal. Adrastus<\/a> alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon<\/a> begot by Demeter<\/a>, when in the likeness of a Fury<\/a> she consorted with him.<\/p>\n[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon<\/a> cast out the Argive<\/a> dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone<\/a>, one of the daughters of Oedipus<\/a>, stole the body of Polynices<\/a>, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon<\/a> himself, she was interred alive in the grave. Adrastus<\/a> fled to Athens<\/a> and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant’s bough[15]<\/sup><\/a> he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus<\/a>, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus<\/a> was burning, his wife Evadne<\/a>, the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.<\/p>\n[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni<\/a>, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon<\/a>. So Alcmaeon<\/a> joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle <\/a>had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>, and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon<\/a> as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon<\/a> and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus<\/a>; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus<\/a>; Diomedes<\/a>, son of Tydeus<\/a>; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus<\/a>; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus<\/a>; Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.<\/p>\n[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles<\/a>, they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon<\/a>, and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as Teiresias<\/a> told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.<\/p>\n[3.7.4] But the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> at Delphi<\/a> and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a>; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.<\/p>\n[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaeon<\/a> learned that his mother Eriphyle<\/a> 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<\/a> he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon<\/a> was visited by the Fury<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> And having been purified[17]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to Oeneus<\/a> 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<\/a>, and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the Achelous<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a>‘s murder.<\/p>\n[3.7.6] Being informed of Alcmaeon<\/a>‘s untimely end and courted by Zeus<\/a>, Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a> to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon<\/a>. The sons of Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>, and the Psophidians took to flight.<\/p>\n[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to Delphi<\/a> and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of Achelous<\/a>. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.<\/p>\nBut Euripides says that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon<\/a> had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a> and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon<\/a>, king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by Creon<\/a>‘s spouse, who feared that Creon<\/a> might make her his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Taken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\n[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\nFor further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus’ exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\nSophocles’ third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon’s orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon’s living son), and Eurydice (Creon’s wife).<\/p>\nYou can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\nThe Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\n
For further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\n[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\nCadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to
Sections & Primary Sources<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
- \r\n \t
- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe Theban Cycle<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_4215\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"960\"]
Family tree of the house of Cadmus[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\r\n
Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\r\n
[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\r\n
After Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\r\n[3.4.1] When [pb_glossary id=\"1728\"]Telephassa[\/pb_glossary] died, [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to inquire about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary]. The god told him not to worry about [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary], he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary], guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] killed the dragon, and by the advice of [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Sparti[\/pb_glossary].\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.4.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary], to atone for the slaughter, served [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.\r\n\r\nAfter his servitude, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] procured for him the kingdom, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] gave to him [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as wife, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"882\"]Aphrodite[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], which some say was given to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] by [pb_glossary id=\"356\"]Hephaestus[\/pb_glossary], but Pherecydes[footnote]Pherecydes was a mythology writer from the 6th century BCE. He is quoted by other famous authors such as Aristotle and Plutarch, but his works are lost.[\/footnote] says that it was given by [pb_glossary id=\"1423\"]Europa[\/pb_glossary], who had received it from [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. And to [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] were born daughters, [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary], and a son Polydorus. [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] was married to [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] to Echion.\r\n\r\n[3.4.3] But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] loved [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] and slept with her, unknown to [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary]. Unable to refuse, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] died of fright, and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary], the other daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] spread a report that [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary] had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] undid the stitches and gave birth to [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary], and entrusted him to [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary]. And he conveyed him to [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary], and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[footnote]The practise of \"raising a boy as a girl\" may be in reference to a custom of dressing boys as girls in order to avert the evil eye. Other figures in Greek mythology, such as Achilles, were also raised in this way (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer taken from Theoi.com<\/a>). For further discussion of the birth and raising of Dionysus, see chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] But [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] indignantly drove them mad, and [pb_glossary id=\"1955\"]Athamas[\/pb_glossary] hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Ino[\/pb_glossary] threw [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary] into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called [pb_glossary id=\"931\"]Leucothea[\/pb_glossary], and the boy is called [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Palaemon[\/pb_glossary], such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by [pb_glossary id=\"1213\"]Sisyphus[\/pb_glossary] in honour of [pb_glossary id=\"333\"]Melicertes[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] escaped the wrath of [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] by turning [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] into a goat kid, and [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] took him and brought him to the [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymphs[\/pb_glossary] who dwelt at [pb_glossary id=\"607\"]Nysa[\/pb_glossary] in Asia, whom [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] afterwards changed into stars and named them the [pb_glossary id=\"4470\"]Hyades[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.4.4] [pb_glossary id=\"933\"]Autonoe[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"959\"]Aristaeus[\/pb_glossary] had a son [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], who was raised by [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary] to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[footnote]Acusilaus of Argos was a Greek mytholographer and logographer of the late 6th Century BCE. His work only survive in fragments or in summaries by later authors.[\/footnote] because [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] was angry at him for wooing [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Semele[\/pb_glossary]; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] 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. [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of [pb_glossary id=\"1416\"]Chiron[\/pb_glossary], who fashioned an image of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary], which soothed their grief.\r\n\r\n[The names of [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s dogs from the ((lacuna))[footnote]Indicates a gap or missing section of the text.[\/footnote] . . . 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] perished at the instigation of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary]. 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 [pb_glossary id=\"934\"]Actaeon[\/pb_glossary] and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]\r\n\r\n[ . . . ]\r\n\r\n[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. But [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary], whom [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] bore to Echion, had succeeded [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary] to spy on the Bacchanals [ [pb_glossary id=\"887\"]Bacchantes[\/pb_glossary] ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother [pb_glossary id=\"932\"]Agave[\/pb_glossary] in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, [pb_glossary id=\"370\"]Dionysus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[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.[footnote]See chapter 15<\/a>.[\/footnote] Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from [pb_glossary id=\"211\"]Hades[\/pb_glossary] and named her [pb_glossary id=\"908\"]Thyone[\/pb_glossary], he ascended up with her to heaven.\r\n\r\n[3.5.4] But [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary] as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And [pb_glossary id=\"910\"]Cadmus[\/pb_glossary] reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with [pb_glossary id=\"958\"]Harmonia[\/pb_glossary], turned into a serpent and sent away by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] to the [pb_glossary id=\"4196\"]Elysian Fields[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary] because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], the government was usurped by [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], brother of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], so long as [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was a child. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"914\"]Pentheus[\/pb_glossary]. So after being chosen commander-in-chief by the Thebans, [pb_glossary id=1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] compassed the supreme power and reigned for twenty years, but was murdered by [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] for the following reason. [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] was a daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary], and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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, [pb_glossary id=\"4606\"]Nycteus[\/pb_glossary] killed himself, after charging [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] with the task to punish Epopeus and [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary]. [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[footnote]The process of \"exposure\" in ancient Greece was a fairly common method of getting rid of an undesired child (often a female child when a male child was wanted) by abandoning them out in nature.[\/footnote] but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] and the other [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] paid attention to cattle-breeding, but [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] practiced music, for [pb_glossary id=\"210\"]Hermes[\/pb_glossary] had given him a lyre. But [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary] and his wife [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] imprisoned [pb_glossary id=\"4601\"]Antiope[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1475\"]Lycus[\/pb_glossary], but they tied [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called [pb_glossary id=\"1477\"]Dirce[\/pb_glossary] after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s music; and they expelled [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary]; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of [pb_glossary id=\"632\"]Pelops[\/pb_glossary], to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.\r\n\r\n[3.5.6] [pb_glossary id=\"4607\"]Zethus[\/pb_glossary] married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary], daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] said that she was more blessed with children than [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary]. Stung by the taunt, [pb_glossary id=\"191\"]Leto[\/pb_glossary] incited [pb_glossary id=\"180]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] against them, and [pb_glossary id=\"180\"]Artemis[\/pb_glossary] shot down the females in the house, and [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] killed all the males together as they were hunting on [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]. Of the males [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom [pb_glossary id=\"1394\"]Neleus[\/pb_glossary] married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary] also was shot by them. But [pb_glossary id=\"1684\"]Niobe[\/pb_glossary] herself left Thebes and went to her father [pb_glossary id=\"633\"]Tantalus[\/pb_glossary] at Sipylus, and there, on praying to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[footnote]For Ovid's account of the myth of Niobe, see chapter 13<\/a>.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.5.7] After [pb_glossary id=\"4608\"]Amphion[\/pb_glossary]'s death, [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary]; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[footnote]Oedipus roughly translates to \"swollen foot\".