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Adrastus

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Ancient

Apollodorus

1.8.5

When Tydeus ... but as Pherecydes will have it, he murdered his own brother Olenias.² Being arraigned by Agrius, he fled to Argos and came to Adrastus, whose daughter Deipyle he married and begat Diomedes.

² Compare Eustathius on Hom. Il. xiv.122, p. 971; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.114, 120; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, iii.38, frag. 799; Statius, Theb. i.401ff., with the commentary of Lactantius Placidus, pp. 47ff. ed. R. Jahnke. The accounts differ as to whom Tydeus killed, but they agree that he fled from Calydon to Adrastus at Argos, and that Adrastus purified him from the murder （Eustathius and Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.122, p. 971） and gave him his daughter to wife. Compare Apollodorus, iii.6.1.

1.8.6

But Diomedes ... having married Aegialia [Αἰγιάλειαν], daughter of Adrastus or, as some say, of Aegialeus, he went to the wars against Thebes and Troy.

1.9.13

Bias and Pero had a son Talaus, who married Lysimache, daughter of Abas, son of Melampus, and had by her Adrastus, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle, whom Amphiaraus married. Parthenopaeus had a son Promachus, who marched with the Epigoni against Thebes;1 and Mecisteus had a son Euryalus, who went to Troy.2 Pronax had a son Lycurgus; and Adrastus had by Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegialia, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.

3.6.1

Now Eteocles and Polynices made a compact with each other concerning the kingdom and resolved that each should rule alternately for a year at a time.¹ Some say that Polynices was the first to rule, and that after a year he handed over the kingdom to Eteocles; but some say that Eteocles was the first to rule, and would not hand over the kingdom. So, being banished from Thebes, Polynices came to Argos, taking with him the necklace and the robe.² The king of Argos was Adrastus, son of Talaus; and Polynices went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had fled from Calydon.³ At the sudden outcry Adrastus 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,⁴ 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.⁵ And Tydeus married Deipyle, and Polynices married Argia⁶; and Adrastus 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.

⁴ Adrastus received the oracle from Apollo. See Eur. Ph. 408ff.; Eur. Supp. 132ff. In these passages the poet describes the nocturnal brawl between the two exiled princes at the gate of the palace, and their reconciliation by Adrastus. Compare Zenobius, Cent. i.30; Hyginus, Fab. 69; and the elaborate description of Statius, Theb. i.370ff. The words of the oracle given to Adrastus are quoted by the Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 409. 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 sphinx. Others preferred to suppose that the two chieftains were clad in the skins of a boar and a lion respectively. See Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 409; Hyginus, Fab. 69.

3.6.2

But Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, being a seer and foreseeing that all who joined in the expedition except Adrastus were destined to perish, shrank from it himself and discouraged the rest. However, Polynices went to Iphis, son of Alector, and begged to know how Amphiaraus could be compelled to go to the war. He answered that it could be done if Eriphyle got the necklace.¹ Now Amphiaraus had forbidden Eriphyle to accept gifts from Polynices; but Polynices gave her the necklace and begged her to persuade Amphiaraus to go to the war; for the decision lay with her, because once, when a difference arose between him and Adrastus, he had made it up with him and sworn to let Eriphyle decide any future dispute he might have with Adrastus.² Accordingly, when war was to be made on Thebes, and the measure was advocated by Adrastus and opposed by Amphiaraus, Eriphyle accepted the necklace and persuaded him to march with Adrastus. Thus forced to go to the war, Amphiaraus laid his commands on his sons, that, when they were grown up, they should slay their mother and march against Thebes.

¹ For the story of the treachery of Eriphyle to her husband Amphiaraus, see also Diod. 4.65.5ff.; Paus. 5.17.7ff.; Paus. 9.41.2; Scholiast on Hom. Od. 11.326 （who refers to Asclepiades as his authority）; Hyginus, Fab. 73; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 49 (First Vatican Mythographer 152). The story is alluded to but not told by Hom. Od. 11.326ff.; Hom. Od. 15.247; Soph. Elec. 836ff.）, and Hor. Carm. 3.16.11-13. Sophocles wrote a tragedy Eriphyle, which was perhaps the same as his Epigoni. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 129ff.

