MythologyThe House of Thebes

February 14, 2006

Kadmos and the Founding of Thebes

The house of Thebes begins with Kadmos who was the brother of Europa. As we've already discussed, Europa was the daughter of King Agenor of Phoenicia. Zeus, in the form of a white bull, had carried away Europa and she bore to him three children: Sarpedon, Minos, and Rhadamanthys. Europa eventually married the King of Crete, Tektamos, who was the great-grandson of Deukalion, the man who survived the flood.

King Agenor sent Kadmos to find Europa. Kadmos traveled with his mother Telephassa and a small company of Phoenicians to Rhodes. In Rhodes Kadmos dedicated a bronze tripod to Athene. The tripod was inscribed with letters from the Phoenician alphabet and thus Kadmos brought the alphabet to Greece. He next traveled to Thebes where he established a colony, and finally he traveled to Thracia, where his mother died. He set up a shrine there and mourned her, but heard of the oracle at Delphi and resolved to travel there to find the location of his sister.

The oracle told him that Zeus had taken his sister and that it was in vain to look for her. But Kadmus feared to return to his father Aegnor having failed his mission, for he had been told he would be banished if he couldn't find her. But the oracle at Delphi told him to follow a white cow and found a city wherever the cow comes to rest.

Leaving the oracle he traveled to the land of King Pelagon. He bought a single white cow from the king which had the mark of the full moon on its flanks. Kadmos released the cow into the wild and let it wander. The cow stopped and finally lay down in Boetia at the site of the where the city of Thebes would eventually be built. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athene, he sent men to fetch water from a nearby spring. But this spring was sacred to Ares and there lived a serpent at in the spring that killed all of Kadmos' men.

Kadmus fought and killed the serpent which all the authors called drakon, though this (like "ketos") is not a proper name. The author Hyginus specifically says that the drakon was killed with a rock, but many of the surviving artistic accounts show Kadmos armed with a spear. With his men all dead, he asked Athene how he could found a city as the oracle had told him. Athene told Kadmos to remove the serpent's teeth and sow them in the earth. Kadmos did as he was ordered and the teeth grew into a race of men, born fully adult and dressed in armor.

This is an early artistic depiction of Kadmos fighting the Drakon or serpent.

1

The men were stubborn and would not follow or obey Kadmos, Athene told Kadmos to stir up discord amongst them by throwing a rock into their midst. The men, who each thought his own comrades were attacking him, fought among themselves and killed each other until only five remained alive. These men (named: Echion, Oudaios, Chthonios, Hyperenor, and Peloros) became the first citizens of the city that Kadmos named Cadmea. Some authors say that Kadmos only used teeth from one of the serpent's jaws and the Athene saved the teeth from the other jaw and gave them to Aietes, the king of Colchis. We saw these teeth used when we discussed the myth of Iason and the voyage of the Argo.

Ares was angered at Kadmos and wanted to kill the mortal, but Athene intervenes on his behalf. Zeus ordered Kadmos to serve as a slave to Ares for one "great" year (a period of eight normal years). At the end of his servitude, Kadmos was reconciled to Ares and the god gave him the hand of his daughter, Harmonia. This is the first recorded instance of a mortal marrying a goddess and it set the precedent that would be followed by Sisyphos (who married Merope) and Peleus (who would marry Thetis).

The wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia was attended by the gods. At the wedding Europa gave Harmonia a necklace and a robe given to her by Zeus. These items became heirlooms of the

Athene, Kadmos (here with a rock), the drakon, Harmonia, and Ares.

house of Thebes though they did always bring good luck. We'll see the more of these items soon. Kadmos and Harmonia had four daughters (Autonoë, Semele, Ino and Agave) and one son (Polydoros). Eventually Kadmos retired from the position of king of Thebes and let his grandson Pentheus, son of his daughter Agave, assume the throne.