[\/footnote]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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[footnote]The \u201cnarrow road\u201d is the famous Cleft Way (Pausanias. 10.5.3) now called the Crossroad of Megas (Stavrodromi tou Mega<\/em>), where the road from Daulis and the road from Thebes and Lebadea meet and unite in the single road ascending through the long valley to Delphi.[\/footnote] And when Polyphontes, the herald of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary], ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary]\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] out of anger before arriving in Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.5.8] [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary] was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] sent the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary], whose mother was [pb_glossary id=\"643\"]Echidna[\/pb_glossary] and her father [pb_glossary id=\"602\"]Typhon[\/pb_glossary]; 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 [pb_glossary id=\"348\"]Muses[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s son Haemon, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of [pb_glossary id=\"4503\"]Laius[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary] threw herself from the citadel, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], and daughters, Ismene and [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary]. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.\r\n\r\n[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, [pb_glossary id=\"2063\"]Jocasta[\/pb_glossary] hanged herself in a noose, and [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary] to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Eumenides[\/pb_glossary], he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], and died not long afterwards.\r\n\r\n[3.6.1] Now [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary]; but some say that [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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,[footnote]Adrastus received an oracle from Apollo telling him to \"yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion.\" According to one interpretation the boar on the shield of Tydeus referred to the Calydonian boar, while the lion on the shield of Polynices referred to the lion-faced [pb_glossary id=\"4617\"]Sphinx[\/pb_glossary]. Others preferred to suppose that the two chieftains were clad in the skins of a boar and a lion respectively (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] married Deipyle, and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] married Argia; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.2] But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] had forbidden [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] to accept gifts from [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], he reconciled with him and sworn to let [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] decide any future dispute he might have with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and opposed by [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]. Thus forced to go to the war, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.\r\n\r\n[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary], son of Talaus; [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary], son of Oicles; [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], came from Thebes; [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary], was an Aetolian; [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"2590\"]Melanion[\/pb_glossary], was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[footnote]The list of the Seven Against Thebes varies between sources, and many sources also list a number other than seven.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] was king, they asked for water; and [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of [pb_glossary id=\"4159\"]Eurydice[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary]. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold [pb_glossary id=\"1971\"]Hypsipyle[\/pb_glossary] into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of [pb_glossary id=\"4589\"]Lycurgus[\/pb_glossary] as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[footnote]\"Archemorus\" translates to \u201cbeginner of doom\u201d; hence \u201cominous,\u201d \u201cforeboding.\u201d[\/footnote] They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] the boxing match, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary] the wrestling match, and [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] the archery match.\r\n\r\n[3.6.5] When they came to [pb_glossary id=\"918\"]Cithaeron[\/pb_glossary], they sent [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] to tell [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] in advance that he must cede the kingdom to [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], as they had agreed among themselves. As [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] paid no heed to the message, [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] at the Ogygian, [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] at the Crenidian. [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] 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.\r\n\r\n[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary], son of Everes and a [pb_glossary id=\"217\"]nymph[\/pb_glossary] [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary], of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the [pb_glossary id=\"1830\"]Spartoi[\/pb_glossary] ] 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[footnote]See chapter 11<\/a>.[\/footnote]; for [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] was dear to [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] ((lacuna)). . . and [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when [pb_glossary id=\"1595\"]Chariclo[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary] blinded him, but [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] to [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"185\"]Hera[\/pb_glossary], \"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.\r\n\r\nSo when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to [pb_glossary id=\"179\"]Ares[\/pb_glossary]. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], slew himself before the gates. But a battle having taken place, the Cadmeans were chased in a crowd as far as the walls, and [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary], seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] smote him with a thunderbolt.\r\n\r\n[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] turned to flee. And as many fell, [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary] and [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]. But Euripides says that [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary] was slain by [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary]. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] in the belly. As he lay half dead, [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] brought a medicine which she had begged of [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], and by which she intended to make him immortal. But [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] hated [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] for thwarting him by persuading the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary] to march to Thebes; so when he perceived the intention of the goddess he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary], who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary] split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when [pb_glossary id=\"173\"]Athena[\/pb_glossary] saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] fled beside the river Ismenus, and before [pb_glossary id=\"1451\"]Periclymenus[\/pb_glossary] could wound him in the back, [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary] vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary] made him immortal. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse [pb_glossary id=\"182\"]Poseidon[\/pb_glossary] begot by [pb_glossary id=\"351\"]Demeter[\/pb_glossary], when in the likeness of a [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] she consorted with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] cast out the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argive[\/pb_glossary] dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But [pb_glossary id=\"4621\"]Antigone[\/pb_glossary], one of the daughters of [pb_glossary id=\"2062\"]Oedipus[\/pb_glossary], stole the body of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and secretly buried it, and having been detected by [pb_glossary id=\"4620\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] himself, she was interred alive in the grave. [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary] fled to [pb_glossary id=\"4669\"]Athens[\/pb_glossary] and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant's bough[footnote]A \"suppliant\" (\u03b1\u1f30\u03b4\u03ce\u03c2) in ancient Greece had a more formal definition, such that if someone performed the gestures of supplication towards someone, they would be honour-bound to respect the suppliant's need. The \"suppliant's bow\" refers to the branch of olive which a suppliant laid on the altar of a god as a token to show that they sought divine protection (adapted from commentary by J. G. Frazer, taken from Theoi.com<\/a>).[\/footnote] he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with [pb_glossary id=\"1438\"]Theseus[\/pb_glossary], captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary] was burning, his wife [pb_glossary id=\"4590\"]Evadne[\/pb_glossary], the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.\r\n\r\n[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the [pb_glossary id=\"4591\"]Epigoni[\/pb_glossary], purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] ] predicted victory under the leadership of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. So [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle [\/pb_glossary]had received the robe from Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary], and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] and Amphilochus, sons of [pb_glossary id=\"1196\"]Amphiaraus[\/pb_glossary]; Aegialeus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"1201\"]Adrastus[\/pb_glossary]; [pb_glossary id=\"1192\"]Diomedes[\/pb_glossary], son of [pb_glossary id=\"1583\"]Tydeus[\/pb_glossary]; Promachus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4301\"]Parthenopaeus[\/pb_glossary]; Sthenelus, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4296\"]Capaneus[\/pb_glossary]; Thersander, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4299\"]Polynices[\/pb_glossary]; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.\r\n\r\n[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of [pb_glossary id=\"4305\"]Eteocles[\/pb_glossary], they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary], and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] told them to send a herald to treat with the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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, [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.\r\n\r\n[3.7.4] But the [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] at [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and with it Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary]; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.\r\n\r\n[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] learned that his mother [pb_glossary id=\"4181\"]Eriphyle[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary] he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] was visited by the [pb_glossary id=\"157\"]Fury[\/pb_glossary] 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.[footnote]Compare the myth of Orestes and the Furies in chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>.[\/footnote] And having been purified[footnote]\"purification\" here refers to the Greek concept of miasma<\/em>, the idea that death defiles someone or makes them impure. For further explanation, see\u00a0Mythology Unbound<\/em><\/a>.[\/footnote] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]Oeneus[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary], and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s murder.\r\n\r\n[3.7.6] Being informed of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]'s untimely end and courted by [pb_glossary id=\"172\"]Zeus[\/pb_glossary], Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary]. The sons of [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"2276\"]Argives[\/pb_glossary], and the Psophidians took to flight.\r\n\r\n[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to [pb_glossary id=\"945\"]Delphi[\/pb_glossary] and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of [pb_glossary id=\"774\"]Achelous[\/pb_glossary]. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.\r\n\r\nBut Euripides says that in the time of his madness [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of [pb_glossary id=\"929\"]Teiresias[\/pb_glossary] and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary], king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary]'s spouse, who feared that [pb_glossary id=\"2002\"]Creon[\/pb_glossary] might make her his wedded wife. But [pb_glossary id=\"4593\"]Alcmaeon[\/pb_glossary] 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 [pb_glossary id=\"183\"]Apollo[\/pb_glossary].\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTaken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\r\n
[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\r\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.\r\n
The Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus' exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\r\n
You can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
The Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.\r\n
Sophocles' third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon's orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon's living son), and Eurydice (Creon's wife).<\/p>\r\nYou can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.\r\n
The Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\r\n
The Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\r\nFor further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\r\n
[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3967\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2308\"]
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)[\/caption]\r\nThere are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to Artemis<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
For the first one, the scene usually shows Cadmus fighting a giant snake. As the scene takes place at the Ismenian Spring, the hero is often portrayed holding a water jug alongside his weapons. Athena is usually represented behind Cadmus, as she assisted him in this feat, while Ares, to whom the dragon was sacred, is standing behind the monster.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3760\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"304\"]