² Compare Diod. 4.65.6; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.326; Scholiast on Pind. N. 9.13(30). As the sister of Adrastus （see above, Apollod. 1.9.13） and the wife of Amphiaraus, the traitress Eriphyle might naturally seem well qualified to act as arbiter between them.

3.6.3

Having mustered an army with seven leaders, Adrastus hastened to wage war on Thebes. The leaders were these¹: Adrastus, son of Talaus; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles; Capaneus, son of Hipponous; Hippomedon, son of Aristomachus, but some say of Talaus. These came from Argos; but Polynices, son of Oedipus, came from Thebes; Tydeus, son of Oeneus, was an Aetolian; Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion, was an Arcadian. Some, however, do not reckon Tydeus and Polynices among them, but include Eteoclus, son of Iphis,² and Mecisteus³ in the list of the seven.

¹ For lists of the seven champions who marched against Thebes, see Aesch. Seven 375ff.; Soph. OC 1309ff.; Eur. Ph. 1090ff. and Eur. Supp. 857ff.; Diod. 4.65.7; Hyginus, Fab. 70.

² The place of Eteocles among the Seven Champions is recognized by Aesch. Seven 458ff., Soph. OC 1316, and Euripides in one play （Eur. Supp. 871ff.）, but not in another （Eur. Ph. 1090ff.）; and he is omitted by Hyginus, Fab. 70. His right to rank among the Seven seems to have been acknowledged by the Argives themselves, since they included his portrait in a group of statuary representing the Champions which they dedicated at Delphi. See Paus. 10.10.3.

³ Brother of Adrastus. See Apollod. 1.9.13.

3.6.4

Having come to Nemea, of which Lycurgus was king, they sought for water; and Hypsipyle showed them the way to a spring, leaving behind an infant boy Opheltes, whom she nursed, a child of Eurydice and Lycurgus.¹ For the Lemnian women, afterwards learning that Thoas had been saved alive,² put him to death and sold Hypsipyle into slavery; wherefore she served in the house of Lycurgus as a purchased bondwoman. But while she showed the spring, the abandoned boy was killed by a serpent. When Adrastus and his party appeared on the scene, they slew the serpent and buried the boy; but Amphiaraus told them that the sign foreboded the future, and they called the boy Archemorus.³ They celebrated the Nemean games in his honor; and Adrastus won the horse race, Eteoclus the footrace, Tydeus the boxing match, Amphiaraus the leaping and quoit-throwing match, Laodocus the javelin-throwing match, Polynices the wrestling match, and Parthenopaeus the archery match.