The Exile of Kadmos

We already discussed Pentheus' misfortune as king. He was punished by his cousin Dionysos (Semele's son) for not believing him to be a god. After this event Kadmos and Harmonia fled from the city in grief and eventually came to the city of Encheleans. An oracle told them that if they made Kadmos their king they would defeat their enemies the Illyrians. Kadmos led the Encheleans to victory. He ruled for many years and eventually fathered another son whom he named Illyrios in memory of his victory over the Illyrians.

Eventually Zeus turned both Kadmos and Harmonia into spotted snakes and Illyrios became king. Athough many authors mention this story, no one provides a myth about why Kadmos and Harmonia were made into snakes. Since many ancient cultures associate snakes with immortality (shedding skin was thought to equal rejuvenation), perhaps this was a reward of immortality granted by Zeus. Or perhaps it was a punishment and is somehow connected to the slaying of the drakon. Regardless of the reason for his transformation Kadmos was worshipped as a hero by the Thebans and a famous shrine was built to him at Delphi where a necklace (reputed to be the one given to Harmonia by Europa) was kept well into historic times.

The Successors of Pentheus

Although it may be a later addition to the myth Polydoros was said to have followed his father and mother into exile. After a time, he returned to Thebes and seized power as the city was struggling to find a replacement for Pentheus. There is not much to say about Polydoros' rule, which seems to have been rather brief. Polydoros had a son

2

named Labdakos. Labdakos was still young when Polydoros died so Polydoros' father-in-law Nykteus ruled as regent. During his rule Nykteus went to war with King Epopeus of Sicyon. The reason for the war was that Epopeus had abducted Antiope, the daughter of Nykteus. In the battle Nykteus was killed and Thebes was defeated. Nykteus' brother Lykos assumed the throne after his death.

Labdacus eventually became king and took the reins of power from his great-uncle. But again war erupted, this time over a border dispute between Thebes and Athens. Thebes was once more defeated after Pandion, the king of Athens, received aid from Thracia. Labdakos himself survived the war, but following in the footsteps of Pentheus, King Labdakos opposed the cult of Dionysus, and was in turn murdered by Dionysus' enraged female devotees, the Maenads. Labdakos left behind a young son, Laios. Lykos again took control of the city of Thebes, but this time as a usurper, and he denied the young Laios his birthright. This inaugurated a new dynasty. Lykos ruled Thebes for twenty years.

The Usurper's Dynasty

King Lykos now decided to avenge the death of his brother and rescue his neice Antiope from Epopeus of Sicyon. This time Thebes prevailed. Lykos captured the city of Sicyon and inflicted a most horrible price on the city. Lykos killed every man and elderly person in the city, sold all the women and young boys into slavery, burned the city to the ground, and personally executed Epopeus by slitting his throat as the king sat tied before him. Despite rescuing Antiope it was said that neither Lykos nor his wife Dirke treated Antiope very well.

While in Sicyon Antiope had bore twins to Zeus named Amphion and Zethos. In was said that Lykos and Dirke treated their niece more like a prisoner than family. Eventually she escaped and was reunited with her twin boys (who survived the siege because they were raised in secret by a shepherd in the countryside). After a few years the brothers raised an army and marched on Thebes. They sacked the city, killed Lykos and Dirke and banished Laios from the kingdom. According to one author the children killed Dirke by tying her hair to a bull and letting the animal drag her to death.

Zethos had only one son, but no author records his name. Amphion however had seven sons and seven daughters. Zethos and Amphion ruled as co-monarchs and they expanded the city, renaming it Thebes in honor of Zethos' wife, Thebe (remember that the city up until this time had been called Cadmea). The two brothers built seven gates to the city and named each gate after one of Amphion's daughters. Thus the seven gates were named: Thera, Klodoxa, Astynome, Astykratia, Chias, Ogygia, and Chloris.

1st Century Roman statue of Zethos and Amphion tying the hair of their aunt Dirke to a bull so she will be dragged to death. This is a marble copy of a Greek original (which is lost).

