All Topics  
Seven Against Thebes

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Seven Against Thebes
 
 
  Topics Seven Against Thebes Topic Home

The Seven against Thebes (Hepta epi Thebas) is a mythic narrative whose classic statement is found in the play by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 (467 BC) concerning the battle between the Seven led by Polynices
Polynices

In Greek mythology, Polynices or Polyneices was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His wife was Argea. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, and was expelled from Thebes , leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule....
, traditional Theban enemies, and the army of Thebes
Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, Greece, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain....
 headed by Eteocles
Eteocles

In Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes , the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes , meaning "truly glorious"....
 and his supporters. The same story is told in Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
' Phoenician Women
Phoenician Women

The Phoenician Women is a tragedy by Euripides based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who are trapped in Thebes, Greece by the war....
 (ca 409 BC).

An early telling was contained in the lost Greek Thebaid
Thebaid (Greek poem)

The Thebaid is an Ancient Greece epic poem of uncertain authorship sometimes attributed by early writers to Homer. It told the story of the war between the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, and was regarded as forming part of a Theban Cycle....
, an epic poem that was regarded as forming part of a Theban Cycle
Theban Cycle

The Theban Cycle is a collection of four lost Epic poetry of ancient Greek literature which related the mythical history of the Boeotian city of Thebes, Greece....
, which discerning critics by the fifth century no longer attributed to Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Seven Against Thebes'
Start a new discussion about 'Seven Against Thebes'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Seven against Thebes (Hepta epi Thebas) is a mythic narrative whose classic statement is found in the play by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 (467 BC) concerning the battle between the Seven led by Polynices
Polynices

In Greek mythology, Polynices or Polyneices was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His wife was Argea. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, and was expelled from Thebes , leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule....
, traditional Theban enemies, and the army of Thebes
Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, Greece, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain....
 headed by Eteocles
Eteocles

In Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes , the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes , meaning "truly glorious"....
 and his supporters. The same story is told in Euripides
Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
' Phoenician Women
Phoenician Women

The Phoenician Women is a tragedy by Euripides based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who are trapped in Thebes, Greece by the war....
 (ca 409 BC).

An early telling was contained in the lost Greek Thebaid
Thebaid (Greek poem)

The Thebaid is an Ancient Greece epic poem of uncertain authorship sometimes attributed by early writers to Homer. It told the story of the war between the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, and was regarded as forming part of a Theban Cycle....
, an epic poem that was regarded as forming part of a Theban Cycle
Theban Cycle

The Theban Cycle is a collection of four lost Epic poetry of ancient Greek literature which related the mythical history of the Boeotian city of Thebes, Greece....
, which discerning critics by the fifth century no longer attributed to Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
. Fragments of its text survive as quotations preserved by later authors.

Plot summary

When Oedipus
Oedipus

Oedipus was a Greek mythology monarch of Thebes, Greece. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family....
 stepped down as King of Thebes, he gave the kingdom to his two sons, Eteocles
Eteocles

In Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes , the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes , meaning "truly glorious"....
 and Polynices
Polynices

In Greek mythology, Polynices or Polyneices was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His wife was Argea. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, and was expelled from Thebes , leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule....
, who agreed to alternate the throne every year. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down and Polynices attacked Thebes with his supporters (the eponymous Seven). The drama has very little plot, as such. The bulk of the play consists of a scout describing each of the seven captains that lead the Argive army against Thebes, as well as the devices on their respective shields. Eteocles, in turn, announces which Theban commander he will send against each Argive attacker. When Polynices is revealed to be the last of the seven captains, Eteocles resolves to meet his brother in single combat, and exits. Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that Eteocles and Polynices have killed each other in battle. Their bodies are brought on stage, and the chorus mourns them; Antigone and Ismene then enter, and join in the mourning.

Due to the popularity of Sophocles's Antigone
Antigone (Sophocles)

Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written before or in 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first....
, the ending of Seven Against Thebes was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus's death. Where the play (and the trilogy which it concluded) was meant to end with sombre mourning for the dead brothers, it instead contains the ending as follows: a messenger appears, announcing a prohibition against burying Polynices; Antigone, however, announces her intention to defy this edict.