¹ As to the meeting of the Seven Champions with Hypsipyle at Nemea, the death of Opheltes, and the institution of the Nemean games, see Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. pp. 424ff. ed. Boeckh; Bacch. 8.10ff. [9], ed. Jebb; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.34, p. 29, ed. Potter, with the Scholiast; Hyginus, Fab. 74, 273; Statius, Theb. iv.646-vi.; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iv.717; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode. vol. i. p. 123 （Second Vatican Mythographer 141）. The institution of the Nemean games in honour of Opheltes or Archemorus was noticed by Aeschylus in a lost play. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), p. 49. The judges at the Nemean games wore dark-coloured robes in mourning, it is said, for Opheltes （Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. p. 425, ed. Boeckh）; and the crown of parsley bestowed on the victor is reported to have been chosen for the same sad reason （Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.68）. However, according to another account, the crowns at Nemea were originally made of olive, but the material was changed to parsley after the disasters of the Persian war （Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. p. 425）. The grave of Opheltes was at Nemea, enclosed by a stone wall; and there were altars within the enclosure （Paus. 2.15.3）. Euripides wrote a tragedy Hypsipyle, of which many fragments have recently been discovered in Egyptian papyri. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 594ff.; A. S. Hunt, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Papyracea nuper reperta （Oxford, no date, no pagination）. In one of these fragments (col. iv.27ff.) it is said that Lycurgus was chosen from all Asopia to be the warder （Κληδοῦχος） of the local Zeus. There were officials bearing the same title （κλειδοῦχοι） at Olympia （Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 1021, vol. ii. p. 168） in Delos （Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. i. p. 252, No. 170）, and in the worship of Aesculapius at Athens （E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part ii. p. 410, No. 157）. The duty from which they took their title was to keep the keys of the temple. A fine relief in the Palazzo Spada at Rome represents the serpent coiled round the dead body of the child Opheltes and attacked by two of the heroes, while in the background Hypsipyle is seen retreating, with her hands held up in horror and her pitcher lying at her feet. See W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i.473; Baumeister, Denkmaler des klassichen Altertums, i.113, fig. 119. The death of Opheltes or Archemorus is also the subject of a fine vase-painting, which shows the dead boy lying on a bier and attended by two women, one of whom is about to crown him with a wreath of myrtle, while the other holds an umbrella over his head to prevent, it has been suggested, the sun's rays from being defiled by falling on a corpse. Amongst the figures in the painting, which are identified by inscriptions, is seen the mother Eurydice standing in her palace between the suppliant Hypsipyle on one side and the dignified Amphiaraus on the other. See E. Gerhard, “Archemoros,” Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Berlin, 1866- 1868) i.5ff., with Abbildungen, taf. i.; K. Friederichs, Praxiteles und die Niobegruppe （Leipzig, 1855）, pp. 123ff.; Baumeister, op. cit. i.114, fig. 120.

² See above, Apollod. 1.9.17.

³ That is, “beginner of doom”; hence “ominous,” “foreboding.” The name is so interpreted by Bacch. 8.14, ed. Jebb, σᾶμα μέλλοντος φόνου）, by the Scholiast on Pind. N., Arg. pp. 424ff. ed. Boeckh, and by Lactantius Placidus in his commentary on Statius, Theb. iv 717.

3.6.8

When that befell [Capaneus struck down by Zeus], the Argives turned to flee. And as many fell, ... Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion [Ἀρείων]. That horse Poseidon begot on Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted with him.⁶

⁶ Arion, the swift steed of Adrastus, is mentioned by Homer, who alludes briefly to the divine parentage of the animal （Hom. Il. 22.346ff.）, without giving particulars to the quaint and curious myth with which he was probably acquainted. That myth, one of the most savage of all the stories of ancient Greece, was revealed by later writers. See Paus. 8.25.4-10; Paus. 8.42.1-6; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 153; compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. 23.346. The story was told at two places in the highlands of Arcadia: one was Thelpusa in the beautiful vale of the Ladon: the other was Phigalia, where the shallow cave of the goddess mother of the horse was shown far down the face of a cliff in the wild romantic gorge of the Neda. The cave still exists, though the goddess is gone: it has been converted into a tiny chapel of Christ and St. John. See Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. iv. pp. 406ff.

3.7.1

Having succeeded to the kingdom of Thebes, Creon cast out the Argive dead unburied, issued a proclamation that none should bury them, and set watchmen. But Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polynices, and secretly buried it, and having been detected by Creon himself, she was interred alive in the grave.¹ Adrastus fled to Athens² and took refuge at the altar of Mercy,³ and laying on it the suppliant's bough⁴ he prayed that they would bury the dead. And the Athenians marched with Theseus, captured Thebes, and gave the dead to their kinsfolk to bury. And when the pyre of Capaneus was burning, his wife Evadne, the daughter of Iphis, thew herself on the pyre, and was burned with him.⁵