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 380 BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Naples)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3757\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"341\"] Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 350 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3756\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"] Cadmus and the dragon, black-figure amphora, ca. 560 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\nThe encounter between Oedipus and the Sphinx was another very popular theme in ancient Greek art. The hero is usually represented wearing the cloak and hat of travelers (as he was indeed on the road) and holding a walking stick, while the monster, a winged lion with a human head, is perching either on a column or a rock.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3763\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1292\"]
Oedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure pelike, ca. 450 BCE (Altes Museum, Berlin)[\/caption]\r\nThe third myth is usually represented in two ways: either the leaders of the Argive expedition arming themselves, or episodes from the battle at the gates.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3764\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1555\"]
The Seven Against Thebes, terracotta relief, ca. 470 BCE (Villa Giulia, Rome)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3537\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"] Capaneus scales the walls of Thebes, red-figure amphora, ca. 340 BCE (Getty Villa, Los Angeles)[\/caption]\r\nTwo popular scenes from the second category are the fall of Capaneus from the walls, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices. The siege of Thebes became very popular in Etruscan art, so that the expedition of the Seven was represented on at least two temple pediments from the 5th and 2nd century BCE, and the duel between Eteocles and Polynices was a common decorative motif funerary urns during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3758\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1590\"]
Duel of Eteocles and Polynices and the siege of Thebes, terracotta pediment from the temple of Talamone, 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3779\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"] The duel of Eteocles and Polynices, Etruscan funerary urns, ca. 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Siena)[\/caption]\r\nThe last mythological episode from the Theban Cycle to be fairly common in art is the death of Pentheus. Greek and Roman artists usually represented the moment of\u00a0or the moments immediately his ritual dismemberment (sparagmos<\/em>) at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. The women are generally shown carrying away their macabre trophies, and Agave, Pentheus' mother, is the one holding his head.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3781\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"603\"]
Death of Pentheus, red-figure lekane lid, ca. 450 BCE (Louvre Museum, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3780\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"600\"] Death of Pentheus, red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BCE (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nMedia Attributions and Footnotes<\/h1>","rendered":"
<\/p>\nOedipus and the Sphinx, red-figure kylix, ca. 460 BCE (Museo Gregoriano Estrusco, Vatican City)<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Foundation<\/h1>\n
<\/a>Mythological<\/h2>\n
In mythology, Thebes was founded by the Phoenician prince Cadmus<\/a>. He arrived in Greece while searching for his sister, Europa<\/a>, who had been kidnapped by Zeus and taken to Crete. The royal family of Thebes was then descended from Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia, the daughter of the deities Aphrodite and Ares. The family was famously plagued by curses, murders, and vendettas. The city was known for its fortified citadel, the Cadmea, and its walls with seven gates built with magic by the demigod Amphion<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Historical<\/h2>\n
The archaeological record shows that Thebes, situated in Boeotia in central Greece, has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. The city rose to prominence during the Bronze Age<\/a> and became a powerful Mycenaean<\/a> palatial centre. The Cadmea hill, which hosted the main religious and political buildings, was walled and fortified during this period. Thebes was affected by the Bronze Age Collapse, but recovered and established itself as one of the most prominent city-states of Greece during the Archaic<\/a> and Classical<\/a> periods. After being destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. The continuous occupation of the site makes it difficult to have a clear picture of the size and extension of the ancient city. The majority of the visible remains date from the Classical<\/a> and Hellenistic<\/a> periods; however, part of the Mycenaean<\/a> palace is still visible in the city centre.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Mythology<\/h1>\n
\n\n Sections & Primary Sources<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\nThe House of Cadmus<\/a><\/p>\n
- \n
- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Theban Cycle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a>The House of Cadmus<\/h2>\n
Family tree of the house of Cadmus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \n<\/a>Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, Book 3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, adapted by L. Zhang)<\/h3>\n
Greek mythography, 2nd century BCE<\/h4>\n
[content warning for the following source: graphic descriptions of death, self harm and suicide]<\/h5>\n
After Europa was kidnapped by Zeus in the form of a bull and brought to Crete, as a princess of the Phoenician royalty, her brothers were commanded by their father (Agenor) to find her. One of whom is Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. The following is the account of the founding of Thebes and the fate of Cadmus\u2019 line in Pseudo-Apollodorus.<\/div>\n[3.4.1] When Telephassa<\/a> died, Cadmus<\/a> buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi<\/a> to inquire about Europa<\/a>. The god told him not to worry about Europa<\/a>, 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<\/a>, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares<\/a>. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares<\/a>, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus<\/a> killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena<\/a> sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti<\/a>.\u00a0These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n
[3.4.2] But Cadmus<\/a>, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares<\/a> for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our calendar.<\/p>\n
After his servitude, Athena<\/a> procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus<\/a> gave to him Harmonia<\/a> as wife, daughter of Aphrodite<\/a> and Ares<\/a>. And all the gods left the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus<\/a> gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus<\/a>, which some say was given to Cadmus<\/a> by Hephaestus<\/a>, but Pherecydes[1]<\/sup><\/a> says that it was given by Europa<\/a>, who had received it from Zeus<\/a>. And to Cadmus<\/a> were born daughters, Autonoe<\/a>, Ino<\/a>, Semele<\/a>, Agave<\/a>, and a son Polydorus. Ino<\/a> was married to Athamas<\/a>, Autonoe<\/a> to Aristaeus<\/a>, and Agave<\/a> to Echion.<\/p>\n
