Royal House of Thebes
TRAGEDY!
Europa
• Phoenician
– Who else was Phoenician? *Hint: Carthage*
Europa
• Phoenician
– Who else was a Phoenician?
• Dido
• Seduced by Zeus, who was in the form of a
white bull
Titian (1562 AD)
Rembrandt (1632)
Frescoe in Pompeii (covered in 79
AD)
Teracotta figurine from Athens, ca. 480
B.C.
Europa
• Phoenician
– Who else was a Phoenician?
• Dido
• Seduced by Zeus, who was in the form of a white
bull
• Her brothers ordered not to return until they
found her
– Cadmus, Cilix, Phoenix
• Hopeless quest, she never could be found
because she was on Crete!
Europa on Crete
• Europa landed on Crete and gave birth to
Zeus’ children
– Minos, Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys
• Sarpedon founded the kingdom Lycia (not the Sarpedon
who fought in the Trojan War)
• Minos  Minoans, ancient civilization on Crete
• Minos = Pasiphea, Pasiphea  Minotaur whom
Theseus killed
• Minos and Rhadamanthys become 2 of the 3 judges in
the underworld
– 3rd was Aeacus
Minoans
• Civilization named by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900
• Google it, really interesting, but essential info
– Minoans as early as 2600, lasted until 1150 BC
– Significant trade routes – had contact with Egypt
and Asia
– Height of the Minoans – 1900-1400 BC
• Even the lower class people had houses modeled on
the palaces
– Weakened by an earthquake or a volcano disaster
– Eventually taken over and absorbed into
“Hellenic” Culture
Palace of Knossos today
Minoan Palace
Fresco, ca. 1400 BC
Ladies in Blue Fresco
Cadmus
• Consulted oracle at Delphi
• Told to follow a cow until it lay down
– Yes, lay is the past tense of lie, an intransitive verb
• Where it lay down, he was to found a city
– Thebes!! Eventually, for now Cadmeia
Cadmus
• Consulted oracle at Delphi
• Told to follow a cow until it lies down
• Where it lay down, he was to found a city
– Thebes!! Eventually, for now Cadmeia
• Men killed by dragon, Cadmus killed Dragon, Athena
advised
•
•
•
•
Dragon teeth  Spartoi!
Cadmus threw a stone in the middle of them
Spartoi thought one of them had attacked
Fought until only 5 left – helped build Thebes
• Ares mad because Cadmus killed sacred Dragon
Cadmus fighting the dragon. Side A of a
black-figured amphora from Euboea, ca.
560–550 BC
Cadmus
• Married Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite
• Wedding gift from Aphrodite/Hephaestus – necklace of
Harmonia, made by Hephaestus
– Why is this weird?
– Cursed to bring disaster to any who wore it BUT also gives the
wearer everlasting youth and beauty
– Later used as a bribe to start a war against Thebes (more on that
later)
• Cadmus and Harmonia – four daughters, one son
– Ino, Semele, Autonoe, Agave
– Polydorus
• Cadmus and Harmonia turned into serpents
• All the children ill-fated
Semele Opera by Handel
(1744)
Semele
• Semele catches Zeus’ eye
• She gets pregnant
• Hera (in disguise) convinces her to ask Zeus to
see him in all his true glory, or his real godly
form
• Zeus promises her by the river Styx anything
she asks of him before she asks her question
(rash boon)
Semele
• Semele vaporized
• Zeus rescues Dionysus (Twice Born)
– Sews him into his thigh
– Raised first by Aunt Ino and her husband Athamas
– Then by nymphs
Birth of Dionysus, Italian Vase, ca.
405-385 BC
Ino
• Married Athamas
– Athamas married to Nephele, but he got tired of
her, so he married Ino
• Athamas sent messengers to Delphi to ask
why famine
– Ino intercepted the messengers on the way back,
lied to Athamas, said Oracle commanded the
sacrifice of Phrixus, son by Nephele
• This way, one of her sons would be the king instead
Helle and Phrixus
• Athamas was about to sacrifice Phrixus when
a golden ram appeared
• Golden ram took Phrixus and sister Helle on
its back and flew away
• Helle fell off Hellespont
• Phrixus ended up in Colchis, across the Black
Sea
– Sacrificed the Ram to Zeus to show appreciation
– Gave the Golden Fleece to Aeetes, king of Aea
• Jason and the Argonauts
Mirror, From a tomb at Vetralla,
Imperial period
Mosaic in Naples (?)
site was in German . . .
Back to Ino
• Athamas first wife, Nephele complained to
Hera about Athamas taking a second wife
• OR
• Ino helped raise Dionysus, making the Jealous
Hera furious
• Two versions of the results
First Ino version
• Hera drove Athamas mad
– Athamas killed one son (Learchus) with an arrow
and then came after the other son (Melicertes)
– Ino grabbed M, ran until they came to a cliff and
jumped into the water below
– She drowned, but because she helped raise
Dionysus, Zeus turned her into a sea diety
(Leucotha) and her son into a sea diety
(Palaemon)
John Flaxmann (1755-1826)
“The Fury of Athamas”
Second Ino Version
• Athamas and Ino both went mad
– Athamas kills L.