² As to the flight of Adrastus to Athens, and the intervention of the Athenians on his behalf see Isoc. 4.54-58; Isoc. 12.168-174; Paus. 1.39.2; Plut. Thes. 29; Statius, Theb. xii.464ff., （who substitutes Argive matrons as suppliants instead of Adrastus）. The story is treated by Euripides in his extant play The Suppliants, which, on the whole, Apollodorus follows. But whereas Apollodorus, like Statius, lays the scene of the supplication at the altar of Mercy in Athens, Euripides lays it at the altar of Demeter in Eleusis （Eur. Supp. 1ff.）. In favour of the latter version it may be said that the graves of the fallen leaders were shown at Eleusis, near the Flowery Well （Paus. 1.39.1ff.; Plut. Thes. 29）; while the graves of the common soldiers were at Eleutherae, which is on the borders of Attica and Boeotia, on the direct road from Eleusis to Thebes （Eur. Supp. 756ff.; Plut. Thes. 29）. Tradition varied also on the question how the Athenians obtained the permission of the Thebans to bury the Argive dead. Some said that Theseus led an army to Thebes, defeated the Thebans, and compelled them to give up the dead Argives for burial. This was the version adopted by Euripides, Statius, and Apollodorus. Others said that Theseus sent an embassy and by negotiations obtained the voluntary consent of the Thebans to his carrying off the dead. This version, as the less discreditable to the Thebans, was very naturally adopted by them （Paus. 1.39.2） and by the patriotic Boeotian Plutarch, who expressly rejects Euripides's account of the Theban defeat. Isocrates, with almost incredible fatuity, adopts both versions in different passages of his writings and defends himself for so doing （Isoc. 12.168-174）. Lysias, without expressly mentioning the flight of Adrastus to Athens, says that the Athenians first sent heralds to the Thebans with a request for leave to bury the Argive dead, and that when the request was refused, they marched against the Thebans, defeated them in battle, and carrying off the Argive dead buried them at Eleusis. See Lys. 2.7-10.

3.7.2

Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni, purposed to march against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers;¹ and when they consulted the oracle, the god predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon. So Alcmaeon joined the expedition, though he was loath to lead the army till he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices, and had persuaded her sons also² to go to the war. Having chosen Alcmaeon as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Thersander, son of Polynices; and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.

¹ The war of the Epigoni against Thebes is narrated very similarly by Diod. 4.66. Compare Paus. 9.5.10ff., Paus. 9.8.6, Paus. 9.9.4ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 70. There was an epic poem on the subject, called Epigoni, which some people ascribed to Homer （Hdt. 4.32; Biographi Graeci, ed. A. Westermann, pp. 42ff.）, but others attributed it to Antimachus （Scholiast on Aristoph. Peace 1270）. Compare Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 13ff. Aeschylus and Sophocles both wrote tragedies on the same subject and with the same title, Epigoni. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 19, 173ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.129ff.

² The sons of Eriphyle were Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, as we learn immediately. The giddy and treacherous mother persuaded them, as she had formerly persuaded her husband Amphiaraus, to go to the war, the bauble of a necklace and the gewgaw of a robe being more precious in her sight than the lives of her kinsfolk. See above, Apollod. 3.6.2; and as to the necklace and robe, see Apollod. 3.4.2; Apollod. 3.6.1-2; Diod. 4.66.3.

3.7.3

They first laid waste the surrounding villages; then, when the Thebans advanced against them, led by Laodamas, son of Eteocles, they fought bravely,1 and though Laodamas killed Aegialeus, he was himself killed by Alcmaeon,2 and after his death the Thebans fled in a body within the walls. But as Tiresias told them to send a herald to treat with the Argives, 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, Tiresias drank of it and expired.3 After travelling far the Thebans built the city of Hestiaea and took up their abode there.