3

Zethos' only son died young and his wife died of grief afterwards; then Zethos died too. Possibly his death was by suicide though the exact cause is never made clear. Amphion had plenty of children (and thus plenty of potential heirs) but his wife was Niobe, the daughter of Tantalos whom we've already discussed, and the children were killed by the children of Leto on account of her boasting. Niobe wept until she was turned to stone and Amphion killed himself in grief.

The Return of Laios

With Zethos, Amphion, and all their children dead, Laios returned to Thebes and declared himself king. Laios had been residing at the court of King Pelops, the son of Tantalos, whom the gods had restored to life. But while staying with Pelops, he had developed a homosexual attraction to Chrysippos, the illegitimate son of Pelops. Laios abducted Chrysippos, but the youth killed himself in shame. Pelops cursed Laios for the death of his son predicting that he would be killed by his son, in revenge for the death of Pelops' child. There is another myth about Chrysippos' death, but we'll examine that later when we discuss the house of Atreus.

Laios married Iokaste the daughter of Menoikeus, son of Pentheus. They had a son, but the Theban seer Teiresias, who was blind but had the gift of prophecy, predicted that the child would grow up and kill Laios. Seeking to thwart the prophecy, Laios drove a stake through the child's feet and gave him to a servant

Marble bust of Chryssipos, Roman copy of Greek original

telling him to kill the child. The servant however couldn't bear to kill a baby and gave the child to a friend who lived in Corinth. This friend, who knew that King Polybos and queen Merope of Corinth were childless, gave the child to the king and queen.

The king named the child Oidipous from the fact that he had swollen feet from the injury caused by the spike (in Greek oidios, -a, -on = "swollen", while pous, podos = "foot"). Oidipos was raised by the king and queen and never told that he was adopted, though it was common knowledge to nearly everyone else in the kingdom. Meanwhile the gods sent a monster called the Sphinx (from a Greek wording meaning "binding") to terrorize Thebes in revenge for Laios' actions towards Chrissipos. The Sphinx was a child of Echidna and Typhon who was half-woman, half-lion and had great wings on her back. She would swoop down upon the young men of Thebes, lift them into the air then drop them to their deaths and feast on their bodies. She insisted that she would continue to do so until she could solve a riddle she posed. Any who could not solve her riddle were devoured.

Meanwhile in Corinth Oidipous was bothered by a guest at his fathers court who had suggested that Oidipous was son Polybos' true son. Oidipous went to the oracle to discover what the man had meant. The oracle returned with the cyptic response that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Afraid of what the prophecy meant, and thinking he could avoid doing so by not returning to Corinth, Oidipous never returned to the court of King Polybos.

The sphinx was a common theme in Greek art.above the Sphinx is seen holding a victim in its clutches.

4

Oedipous traveled the world for awhile as a vagabond. One day at a crossroads he got into a dispute over who had the right of way with a group of travelers who were heading to Delphi by carriage. A servant in the entourage shoved Oidopous off the road and the servant's elderly master whipped Oidipos across the face as they drove past. Infuriated at the rude treatment, Oidipous leaped onto the carriage and tossed the old man off killing him. In the fight that broke out Oidipous killed two of the servants and a third fled. Oidipous continued on his way never realizing that he had accidentally fulfilled half the prophecy, for the old man he killed was in fact his true father Laios who was traveling to Dephi to learn how he could rid his kingdom of the Sphinx.

Oidipous the King

Eventually fate brought Oidipos to the city of Thebes. In Thebes, Oidipous met with the Sphinx who posed her riddle to him. Two versions of the riddle survive, though both have the same answer. According to the author Apollodoros the riddle was: "What has one voice, is four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?" The more famous version of the riddle given by Sophokles is: "What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?" Either way the answer to the riddle is "man", for a baby crawls on four legs, and adult walks on two legs and an elderly man uses two legs and a cane to walk. After solving the riddle the Sphinx, driven to despair, kills herself. She does this by throwing herself from a bridge, though since the Sphinx has wings and there are several vase paintings showing the Sphinx in flight it would seem to be an odd method for a winged creature to take her own life.