[3.4.3] But Zeus<\/a> loved Semele<\/a> and slept with her, unknown to Hera<\/a>. Now Zeus<\/a> had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera<\/a> she asked him to come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera<\/a>. Unable to refuse, Zeus<\/a> came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele<\/a> died of fright, and Zeus<\/a>, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it into his thigh. Upon the death of Semele<\/a>, the other daughters of Cadmus<\/a> spread a report that Semele<\/a> had slept with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus<\/a>, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But, at the proper time, Zeus<\/a> undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus<\/a>, and entrusted him to Hermes<\/a>. And he conveyed him to Ino<\/a> and Athamas<\/a>, and persuaded them to raise him as a girl.[2]<\/sup><\/a> But Hera<\/a> indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas<\/a> hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and Ino<\/a> threw Melicertes<\/a> into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called Leucothea<\/a>, and the boy is called Palaemon<\/a>, such being the names they get from sailors; for they assist storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus<\/a> in honour of Melicertes<\/a>. But Zeus<\/a> escaped the wrath of Hera<\/a> by turning Dionysus<\/a> into a goat kid, and Hermes<\/a> took him and brought him to the nymphs<\/a> who dwelt at Nysa<\/a> in Asia, whom Zeus<\/a> afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades<\/a>.<\/p>\n
[3.4.4] Autonoe<\/a> and Aristaeus<\/a> had a son Actaeon<\/a>, who was raised by Chiron<\/a> to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron<\/a> by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus,[3]<\/sup><\/a> because Zeus<\/a> was angry at him for wooing Semele<\/a>; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis<\/a> 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<\/a> being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of Chiron<\/a>, who fashioned an image of Actaeon<\/a>, which soothed their grief.<\/p>\n
[The names of Actaeon<\/a>‘s dogs from the ((lacuna))[4]<\/sup><\/a> . . . 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<\/a> perished at the instigation of Zeus<\/a>. 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<\/a> and lapped his blood. And after them others rushed on him eagerly ((lacuna)) . . . to be a remedy for grievous pains to men.]<\/p>\n
[ . . . ]<\/p>\n
[3.5.2] Having traversed Thrace and the whole of India and set up pillars there, Dionysus<\/a> arrived to Thebes, and forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron<\/a>. But Pentheus<\/a>, whom Agave<\/a> bore to Echion, had succeeded Cadmus<\/a> in the kingdom, and he attempted to put a stop to these proceedings. And coming to Cithaeron<\/a> to spy on the Bacchanals [ Bacchantes<\/a> ], he was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave<\/a> in a fit of madness; for she thought he was a wild beast.[5]<\/sup><\/a> And having shown the Thebans that he was a god, Dionysus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n
[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]<\/sup><\/a> Thus men perceived that he was a god and honoured him; and having brought up his mother from Hades<\/a> and named her Thyone<\/a>, he ascended up with her to heaven.<\/p>\n
[3.5.4] But Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> left Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus<\/a> and Harmonia<\/a> as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus<\/a> reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia<\/a>, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus<\/a> to the Elysian Fields<\/a>.<\/p>\n
[3.5.5] Polydorus, having become king of Thebes, married Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, son of Chthonius, and had Labdacus, who perished after Pentheus<\/a> because he agreed with him. But Labdacus having left a year-old son, Laius<\/a>, the government was usurped by Lycus<\/a>, brother of Nycteus<\/a>, so long as Laius<\/a> was a child. Lycus<\/a> and Nycteus<\/a> had fled [from Euboea] because they had killed Phlegyas, son of Ares<\/a> 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<\/a>. 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<\/a> and Amphion<\/a> for the following reason. Antiope<\/a> was a daughter of Nycteus<\/a>, and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> killed himself, after charging Lycus<\/a> with the task to punish Epopeus and Antiope<\/a>. Lycus<\/a> marched against Sicyon, subdued it, slew Epopeus, and led Antiope<\/a> away captive. On the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleurethae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed,[7]<\/sup><\/a> but a cowherd found and reared them, and he called the one Zethus<\/a> and the other Amphion<\/a>. Now Zethus<\/a> paid attention to cattle-breeding, but Amphion<\/a> practiced music, for Hermes<\/a> had given him a lyre. But Lycus<\/a> and his wife Dirce<\/a> imprisoned Antiope<\/a> 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<\/a>, but they tied Dirce<\/a> to a bull, and flung her dead body into the spring that is called Dirce<\/a> after her. And having succeeded to the sovereignty they fortified the city, the stones moving with Amphion<\/a>‘s music; and they expelled Laius<\/a>. He resided in Peloponnese, being hospitably received by Pelops<\/a>; and while he taught Chrysippus, the son of Pelops<\/a>, to drive a chariot, he conceived a passion for the lad and kidnapped him.<\/p>\n
[3.5.6] Zethus<\/a> married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named; and Amphion married Niobe<\/a>, daughter of Tantalus<\/a>, 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<\/a> said that she was more blessed with children than Leto<\/a>. Stung by the taunt, Leto<\/a> incited Artemis and Apollo<\/a> against them, and Artemis<\/a> shot down the females in the house, and Apollo<\/a> killed all the males together as they were hunting on Cithaeron<\/a>. Of the males Amphion<\/a> alone was saved, and of the females Chloris the elder, whom Neleus<\/a> married. But according to Telesilla there were saved Amyclas and Meliboea, and Amphion<\/a> also was shot by them. But Niobe<\/a> herself left Thebes and went to her father Tantalus<\/a> at Sipylus, and there, on praying to Zeus<\/a>, she was transformed into a stone, and tears flow night and day from the stone.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
[3.5.7] After Amphion<\/a>‘s death, Laius<\/a> succeeded to the kingdom. And he married a daughter of Menoeceus; some say that she was Jocasta<\/a>, 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<\/a>; and the cowherds of Polybus, king of Corinth, found the infant and brought it to his wife Periboea.\u00a0She adopted him and raised him as her own, and after she had healed his ankles she called him Oedipus<\/a>, giving him that name on account of his swollen feet.[9]<\/sup><\/a>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<\/a> 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<\/a> who was driving in a chariot in a certain narrow road.[10]<\/sup><\/a> And when Polyphontes, the herald of Laius<\/a>, ordered him to make way and killed one of his horses because he disobeyed and delayed them, Oedipus<\/a>\u00a0 killed both Polyphontes and Laius<\/a> out of anger before arriving in Thebes.<\/p>\n
[3.5.8] Laius<\/a> was buried by Damasistratus, king of Plataea, and Creon<\/a>, son of Menoeceus, succeeded to the kingdom. In his reign a heavy calamity befell Thebes. For Hera<\/a> sent the Sphinx<\/a>, whose mother was Echidna<\/a> and her father Typhon<\/a>; 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<\/a>, 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<\/a> whenever they had solved her riddle; so they often met and discussed the answer, and when they could not find it the Sphinx<\/a> used to snatch away one of them as her meal. When many had perished, and last of all Creon<\/a>‘s son Haemon, Creon<\/a> made proclamation that to him who should solve the riddle he would give both the kingdom and the wife of Laius<\/a>. On hearing that, Oedipus<\/a> found the solution, declaring that the riddle of the Sphinx<\/a> 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<\/a> threw herself from the citadel, and Oedipus<\/a> both succeeded to the kingdom and unwittingly married his mother, and begat sons by her, Polynices<\/a> and Eteocles<\/a>, and daughters, Ismene and Antigone<\/a>. But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas.<\/p>\n
