In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Capaneus was a son of
HipponousIn Greek mythology, Hipponous referred to several people:*One was the father of Capaneus and Periboea with Astymone.*Another was one of the fifty sons of Priam.*Another was the last Trojan who Achilles killed before his death....
and Astynome, and husband of
EvadneIn Greek mythology, Evadne was a name attributed to two individuals.*A daughter of Poseidon and mother of Iamus by Apollo. She was ashamed of her pregnancy and exposed the child to the elements. He survived and founded the Iamidae, a family of priests from Olympia.*A daughter of Iphis and wife...
, with whom he fathered
SthenelusIn Greek mythology, Sthenelus was a name attributed to four different individuals.*Son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Mycenae.*Son of Capaneus and Evadne...
.
According to the legend, Capaneus had immense strength and body size and was an outstanding warrior. He was also notorious for his arrogance. He stood just at the wall of Thebes at the
siegeThe Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia...
of Thebes and shouted that Zeus himself could not stop him from invading it. In
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
, he bears a shield with a man without armour withstanding fire, a torch in hand, which reads 'I will burn the city,' in token of this.
In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Capaneus was a son of
HipponousIn Greek mythology, Hipponous referred to several people:*One was the father of Capaneus and Periboea with Astymone.*Another was one of the fifty sons of Priam.*Another was the last Trojan who Achilles killed before his death....
and Astynome, and husband of
EvadneIn Greek mythology, Evadne was a name attributed to two individuals.*A daughter of Poseidon and mother of Iamus by Apollo. She was ashamed of her pregnancy and exposed the child to the elements. He survived and founded the Iamidae, a family of priests from Olympia.*A daughter of Iphis and wife...
, with whom he fathered
SthenelusIn Greek mythology, Sthenelus was a name attributed to four different individuals.*Son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Mycenae.*Son of Capaneus and Evadne...
.
According to the legend, Capaneus had immense strength and body size and was an outstanding warrior. He was also notorious for his arrogance. He stood just at the wall of Thebes at the
siegeThe Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia...
of Thebes and shouted that Zeus himself could not stop him from invading it. In
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
, he bears a shield with a man without armour withstanding fire, a torch in hand, which reads 'I will burn the city,' in token of this. Zeus struck and killed Capaneus with a thunderbolt, and Evadne threw herself on her husband's funeral pyre and died. His story was told by
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
in his
Seven against ThebesThe Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia...
, by
EuripidesEuripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
, and by the Roman poet
StatiusPublius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory section of Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy.-Life:He was born to a family of Graeco-Campanian...
.
In
the Divine ComedyThe Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a...
, Dante sees Capaneus in the seventh circle (third round) of Hell, which is in the fourteenth Canto. Along with the other blasphemers, or those "violent against God", Capaneus is condemned to lie supine on a plain of burning sand while fire rains down on him. He continues to curse the deity (whom, being a pagan, he addresses as "Jove" aka Jupiter) despite the ever harsher pains he thus inflicts upon himself, so that God "thereby should not have glad vengeance."