Meanwhile Thebes had been ruled by Kreon, Iokaste's brother, in the absence of Laios. When the servant who escaped the killing of Laios returned to Thebes he was afraid to tell Kreon that Laios and his other two fellow slaves had been killed by only one man. So he lied and told

Oedipous hears the Sphinx's riddle.

Kreon that they had been attacked by an entire gang of bandits. Therefore when Oidipous learned from Kreon that the king had been killed by many men, he had no logical reason to associate himself with the description that he was given of the crime. Furthermore when the kingship of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen were offered as reward for solving the Sphinx's riddle, Oidipous had no reason to hesitate to marry a woman whom he never met, even if she were old enough to be his mother. Oidipous was quite satisfied that he had foiled the prophecy the oracle had given him. Oepidous and Iokaste had four children together, two daughters and two sons.

Yet Thebes' troubles had not ended, for as Sophokles tells us in his Oidipous Tyrannos (commonly rendered in English by its Romanized title: Oedipus Rex), Thebes was struck by a plague and many citizens had already died. An oracle returned the answer that the plague would last until the killer of Laios were brought to justice. However the blind seer Teiresias knows who the murder is. Though Oidipous himself is puzzled by Teiresias' words, the seer makes it clear that Oidipous has committed patricide and fathered children on his own mother. As servants are questioned (including the lone survivor of Oidipous' attack upon Laios who recognized Oidipous and asked to be transferred to a position in the countryside), it becomes clear to everyone including Oidipous himself that Laios was killed by his own son and that the prophecy wa fulfilled in spite of Oidipous own efforts to foil it.

At the end of Oidipous Tyrannos, Iokaste hangs herself in grief, Oidipous is banished from the city by his own decrees and his daughters Antigone and Ismene follow him into exile, and Kreon is once again left as ruler of the city. While this would seem to be a fairly complete treatment of the story there are a number of disturbing omissions from the story that Sophokles neglects to mention. We will examine these shortly.

There were at least two more plays of the Oidipous story by noted dramatists. One was by Euripides and the other by Aischylos, both were titled simply Oidipous, and sadly neither survives. We do know that the surviving play

5

by Aischylos called the Seven (often called "Seven against Thebes") was the third part of a trilogy that included the lost plays Laios, and Oidipous. What we can deduce from Aischylos' Seven against Thebes about Oidipous is that he did not exile himself, but instead that he continued to rule Thebes long after his own guilt was uncovered (and probably after Iokaste killed herself). In Aischylos' version it is clear that Oidipous had cursed his two sons Eteokles and Polynikes, and this curse has manifested itself as a quarrel between the two children that will result in their deaths at each other's hands.

So it can be seen from this that Sophokles' treatment of the story in Oidipous Tyrannos, which was called by Aristotle the perfect example of tragedy, probably changed a number of elements of the story. In Oidipous Tyrannos Sophokles never mentions Laios' crime towards Pelops' son Chryssipos. He also never mentions Eteokles or Polynikes. He makes Oidipous intelligent and clever (he did solve the Sphinx's riddle), but also entirely responsible for his crime, for Oidipous tried to flee from his fate and in doing so all his actions only caused the prophecy to become true. Never is a reason given for Oidipous' cruel fate, and it certainly is never suggested that Laios' guilt was transferred to his son.

From Aischylos' account we see a picture of a father who curses his own sons, and continues to rule Thebes after his crime has been revealed to all. It has been suggested that Aischylos portrayed Oidipous as a more evil man, a true tyrant. Perhaps in Aischylos' Oidipous, he is a man who was aware that he killed his own father and was conscious that he was marrying his own mother but did so in order to gain power. When his crime became known to all, his wife killed herself and he went on ruling Thebes. Of course this is all conjecture and can't be proven, but as we'll see soon Aischylos and Sophokles had very different descriptions of the nature of the curse upon Eteokles and Polynikes.