The mythic content

The mytheme
Mytheme

In the study of mythology, a mytheme is the essential kernel of a myth, an irreducible, unchanging element, one that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways—"bundled" was Claude L?vi-Strauss's image— or linked in more complicated relationships, like a molecule in a compound....
 of the "outlandish" and "savage" Seven who threatened the city has traditionally seemed to be based on Bronze Age history in the generation before the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
, when in the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
s Catalogue of Ships
Catalogue of Ships

The Catalogue of Ships is a passage in Book 2 of Homer Iliad , which lists the contingents of the Achaeans army that sailed to Troy. The sonorous catalogue gives the names of the leaders of each contingent, lists the settlements in the kingdom represented by the contingent, sometimes with a descriptive epithet that fills out a half-vers...
 only the remnant Hypothebai subsists on the ruins. Yet archaeologists have been hard put to locate seven gates in "seven-gated Thebes":In 1891 Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff

Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was a Germany Classical philology. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature....
 declared that the seven gates existed only for symmetry with the seven assailants, whose very names vary: some have their own identity, like Amphiaraus
Amphiaraus

In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus was the son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, and husband of Eriphyle. Amphiaraus was the King of Argos along with Adrastus? the brother of Amphiaraus' wife, Eriphyle? and Iphis ....
 the seer, "who had his sanctuary
Amphiareion of Oropos

The Amphiareion of Kalamos , situated in the hills 6 km southeast of the fortified port of Oropos, was a sanctuary dedicated in the late fifth century BCE to the hero Amphiaraus, where pilgrims went to seek oracular responses and healing....
 and his cult afterwards... Others appear as stock figures to fill out the list," Burkert remarks. "To call one of them Eteoklos, vis-à-vis Eteokles the brother of Polyneikes, appears to be the almost desperate invention of a faltering poet" Burkert follows a suggestion made by Ernest Howald in 1939 that the Seven are pure myth led by Adrastos (the "inescapable") on his magic horse, seven demons of the Underworld
Greek underworld

The Greek underworld is a general term used to describe the various realms of Greek mythology which were believed to lie beneath the earth or beyond the horizon....
; Burkert draws parallels in an Akkadian epic text, the story of Erra
Erra

Erra is an Akkadian language plague god known from the Erra epos of the eighth century BCE. Erra is the god of mayhem and pestilence that is responsible for periods of political confusion....
 the plague god, and the Seven (Sibitti), called upon to destroy mankind, but who withdraw from Babylon at the last. The city is saved when the brothers simultaneously run each other through. Burkert adduces a ninth-century relief from Tell Halaf
Tell Halaf

Tell Halaf is an archaeological site in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria, near the Turkey border, just opposite Ceylanpinar. It was the first find of a Neolithic culture, subsequently dubbed the Halafian culture, characterized by glazed pottery painted with geometric and animal designs....
 which would exactly illustrate a text from II Samuel 7: "But each seized his opponent by the forelock and thrust his sword into his side so that all fell together".

The mythic theme passed into Etruscan culture: a fifth-century bronze mirrorback
Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum

Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum is an international project with the goal to publish all existing Etruscan civilization bronze mirrors. The first volumes were published in 1981 and since then over 25 fascicles have been produced....
 is inscribed with Fulnice (Polynices) and Evtucle (Eteocles) running at one another with drawn swords. A particularly gruesome detail from the battle, in which Tydeus gnawed on the living brain of Melanippos in the course of the siege, also appears, in a sculpted terracotta relief from a temple at Pyrgi
Pyrgi

Pyrgi was an ancient Etruscan civilization port Latium, central Italy, to the south west of Caere. Its location is now occupied by the burgh of Santa Severa....
, ca. 470-460 BC.

Eteocles and Polynices Project Gutenberg Etext 14994
The Seven Against Thebes were
  1. Eteoclus
    Eteoclus

    In Greek mythology, Eteoclus was the son of Iphis. He participated in the attack on Thebes by the Seven Against Thebes.In Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes, Eteoclus is one of the seven champions who attack Thebes' seven gates....
  2. Amphiaraus
    Amphiaraus

    In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus was the son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, and husband of Eriphyle. Amphiaraus was the King of Argos along with Adrastus? the brother of Amphiaraus' wife, Eriphyle? and Iphis ....
  3. Capaneus
    Capaneus

    In Greek mythology, Capaneus was a son of Hipponous and Astynome, and husband of Evadne, with whom he fathered Sthenelus.According to the legend, Capaneus had immense strength and body size and was an outstanding warrior....
  4. Hippomedon
    Hippomedon