[3.5.9] When the secret afterwards came to light, Jocasta<\/a> hanged herself in a noose, and Oedipus<\/a> 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<\/a> to Colonus in Attica, the precinct of the Eumenides<\/a>, he sat down there as a suppliant, was kindly received by Theseus<\/a>, and died not long afterwards.<\/p>\n
[3.6.1] Now Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> 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<\/a> was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles<\/a>; but some say that Eteocles<\/a> was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices<\/a> came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe [of Harmonia]. The king of Argos was Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; and Polynices<\/a> went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry Adrastus<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> married Deipyle, and Polynices<\/a> married Argia; and Adrastus<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n
[3.6.2] But Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus<\/a> were destined to perish, refused to go and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices<\/a> went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus<\/a> could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle<\/a> got the necklace [of Harmonia]. Now Amphiaraus<\/a> had forbidden Eriphyle<\/a> to accept gifts from Polynices<\/a>; but Polynices<\/a> gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus<\/a> to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus<\/a>, he reconciled with him and sworn to let Eriphyle<\/a> decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus<\/a>. Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus<\/a> and opposed by Amphiaraus<\/a>, Eriphyle<\/a> accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus<\/a>. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus<\/a> laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.<\/p>\n
[3.6.3] Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus<\/a> hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these: Adrastus<\/a>, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus<\/a>, son of Oicles; Capaneus<\/a>, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices<\/a>, son of Oedipus<\/a>, came from Thebes; Tydeus<\/a>, son of Oeneus<\/a>, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus<\/a>, son of Melanion<\/a>, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not agree Tydeus<\/a> and Polynices<\/a> among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis, and Mecisteus in the list of the seven.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
[3.6.4] Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus<\/a> was king, they asked for water; and Hypsipyle<\/a> showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice<\/a> and Lycurgus<\/a>. For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive, put him to death and sold Hypsipyle<\/a> into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus<\/a> as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus<\/a> and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus<\/a> told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.[13]<\/sup><\/a> They celebrated the Nemean games in his honour; and Adrastus<\/a> won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus<\/a> the boxing match, Amphiaraus<\/a> the leaping and discus match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices<\/a> the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus<\/a> the archery match.<\/p>\n
[3.6.5] When they came to Cithaeron<\/a>, they sent Tydeus<\/a> to tell Eteocles<\/a> in advance that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices<\/a>, as they had agreed among themselves. As Eteocles<\/a> paid no heed to the message, Tydeus<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n
[3.6.6] Having armed themselves, the Argives<\/a> approached the walls; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus<\/a> was stationed at the Homoloidian gate, Capaneus<\/a> at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus<\/a> at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian, Polynices at the Hypsistan, Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus<\/a> at the Crenidian. Eteocles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n
[3.6.7] Now there was among the Thebans a soothsayer, Teiresias<\/a>, son of Everes and a nymph<\/a> Chariclo<\/a>, of the family of Udaeus, the Spartan [ one of the Spartoi<\/a> ] 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]<\/sup><\/a>; for Chariclo<\/a> was dear to Athena<\/a> ((lacuna)). . . and Teiresias<\/a> saw the goddess stark naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, and so rendered him sightless. And when Chariclo<\/a> 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<\/a> and Zeus<\/a> 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<\/a> blinded him, but Zeus<\/a> bestowed on him the art of soothsaying. The saying of Teiresias<\/a> to Zeus<\/a> and Hera<\/a>, “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.<\/p>\n
So when the Thebans sought counsel of him, he said that they should be victorious if Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, would offer himself freely as a sacrifice to Ares<\/a>. On hearing that, Menoeceus, son of Creon<\/a>, 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<\/a>, seizing a ladder, was climbing up it to the walls, when Zeus<\/a> smote him with a thunderbolt.<\/p>\n
[3.6.8] At the sight of the smiting, the Argives<\/a> turned to flee. And as many fell, Eteocles<\/a> and Polynices<\/a>, 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<\/a>. But Euripides says that Parthenopaeus<\/a> was slain by Periclymenus<\/a>, son of Poseidon<\/a>. And Melanippus, the remaining one of the sons of Astacus, wounded Tydeus<\/a> in the belly. As he lay half dead, Athena<\/a> brought a medicine which she had begged of Zeus<\/a>, and by which she intended to make him immortal. But Amphiaraus<\/a> hated Tydeus<\/a> for thwarting him by persuading the Argives<\/a> 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<\/a>, who, wounded though he was, had killed him. And Tydeus<\/a> split open the head and gulped up the brains. But when Athena<\/a> saw that, in disgust she was enraged and withheld the intended benefit. Amphiaraus<\/a> fled beside the river Ismenus, and before Periclymenus<\/a> could wound him in the back, Zeus<\/a> cleft the earth by throwing a thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus<\/a> vanished with his chariot and his charioteer Baton, or, as some say, Elato; and Zeus<\/a> made him immortal. Adrastus<\/a> alone was saved by his horse Arion. That horse Poseidon<\/a> begot by Demeter<\/a>, when in the likeness of a Fury<\/a> she consorted with him.<\/p>\n
[3.7.1] Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon<\/a> cast out the Argive<\/a> dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone<\/a>, one of the daughters of Oedipus<\/a>, stole the body of Polynices<\/a>, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon<\/a> himself, she was interred alive in the grave. Adrastus<\/a> fled to Athens<\/a> and took refuge at the altar of Mercy, and laying on it the suppliant’s bough[15]<\/sup><\/a> he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus<\/a>, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus<\/a> was burning, his wife Evadne<\/a>, the daughter of Iphis, threw herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.<\/p>\n