The Exile of Oidipous

Sophokles goes on to continue the story of Oidipous in the play Oidipous at Kolonos. In this play Oidipous and his daughter Antigone arrive in Athens looking for a place for Oidipous to rest. At this point Oidipous is quite elderly and weak. However his infamy has spread throughout Greece and he has been welcomed nowhere that he has been. The king of Athens Theseus arrives and debates on whether to allow Oidipous a place to stay in Colonus, near Athens. However Kreon shows up with an army of Thebans demanding Theseus hand over Oidipous.

It seems that Eteokles has quarreled with his brother Polynikes and kicked him out of the city. Polynikes traveled to the kingdom of Adrastos of Argos. Now it happened that Adrastos had received a prophecy that if a lion and a boar were to fight in his kingdom he should yoke them togther. Needless to say this prophecy confused Adrastos until the day Polynikes showed up in his court. Polynikes began arguing with another guest of Adrastos, the Calydonian prince Tydeus. Tydeus was son of Oineus (and younger brother of Meleagros and Deianeira who was Herakles' wife). Tydeus was also the favored warrior of Athens.

When Adrastos sees Tydeus (whose shield showed an image of a boar) and Polynikes (whose shield showed the image of the Sphinx, which was half-lion) quarreling he understood the prophecy. He "yoked the boar and lion togther" by marrying them both to his daughters Deïpyle and Aigeia. Deïpyle bore Tydeus a son named Diomedes, while Aigeia bore Polynikes a son named Thersandros. We'll examine both the sons later.

Since Polynikes was now his son-in-law Adrastos agreed to lend him support to wage war on his brother Eteokles. Since Thebes had seven gates, it was agreed that their army needed seven champions to storm all seven gates simultaneously and thus divide Thebes' defenses. In addition to Polynikes, Tydeus, and Adrastos; the other four champions were Amphiareus, Kampaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaios, who was the son of Atalanata.

An Etruscan coin showing five of the seven chapions who marched on Thebes: Parthenopaios, Adrastos, Tydeus,

Amphiareus, and Polynikes

6

Amphiareus was Adrastos' brother-in-law and he had prophetic ability granted by Zeus. He revealed to Polynikes that the mission could not succeed without Oidipous. Whichever side had Oidipous' blessing would prevail. But Polynikes' brother, Eteokles, learned this same prophecy from Teiresias and send Kreon to fetch his father. Thus shortly after Kreon arrived in Athens demanding Theseus hand over Oidipous, Polynikes arrived to see his father. When Oidipous sees his son and hears his request for help, Oidipous curses both his sons for their ill-treatment of their father for while he was wandering in exile, they were squabbling over his kingdom. Polynikes leaves his father, having been denied his help. Theseus eventually turns away Kreon's army too and secures Oidipous a place in Colonus where he can rest before he dies. Thus neither son receives his father's blessing and thus neither can prevail in the coming struggle.

The Expedition of the Seven

Amphiareus knew that the mission was doomed to fail now that Polynikes had failed to obtain Oidipous' blessing. However he was obliged to participate in the doomed mission by an earlier agreement he had made. His wife was Adrastos' sister Eriphyle and once when Adrastos and Amphiareus had quarreled she settled the argument between her brother and husband. After this it was agreed that she would have the final say in all future disagreements between the two of them. Now Polynikes somehow gained knowledge of this arrangement. He bribed Eriphyle to side with her brother Adrastos by giving her the jeweled necklace that had been passed to him as an heirloom of the House of Thebes. This was the same necklace Europa had given to Harmonia as a wedding present.