– Ino boils M. in a cauldron and jumps into the river
holding the cauldron in her arms
• No matter what version, the boys and the
mother die
• Athamas fled from Boetia (area around
Thebes)
Autonoe
• Mother of Actaeon
• Actaeon
– Out hunting
– Stumbled upon Artemis while she was bathing
– Maiden Goddess upset he saw her naked in her
secret bathing place
Titian
Autonoe
• Mother of Actaeon
• Actaeon
– Out hunting
– Stumbled upon Artemis while she was bathing
– Maiden Goddess upset he saw her naked in her
secret bathing place
– Turned him into a stag
– Set his own dogs loose on him
The Fountain of Diana and Actaeon (sculptures by Paolo Persico,
Brunelli, Pietro Solari) – at the Palace of Caserta near Naples,
18th century
Agave
• Married to one of the Spartoi (Serpent teeth
man), had son Pentheus
• Pentheus
– Refused to accept cousin Dionysus as a god and
did not allow him to have his center of worship in
Thebes
Agave
• Agave was a Maenad – female follower of
Dionysus
– Mistook Pentheus for a wild animal in the forest
(Dionysus made them all crazy)
– Ripped him to pieces
Pottery, ca. 480 BC
Fresco in Pompeii
Amphion and Zethus
• Twin sons of Zeus and Antiope
– Zeus seduced her in the form of a satyr
• Antiope’s Uncle Lycus – regent of Thebes (first
to Labdacus, then to Labdacus’ son, Laius)
• Lycus ordered his great nephews to be
exposed
– They were discovered and raised by a cowherd
• Gave Antiope to wife, Dirce, who treated her
very cruelly
Amphion and Zethus
• Mom Antiope escaped wicked Aunt Dirce and
found her two sons
• Amphion and Zethus returned to Thebes
– Killed Dirce
• Had her tied to the horns of a bull
– Forced Lycus out of Thebes (or they killed him)
• King Laius was spirited away
– Became co-rulers
• City finally named “Thebes” after Zethus’ wife,
Thebe
Fresco in the house of Vetii in
Pompeii
Amphion and Zethus
• Built the walls of Thebes with 7 gates
– Zethus very strong – he carried the rocks
– Amphion very talented musician – got the rocks to
follow him as he played his lyre
• Amphion married Niobe
– Had 7 daughters and 7 sons,
• Niobe boasted she was a better than Leto, the mother
of Apollo and Artemis, because she had more children
• Apollo and Artemis killed all or most of the children
Jacque Louis David – 1772 Neoclassical
Hellenistic Statue – in the Uffizi
Niobe being turned to stone –
vase, 4th century B.C.
Laius
• Amphion and Zethus died of old age, Laius
returned and became king of Thebes
• Laius married Jocasta
• Prophecy that Laius’ son would kill him and
have children with his own mother, Jocasta
Laius
• Laius ordered newborn son to be exposed
• Infant discovered by a shepherd OR shepherd
didn’t have heart to leave the child to die
– Shepherd gave child to Queen of Corinth, wife of
Polybus, who raised child as their own
– Oedipus = swollen foot
Oedipus
• Learned from Delphi prophecy that he would
kill his father and marry his mother
• Thought Polybus, king of Corinth, was his
father, so he left to avoid the prophecy
• Oedipus met an old man in the road
– Old man attacked Oedipus
– Oedipus killed the old man and all but one of his 5
guards
Oedipus and the Sphinx
• Sphinx had been killing travelers who couldn’t
answer her riddle
– What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the
afternoon, and 3 legs at night?
• Oedipus answered correctly: Man
– because as infant would crawl on it hands and feet
(4); in most of his life, he would walk on two legs;
but when he was old, he would have to rely on a
walking stick (3)
• The Sphinx drowned herself
Amphora, 450-440 B.C.
Oedipus
• Creon married Oedipus to Jocasta and gave
him the kingship as a reward
– Oedipus had just unknowingly married his mother
• Oedipus ruled happily with Jocasta until their
sons were grown
– Had 4 kids – Polyneices, Eteocles, Ismene,
Antigone
• Then Thebes was struck with a plague that led
to a famine . . . Things were bad
Oedipus
• Sends Creon to Delphi
– Oracle said murderer of Laius must be punished
• Teiresias
– Blind prophet
– Reveals that Oedipus had killed Laius
• Oedipus refuses to believe and investigates
further
Oedipus
• Messenger comes to Thebes to announce that
Polybus, king of Corinth, has died
– Oedipus believes he has beaten the prophecy
– Messenger reveals Oedipus was adopted!