[3.7.2] Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni<\/a>, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers; and when they consulted the oracle, the god [ Apollo<\/a> ] predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon<\/a>. So Alcmaeon<\/a> joined the expedition, though he did not want to lead the army until he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle <\/a>had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>, and had persuaded her sons also to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon<\/a> as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon<\/a> and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus<\/a>; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus<\/a>; Diomedes<\/a>, son of Tydeus<\/a>; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus<\/a>; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus<\/a>; Thersander, son of Polynices<\/a>; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.<\/p>\n
[3.7.3] They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles<\/a>, they fought bravely, and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon<\/a>, and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as Teiresias<\/a> told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> drank of it and died. After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.<\/p>\n
[3.7.4] But the Argives<\/a>, 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<\/a> at Delphi<\/a> and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a>; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes, they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils.<\/p>\n
[3.7.5] After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaeon<\/a> learned that his mother Eriphyle<\/a> 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<\/a> he killed his mother. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon<\/a> was visited by the Fury<\/a> 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]<\/sup><\/a> And having been purified[17]<\/sup><\/a> 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<\/a> and to stand another trial on the river bank. At first he went to Oeneus<\/a> 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<\/a>, and was purified by him, and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the Achelous<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a>‘s murder.<\/p>\n
[3.7.6] Being informed of Alcmaeon<\/a>‘s untimely end and courted by Zeus<\/a>, Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a> to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon<\/a>. The sons of Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>, and the Psophidians took to flight.<\/p>\n
[3.7.7] Having told their mother these things, they went to Delphi<\/a> and dedicated the necklace and robe according to the injunction of Achelous<\/a>. Then they journeyed to Epirus, collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania.<\/p>\n
But Euripides says that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon<\/a> had two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Teiresias<\/a> and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon<\/a>, king of Corinth, to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary beauty Tisiphone was sold as a slave by Creon<\/a>‘s spouse, who feared that Creon<\/a> might make her his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Taken from: https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/Apollodorus3.html#4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a>The Theban Cycle<\/h2>\n
[content warning for the following source: self harm, suicide]<\/h5>\n
The Theban Cycle is a collection of lost four epic-style poetry within the Epic Cycle. It takes place before the Trojan War<\/a> and it tells the mythological history of the founding family of the city of Thebes. The epics of the Theban Cycle are as follows: the Oedipodea<\/em>, the Thebaid<\/em>, the Epigoni<\/em>, and the Alcmeonis<\/em>. While these poems are lost, the content of the poems can be pieced together from fragments and mentions from other ancient authors.<\/p>\n
For further discussion of the Epic Cycle, see chapter 29<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Oedipodea<\/em> tells the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. Pausanias cites this poem to claim that Oedipus never has any children in his marriage with his mother, Jocasta (Description of Greece<\/em> 9.5.10-11<\/a>). Another source on the tragedy of Oedipus and his children survives in the trilogy of plays by the Athenian playwright, Sophocles: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus at Colonus<\/em>, and Antigone<\/em>. In Oedipus Rex<\/em>, Oedipus is determined to find who murdered the previous king, Laius, in order to end a plague upon the city. When it is revealed that it was himself who killed his father and thus he had married and had children with his own mother, Jocasta, his queen, Jocasta hangs herself and Oepidus blinds himself. Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> details Oedipus’ exile to Colonus, near Athens, with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone. He curses his sons for not being able to protect him well from Creon, who plans to kill him. He receives citizenship and protection in Athens, where he ultimately dies.<\/p>\n
You can read the entirety of Oedipus Rex\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> and Oedipus at Colonus<\/em> in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Thebaid<\/em> describes the succession wars between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles after his death. The events are famously retold by Athenian playwright, Aeschylus, in his tragic play, Seven Against Thebes<\/em>. This play concerns the siege against the city led by Polynices and his Argive allies captained by the eponymous Seven and Eteocles sending out Theban champions to duel against the Seven. Ultimately, the Thebans drove away their enemies but both brothers die fighting each other.<\/p>\n
You can read the entirety of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes<\/em>\u00a0in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sophocles’ third Theban play, Antigone<\/em>, details the events after the brothers die. It tells how their sister, Antigone, gives Polynices a proper burial against the now king Creon’s orders. The play ends in the death of Antigone, Haemon (Creon’s living son), and Eurydice (Creon’s wife).<\/p>\n
You can read the entirety of\u00a0Antigone\u00a0<\/em>in English\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Epigoni<\/em> tells the tale of how the sons (the Epigoni) of the Seven caused the ultimate downfall of Thebes in a second war ten years after the first to take revenge for their fallen fathers. The Alcmeonis<\/em> is the final of the Theban Cycle and is about Alcmaeon, one of the Epigoni, who kills his mother to avenge the death of his father. This story bears some similarities to the myth of Orestes and Clytemnestra (see chapter 11<\/a> and chapter 30<\/a>).<\/p>\n
The Thebes of Athenian playwrights often served as the flawed foil of Athens. The Thebans were enemies of Athens because they sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars, and the agenda of playwrights to win contests in the City Dionysia festival and gain popularity in Athens by villainizing Thebes should be kept in mind when reading these sources.<\/p>\n
For further discussion of theatre culture in Athens, see chapter 43<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Art and Symbolism<\/h1>\n
[content warning for the following section: graphic depiction of death]<\/h5>\n
Cadmus and the dragon, red-figure krater, ca. 450 BCE (Metropolitan Museum, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n There are four main episodes from the mythology of the Theban Cycle that are very often represented in Greek and Roman art: Cadmus slaying the dragon; Oedipus being interrogated by the Sphinx; the expedition of the seven Argive armies against Thebes; and the death of king Pentheus at the hands of the followers of Dionysus. Another scene, the death of Actaeon mauled by his own dogs, was already discussed in the chapter dedicated to
- Pseudo-Apollodorus,\u00a0Bibliotheca<\/em>, 3.4.1-3.7.6<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n