With Eripyle's support for the expedition, Amphiareus was obliged to join the mission. But before he left he made his young sons Alkmaion and Amphilochos promise that if he should die, then they should kill Eripyle (their own mother) and take revenge upon the city of Thebes for his death when they were grown up. It was said that he had known Polynikes would attempt to bribe his wife and had warned her not to accept any presents from him. Some authors say that Amphiareus refused to share his knowledge of the doom of mission with the rest of the Seven. His reasoning was that they wanted his assistance as a warrior, not as a seer.

The Seven: Hippomedon, Parthenopaios, Tydeus, Adrastos, Polynikes, Amphiareus, and Kampaneus.

The seven marched on Thebes, but before they would reach the city there is one notable event to cover. They came across a woman named Hysipyle, who was a nurse to the child of King Lykourgos of Nemea. Hysipyle had once been a queen of Lemnia, but her city was conquered and she had been sold into slavery to the Nemean king. The Seven asked her to lead them to some water so they could replenish their supply. She left the king's son, named Opheltes, and shown them the way to a spring, but while she was gone a snake came upon the child and bit him.

As the Seven and Hysipyle returned they saw and slew the snake, but it was too late to save the child. In memory of the child Opheltes, the Seven founded the Nemean Games, which after the Olympic and Lycian Games, were probably the third most popular athletic competition in the ancient world. At the Nemean Games the judges wore black as a sign of morning for Opheltes. Also the winners were crowned with parsely, which was an herb often planted at gravesites. Amphiareus took the death of Opheltes as a bad omen for the expedition.

Finally reaching Thebes, the Seven first sent Tydeus to demand the restoration of Polynikes to the throne of Thebes. When the Thebans refused to give in their demands, the Seven sieged the city, with one champion at each gate. Eteokles knew that without Oidipous' blessed the city was in danger. He asked if there were anyway in which Thebes might survive the assult. Teiresias made the prophecy that if a son of Kreon were to sacrifice himself then Thebes would prevail. Despite Kreon's objections, his eldest son Menoikeus, sacrificed himself as the siege began. By his sacrifice, Thebes was destined not to fall to the Seven.

7

Eteokles had assembled six Theban champions to help him defend the city. He set one Theban champion at each gate and he himself stood at the seventh. The first of the Seven to fall was Kapaneus. He claimed not even Zeus could stop him from taking the city of Thebes. He scaled a ladder to attempt to enter the city, but was killed by lightning before he could penetrate Thebes' defenses. Hippomedon was killed by the Theban champion Ismaros who brought him down with his arrows. Parthenopaios was the next to die, slain by the Theban Periklymenos who was the son of Poseidon.

The Seven fight the Thebans champions.

Tydeus was injured by the Theban champion Melanippos. Tydeus slew Melanippos in spite of his injury, but fell mortally wounded. Athene was startled to see her favored champion fall. She rushed to Olympos to secure Zeus' blessing to make Tydeus immortal. Zeus agreed and Athene hurried back to the battlefield carrying ambrosia and nectar to give to Tydeus. But when she reached Thebes she was horrified to find that Tydeus, maddened by his great pain, had desecrated Melanippos' corpse by cracking open his skull, and eating his fallen foe's brains. Outraged by this savage behavior Athene left Tydeus to die, but as we'll see this would not prevent her from later showing the same level of favor to his son Diomedes. Relef carving in Italy of Tydeus eating Melanippos' brains

Amphiareus knew the battle was lost. He fled in his chariot, but was pursued by the Theban champion Periklymenos. As the Theban prepared to spear Ampiareus in the back, Zeus spared Amphiareus a humiliating death by opening a chasm in the ground which engulfed Amphiareus and his chariot. Some say that Zeus fed Amphiareus ambrosia and nectar and sent him to Elysion in reward for his virtue. Others simply make this event the seer's death.