    In Greek mythology, Hippomedon was one of the Seven Against Thebes and father of Polydorus. His father was either Talaus, the father of Adrastus, or Aristomachus, his brother, and his mother may have been Metidice, Adrastus' sister....
  5. Parthenopeus
    Parthenopeus

    In Greek mythology, Parthenopeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes and the son of Atalanta and Hippomenes, Meleager, or Ares, or perhaps the son of Talaus....
  6. Polynices
    Polynices

    In Greek mythology, Polynices or Polyneices was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His wife was Argea. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, and was expelled from Thebes , leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule....
  7. Tydeus
    Tydeus

    In Greek mythology, Tydeus was the father of Diomedes and husband of Deipyle. He was a son of Oeneus and either Periboea, Oeneus's second wife, or Gorge, Oeneus's daughter....


Allies:
  1. Eteoclus
    Eteoclus

    In Greek mythology, Eteoclus was the son of Iphis. He participated in the attack on Thebes by the Seven Against Thebes.In Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes, Eteoclus is one of the seven champions who attack Thebes' seven gates....
     and Mecisteus
    Mecisteus

    In Greek mythology, Mecisteus was the son of Talaus and Lysimache. He participated in the attack on the city of Thebes with the Seven Against Thebes, along with his brother Adrastus....
    . Some sources, however, state that Eteoclus and Mecisteus were in fact two of the seven, and that Tydeus and Polynices were allies. This is because both Tydeus and Polynices were foreigners. However, Polynices was the cause of the entire conflict, and Tydeus performed acts of valour far surpassing Eteoclus and Mecisteus. Either way, all nine men were present (and killed) in the battle, save Adrastus.


The defenders of Thebes included
  1. Creon
    Creon

    Creon is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes,_Greece in the legend of Oedipus. He was the father of Menoeceus and Megara by his wife, Eurydice of Thebes....
  2. Megareus
    Megareus

    In Greek mythology, Megareus referred to two different people#King of Megara With the aid of Apollo , Alcathous rebuilt the walls of Megara, for which Megareus, gave him his daughter, Periboea, as a wife....
  3. Poriclymenus
    Poriclymenus

    In Greek mythology, Poriclymenus was a name attributed to two different individuals.Poriclymenus was a son of Poseidon and Chloris and would-be murderer of Amphiaraus in the Seven Against Thebes....
  4. Melanippus
    Melanippus

    In Greek mythology, there were five people named Melanippus :#Son of Agrius, killed by Heracles.#Son of Perigune and Theseus.#Son of Astacus, defended Thebes in Seven Against Thebes....
  5. Polyphontes
    Polyphontes

    In Greek mythology, Polyphontes was the son of Autophonus. In the Iliad, when the Argives attack Thebes in an attempt to regain the throne for Polynices that his brother, Eteocles, holds, Tydeus, a leader of the Thebans, enters Thebes as an embassy, and finding all the Theban leaders together challenges them to contests of arms, all of which...
  6. Hyperbius
  7. Actor
    Actor (mythology)

    Actor is a very common name in Greek mythology. Here is a selection of characters that share this name :#Actor, a king of Phthia, was said to be the son of King Deion of Phocis and Diomede, or of King Myrmidon and Peisidice, daughter of Aeolus....
  8. Lasthenes
    Lasthenes

    Lasthenes was a general of the ancient Cretan city of Kydonia at when the Ancient Rome attacked the city in 69 BC. In this era Kydonia had protected pirates and incurred the anger of the Roman Senate....


See also Epigoni
Epigoni

In Greek mythology, 'Epigoni' are the sons of the Argive heroes who had fought and been killed in the first Theban war, the subject of the Thebaid , in which Polynices and six allies attacked Thebes, Greece because Polynices' brother, Eteocles, refused to give up the throne as promised....
, the mythic theme of the Second War of Thebes

Translations

  • A. S. Way, 1906 - verse
  • E. D. A. Morshead, 1908 - verse:
  • G. M. Cookson, 1922 - verse
  • Herbert Weir Smyth, 1922 - prose:
  • David Grene, 1956 - verse
  • Philip Vellacott, 1961 - verse
  • Will Power, 2001 - verse, lyric