Apollonius of Rhodes

Argonautica

2.110–111

And Amycus’ henchman Oreides, arrogant in his might, wounded Talaus, Bias’ son, in the side,

Bacchylides

9.10–20

There [Phlius] the heroes with red shields, the best of the Argives, held games for the first time in honor of Archemorus, whom a fiery-eyed monstrous dragon killed in his sleep: a sign of the slaughter to come. [15] Powerful fate! The son of Oicles [i.e. Amphiaraos] could not persuade them to go back to the streets thronged with good men. Hope robs men [of their sense]: it was she who then sent Adrastus son of Talaus [20] to Thebes ...

Callimachus

fr. 223 Trypanis and Whitman pp. 154, 155

Arion [Ἀρίων], the Arcadian horse, did not rage thus at the shrine of Apesantian Zeus.^a

^a Arion is the famous horse of Adrastus, reputed to be the offspring of Posidon and Demeter, when she in equine form was seeking her daughter near Thelpusa in Arcadia. Apesas is a hill near Nemea.

Catalogue of Women

Hesiod fr. 35 Most [= fr. 37 MW]

Papyrus of the Società Italiana

[1] ...

Bias' and Pero's Son Talaus

[8] Beautiful-haired Pero bore Talaus [

[9] the son of Bias [

[10] And they [came] to Argos, [to godly Proetus,

Diodorus Siculus

4.65.1

When the sons had attained to manhood, they go on to say, and the impious deeds of the family became known, Oedipus, because of the disgrace, was compelled by his sons to remain always in retirement, and the young men, taking over the throne, agreed together that they should reign in alternate years. Eteocles, being the elder, was the first to reign, and upon the termination of the period he did not wish to give over the kingship.

4.65.2

But Polyneices demanded of him the throne as they had agreed, and when his brother would not comply with his demand he fled to Argos to king Adrastus.

At the same time that this was taking place Tydeus, they say, the son of Oeneus, who had slain his cousins Alcathoüs and Lycopeus in Calydon, fled from Aetolia to Argos.

4.65.3

Adrastus received both the fugitives kindly, and in obedience to a certain oracle joined his daughters in marriage to them, Argeia to Polyneices, and Deïpylê to Tydeus. And since the young men were held in high esteem and enjoyed the king's favour to a great degree, Adrastus, they say, as a mark of his good-will promised to restore both Polyneices and Tydeus to their native lands.

4.65.4

And having decided to restore Polyneices first, he sent Tydeus as an envoy to Eteocles in Thebes to negotiate the return. But while Tydeus was on his way thither, we are told, he was set upon from ambush by fifty men sent by Eteocles, but he slew every man of them and got through to Argos, to [p. 25] the astonishment of all, whereupon Adrastus, when he learned what had taken place, made preparations for the consequent campaign against Eteocles, having persuaded Capaneus and Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, the son of Atalantê, the daughter of Schoeneus, to be his allies in the war.

4.65.5

Polyneices also endeavoured to persuade the seer Amphiaraüs to take part with him in the campaign against Thebes; and when the latter, because he knew in advance that he would perish if he should take part in the campaign, would not for that reason consent to do so, Polyneices, they say, gave the golden necklace which, as the myth relates, had once been given by Aphroditê as a present to Harmonia, to the wife of Amphiaraüs, in order that she might persuade her husband to join the others as their ally.

4.65.6

At the time in question Amphiaraüs, we are told, was at variance with Adrastus, striving for the kingship, and the two came to an agreement among themselves whereby they committed the decision of the matter at issue between them to Eriphylê, the wife of Amphiaraüs and sister of Adrastus. When Eriphylê awarded the victory to Adrastus and, with regard to the campaign against Thebes, gave it as her opinion that it should be undertaken, Amphiaraüs, believing that his wife had betrayed him, did agree to take part in the campaign, but left orders with his son Alcmaeon that after his death he should slay Eriphylê.

4.65.7

Alcmaeon, therefore, at a later time slew his mother according to his father's injunction, and because he was conscious of the pollution he had incurred he was driven to madness. But Adrastus and Polyneices and Tydeus, adding to their number four leaders, Amphiaraüs, [p. 27] Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus, the son of Atalantê the daughter of Schoeneus, set out against Thebes, accompanied by a notable army.