Eteokles just happened to be defending the gate that his brother Polynikes chose to a siege. Teiresias had already predicted that if the two brothers faced each other without one of them having Oidipous' blessing then neither could prevail. Just as he predicted, Polynikes and Eteokles both mortally wounded each other and thus both Of Oidipous' sons died. The only champion to escape was Adrastos. Seeing that all was lost, he fled from the battle on his winged horse Arion, who was the son of Poseidon. With Eteokles dead and with his infant son Laodamas too young to rule, Kreon once again became the ruler of Thebes.

The Return of Antigone and the Burial of Polynikes

With Thebes victorious, Kreon declared Eteokles a hero and buried him with all due honor. But as for Polynikes, Kreon declared him to be a traitor and ordered that he not be buried and instead left his body to be devoured by scavenger animals. Now Antigone and her sister Ismene had returned to Thebes after their father Oidipous had

8

died in Colonus. Antigone was outraged that Kreon would not permit Polynikes to be buried. The Greeks believed that ritually sprinkling dirt over a body three times was equivalent to burial and she resolved to give her brother at least this minimal amount of respect.

Caught by the guards after she had performed this rite, Kreon ordered Antigone to be put to death for defiance of his decree. Kreon's other son Haimon who was betrothed to Antigone, begged his father to reconsider her punishment, but Kreon would not relent. Some account say she was burned alive, while others say she was sealed in a tomb. Regardless of her punishment, Haimon kills himself in grief over Antigone's death. Eventually Theseus and the Athenians forced Kreon to turn the bodies of the remaining Seven over to their families.

The Epigonoi Kreon (seated) hears testimony from the guards concerning Antigone.

The sons of the Seven were all children when their fathers died, but years later they would assemble to launch a second expedition against Thebes. These seven were called the Epigonoi, a Greek word that means "those born after". An oracle predicted the mission would succeed if Alkmaion, son of Amphiareus led the party. Alkmaion was reluctant to do so mainly because he hadn't yet killed his mother Eripyle as his father had requested. Talking to Eripyle in an attempt to convince himself to kill her, she told him that whatever else he had to do it could wait until after sacking Thebes. Deciding he would kill her later, he agreed to lead the expedition.

Alkmaion assembled six other champions to attempt the same sort of assault on Thebes tried by their fathers. These six were his brother Amphilochos, Aigialeus (son of Adrastos), Diomedes (son of Tydeus), Promachos (son of Parthenopaios), Sthenelaos (son of Kapaneus), Thersandros (son of Polynikes). In addition to these men, Euryalos the son of Mekisteus also joined the mission.

Teiresias, who was by now extremely old, made the prediction that Thebes would not fall until Adrastos, the last surviving member of the Seven died. The Thebans (who knew Adrastos was alive and still king of Argos) interpreted this as a sign that they had a chance. But Teiresias himself fled the city and it was said that many Thebans left with him.

Reaching the city, the Epigonoi were met outside the walls by the Theban army led by Laodamas, son of Eteokles, who was now king of Thebes. Laodamas slew Adrastos' son Aigialeus, but was in turn slain by Alkmaion. With Laodamas dead, the Theban army retreated inside their gates. The Epigonoi now tried the same strategy their fathers attempted with one champion laying siege to a gate. Euryalos here stood in for the slain Aigialeus.

Meanwhile Adrastos who did not march to Thebes with the Epigonoi was brought news of his son's death at the hands of Laodamas. Upon hearing this, Adrastos died of grief. With the last of the Seven now dead Thebes was fated finally to fall.

The Epigonoi sacked Thebes and carried off much loot. Alkmaion took as a prize Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, who recklessly refused to flee the city like her father had warned her to. Manto bore a son named Amphilochos and daughter named Tisiphone to Alkmaion. Manto and these children were later sent to Delphi by Alkmaion. From there she was later sent to Ionia and married to Rhakios, the king of Colophon, and she bore him a son named Mopsos who inherited Teiresias' prophetic powers.