• Jocasta puts together the truth and slips away
• Oedipus learns from the old shepherd that
Laius was his father and Jocasta his mother
Oedipus
• Oedipus goes to find his mother/wife
• Finds she has committed suicide
– She stabbed herself
• Oedipus puts out his own eyes
– Doesn’t want to see the shame in his new world
• Oedipus goes into exile
– His daughter Antigone went with him
– Both daughters present when he died (antigone
and Ismene)
Seven Against Thebes
• While Oedipus was in exile, sons Eteocles and
Polyneices were to alternate years as rulers
• However, Eteocles refused to give up the
throne when Polyneices returned to Thebes
for his turn and banished his brother from
Thebes
• Polyneices went to Argos to appeal to king
Adrastus for help
Seven Against Thebes
• Adrastus married Polynices and Tydeus to his
daughters and promised to restore them to
their kingdomes
– Tydeus had been exiled from his own kingdom as
well
• Amphiaraus
– One of the argonauts
– Married to Adrastus’ sister, Eriphyle
– As a seer, knew the war against Thebes would fail
– Did not want to go to war with Adrastus
Seven Against Thebes
• Amphiaraus and Adrastus
– Had an arrangement that any disagreement would
be settled by Adrastus’ sister and Amphiaraus’
wife, Eriphyle
– Polyneices bribed Eriphyle with the Necklace of
Harmonia, starting the war of the Seven Against
Thebes
Seven Against Thebes
• Adrastus
– only survivor of the Argives
• Amphiaraus
– earth swallowed him alive because Zeus felt bad
for his favorite seer
• Capaneus
– first to reach the top of the walls,
– boasted not even Zeus could stop him,
– struck down with lightning
Capaneus scales the city walls to overthrow King
Creon who looks down from the battlements.
Campanian red-figure neck-amphora, ca. 340 BC
Seven Against Thebes
• Hippomedon
– father of Polydorus
• Parthenopaeus
– son of Hippomenes and Atalanta
• Polynices
– killed by his brother, whom he also killed
– Not always considered one of the Seven
• Tydeus
– Fatally wounded
– Athena about to save him, but he ate his enemy’s
(Melanippus) brains, so she let him die
Seven Against Thebes
• In order for Thebes to be successful, Creon’s
son Menoeceus had to die in battle
– He snuck out to join the war
– Thebes won
• Because both brothers were dead, Creon
became ruler of Thebes
• Adrastus escaped to Athens
– More on that later
Antigone
• Theseus had made sure that Antigone and
Ismene made it home to Thebes safely
• Waited in Thebes during the war to see which
brother would win
• Neither won, both died, so Creon became
ruler
• Polyneices and the others who died fighting
against Thebes were to be left as bird food by
decree of Creon
– Anyone who defied his ruling would be punished
with death
Antigone
• Ismene refused to go against Creon’s orders
• Antigone snuck out and performed burial rites
for Polyneices
• Antigone got caught by the guards
– Ismene tried to share the blame, but Antigone
wouldn’t let her
• Creon punishes Antigone by entombing her in
a cave
Antigone in front of the dead
Polynices – Nikoforos Lytras - 1865
Antigone at her Brother's Grave
Red Figure, 4th century BC
Musáe du Louvre, Paris
Antigone
• Her fiance, Creon’s son Haemon, went to
rescue her, but she had already hung herself
• Creon also came to let her out, Haemon tried
to kill him, failed and then killed himself in
front of his father
• Creon’s wife, Eurydice, killed herself out of
grief of losing all 3 of her children
• Creon’s pride killed his niece and destroyed his
own family
Back to Adrastus
• The remaining generals still were not buried
• Adrastus appealed to Theseus
• Theseus at first refused to help
– His mother reasoned with him
• Theseus agreed
– Marched on Thebes
– Defeated Thebes
– Did not sack the city, simply demanded the dead
receive their proper burials
Epigoni
• The sons were not happy that the Thebans
were not being punished for the dishonor to
their fathers
– They swore vengeance on the Thebans by some
day conquering Thebes
• Epigoni – Greek for after born
• Attacked Thebes 10 years after their fathers’
deaths
Epigoni
• Aegialeus, son of Adrastus - irony-the only one
to die, son of the only one to have survived
the first siege.
• Thersandros, son of Polynices
• Alcmaeon, son of Amphiareus
• Diomedes, son of Tydeus
• Polydorus, son of Hippomedon
• Sthenelos, son of Capaneus
• Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus
Epigoni
• Aegialeus died
– Adrastus died of grief, fulfilling a prophecy that
until all the Seven Against Thebes were dead, the
Epigoni could not win
• The Epigoni conquered Thebes
– Most of the Thebans fled to Ilyria
• Thersander, son of Polyneices, became the
king of Thebes
The End