4.65.8

After this Eteocles and Polyneices slew each other, Capaneus died while impetuously ascending the wall by a scaling-ladder, and as for Amphiaraüs, the earth opened and he together with his chariot fell into the opening and disappeared from sight.

4.65.9

When the rest of the leaders, with the exception of Adrastus, had likewise perished and many soldiers had fallen, the Thebans refused to allow the removal of the dead and so Adrastus left them unburied and returned to Argos. So the bodies of those who had fallen at the foot of the Cadmeia¹⁵ remained unburied and no one had the courage to inter them, but the Athenians, who excelled all others in uprightness, honoured with funeral rites all who had fallen at the foot of the Cadmeia.¹⁶

¹⁵ The acropolis of Thebes.

¹⁶ According to Athenian tradition, Theseus made war upon Thebes in order to recover the bodies of the Seven and buried them in Eleusis. The Athenians took great pride in this achievement (cp. Herodotus, 9.27), it being made the theme of the Suppliants of Euripides and of the lost Eleusinians of Aeschylus.

Euripides

Hypsipyle

fr. 753c

. . . a fugitive . . . Argos . . . amongst the beddings by the courtyard, exchanging quarrel(s?) . . . iron or sword . . . slaughter . . . over a couch for the night, the fugitives . . . their noble fathers’ temper in conflict.¹ And King Adrastus ay pondering in the night the injunction he had from Phoebus, (to yoke) his daughters with wild beasts . . .

¹ The Chorus recalls the fight between the exiled Polynices and Tydeus when they arrived at Adrastus’ palace in Argos. Adrastus identified them as the lion and the boar that Apollo’s oracle had said should marry his daughters. Cf. Suppliant Women 131–50, Phoenician Women 408–23.

fr. 757.116–118

achieve a homecoming . . . Adrastus will come (to Argos?) . . . the seven commanders . . .

Oeneus

fr. 558

DIOMEDES

Greetings, dearest soil of my fatherland Calydon, from where Tydeus, son of Oeneus and my own father, fled after shedding the blood of kin;¹ he went to live in Argos, took Adrastus’ daughter in marriage, and linked their families . . .²

¹ Mythographers give various names for the victims, either accidental or deliberate (see Gantz 334).

² Cf. Suppliant Women 133–48, Phoenician Women 417–25, Hypsipyle F 753c.8–21.

The Phoenician Women

408–429

JOCASTA

How did you come to Argos? With what purpose?

POLYNICES

I do not know: heaven called me to my fate.

JOCASTA

The god is wise. But how did you win your bride?

POLYNICES

Loxias gave an oracle to Adrastus.

JOCASTA

What oracle do you mean? I am unclear.

POLYNICES

“To lion and to boar thy daughters marry.”

JOCASTA

What share had you, son, in the name of beast?

POLYNICES

It was night: to Adrastus’ vestibule I came.

JOCASTA

Seeking a bed, as wandering exile would?

POLYNICES

Just so. And then another exile came.

JOCASTA

Who? He too must have suffered misery!

POLYNICES

Tydeus, who’s said to be the son of Oeneus.

JOCASTA

So why did Adrastus liken you to beasts?

POLYNICES

Because we came to blows about a bed.

JOCASTA

Then Talaus’ son²⁴ perceived Apollo’s meaning?

POLYNICES

Yes: to us two he married his two daughters.

JOCASTA

Are you happy with your wife, then, or unhappy?

POLYNICES

Up to this hour I make no complaint.

JOCASTA

How did you get an army to come with you?

POLYNICES

Adrastus swore to his two sons-in-law [, Tydeus and me, for he is a sharer with me in marriage,] that he would bring us both back from exile, beginning with me.

The Suppliants

8–19 [Loeb]

AETHRA

Demeter, guardian of this land of Eleusis, and you servants of the goddess who keep her temple, ...