Thesandros, grandson of Oidipous, became king of Thebes. When the city had been taken, Alkmaion overheard Thersandros bragging about how he had bribed Alkmaion's mother Eripyle into convincing Alkmaion to lead the expedition by giving her the last remaining heirloom he had from his father. This heirloom was the robe that Harmonia had been given by Europa at her wedding to Kadmos. Furious at this revelation, Alkmaion returned to

9

Argos and finally fulfilled his father's wish by killing his mother. He then found the necklace and robe of Harmonia and took the two cursed items for himself. Before she died, his mother cursed him saying that no land on earth would be able to offer him hospitality. Whether it's his mother's curse or the curse on the two Theban heirlooms that works against Alkmaion is unclear, but regardless of the cause, we'll see that Alkmaion does in fact suffer for his choice to obey his father's last request.

Alkmaion adventures after the Sack of Thebes

Alkmaion was pursued by the Erinyes (Furies) for the death of his mother. Alkmaion traveled to the land of Psophis and was given the purification rites by King Phegros. He married the daughter of Phegros, Arsinoë, and gave her the fatal necklace and robe of Harmonia. But the curse of his mother followed, and the land of Psophis was struck by a drought. An oracle suggested that he seek out the river god Acheloös. Acheloös offered Alkmaion purification rites and offered him his daughter Kallirrhoë in marriage. The new couple settled in the land at the mouth of the river Acheloös. The land was freshly made from silt deposits and thus had not existed at the time Alkmaion's mother had made her curse. Having not been made at the time of the curse, the land was exempt from it and Alkaion finally found a land where he was safe.

Alkmaion and Kallirrhoë had two sons together named Akarnan and Amphotereus, but Alkmaion was still married to King Phegros' daughter. Alkmaion wished to give his new wife the necklace and robe he had given to his first wife Arsinoë. He traveled to back Psophis and took the Theban heirlooms, saying that he was told by an oracle that if he left the items at the temple of Delphi the curse would be broken.

King Phegros soon heard that Alkmaion wanted the items as a gift for a new wife, rather than for the oracle at Delphi. Phegros commanded his sons to kill Alkmaion and take the heirlooms to Delphi where they would not bring any further disasters. Alkmaion was killed before he made it back to his new wife and the necklace and robe were taken to the oracle at Delphi were they were kept on the shrine of Kadmos even as late at the 4th century BC.

Teiresias

Before we can finish with the House of Thebes, let's examine the character of Teiresias. Tiereseias was originally a young man, but was transformed into a woman after seeing two snakes coupling on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. He killed the female snake with his staff and became a woman. For seven years he lived life as a woman until one day he saw two more snakes coupling and this time killed the male. Teiresias once more became a man.

It happened later that Zeus and Hera were arguing about who enjoyed sex more, men or women. Zeus thought women, Hera thought men. To resolve the issue they consulted Teiresias for the answer since he was the only one who would know, having lived as both a man and woman. Teiresias sided with Zeus and said women enjoyed sex nine times as much. In anger Hera struck Teiresias blind. Since the gifts (and punishments) of the gods can't be undone even by another god, Zeus could not restore Teiresias' vision, but he did give Teiresias the gift of prophecy and a life span three times that of a normal man.

Greek vase with Teiresias on both sides, once as a man, once as a woman.

Teiresias fled Thebes during the march of the Epigonoi, but knew that if the city should fall to the Epigonoi he was fated to die. After escaping from the city, the Thebans who fled stopped at a spring to rest. While drinking from the spring, Teiresias died for that was the exact moment Thebes fell to the Epigonoi. Some say that in addition to his daughter Manto discussed above, Teiresias had another, illegitimate daughter who became the Pythia of legend. In the Odyssey Odysseus is advised by the sorceress Kirke to solicit advice from the shade of Teiresias in the Underworld. It was Teiresias' shade who told Odysseus the cause of Poseidon's anger, warned him not to eat the cattle of Hyperion, and also told him about the trouble that would be caused by the suitors back at his home in Ithaca.

10