I make this prayer as I look upon these old women [The CHROUS of Suppiants]. They have left their homes in Argos and are falling with suppliant branches at my knees because of their terrible sufferings. They have lost their children: their seven noble sons perished before Cadmus’ gates,³ men once led by Adrastus, king of Argos, when he tried to secure for his son-in-law, the exiled Polynices, his portion of the heritage of Oedipus.⁴ The spear laid these men low, and their mothers want to bury them. But those in power prevent them: flouting the gods’ ordinances they refuse them permission to take up their dead.

³ Thebes is called “city of Cadmus” and the Thebans “Cadmeans” throughout this play.

⁴ Oedipus, angry with his two sons Eteocles and Polynices, laid a curse upon them that they would divide their inheritance with a sword. In most versions of the story, after the brothers had made an agreement that each should rule a year in turn, with the other leaving the country, Eteocles refused to give up the throne when his year was over. Polynices sought help from Adrastus, whose daughter he had married, and an Argive army tried to put him on the throne. But Eteocles and Polynices, facing each other at one of the seven gates, each received a mortal wound at the other’s hand, and the attack on Thebes failed.

131–154 [Loeb]

THESEUS

But why did you march seven companies against Thebes?

ADRASTUS

I did this as a favor to my two sons-in-law.

THESEUS

To which of the Argives did you give your daughters?

ADRASTUS

It was no native marriage tie that I made for my house.

THESEUS

So you gave Argive girls to foreign husbands?

ADRASTUS

<Yes,> to Tydeus and to Theban-born Polynices.

THESEUS

What made you desire such a marriage?

ADRASTUS

I was beguiled by Apollo’s dark oracles.

THESEUS

What did Apollo say to ordain marriage for the maidens?

ADRASTUS

“Your daughters to a boar and lion marry.”

THESEUS

And how did you interpret the god’s oracle?

ADRASTUS

Two exiles came to my door by night . . .

THESEUS

You tell me two at once. What men are they?

ADRASTUS

. . . and fought each other, Tydeus and Polynices.

THESEUS

You gave your daughters to these men, thinking they were beasts?

ADRASTUS

Yes: I thought they battled like two wild animals.

THESEUS

Why did they leave their own countries?

ADRASTUS

Tydeus was in exile for shedding kindred blood.

THESEUS

And the <son> of Oedipus, why did he leave Thebes?

ADRASTUS

Because of his father’s curse, to avoid killing his brother.

THESEUS

A wise act, this voluntary exile!

ADRASTUS

But those who stayed behind wronged those who left.

THESEUS

Surely his brother did not rob him of his property?

ADRASTUS

It was this crime I came to punish. And there I was destroyed.

155–161 [Loeb]

THESEUS

Did you consult seers and examine the flames of burnt offerings?

ADRASTUS

Ah! You press me hard just where my failure is greatest!

THESEUS

It appears you went to war without the gods’ good will.

ADRASTUS

And what is more I went against the wish of Amphiaraus.⁹

⁹ A seer and the only pious man among the Seven, Amphiaraus was forced by his wife to take part in the expedition.

THESEUS

Did you so lightly turn aside from divine guidance?

ADRASTUS

Yes: the shouting of young men put me out of my wits.

THESEUS

It was bravery rather than prudence that you pursued.

755–759 [Loeb]

ADRASTUS

The corpses for which they fought, did you bring them back?

MESSENGER

Yes, those who led the seven famous companies.

ADRASTUS

What do you mean? Where are the rest of the dead?

MESSENGER

They are buried near the glens of Cithaeron.

ADRASTUS

On the far or near side? By whom were they buried?

MESSENGER

By Theseus, near Eleutherae’s shady eminence.²⁵

²⁵ A small village on the Attic side of the mountain.

857–917 [Loeb]

ADRASTUS

Listen, then. In fact the task you assign me of praising these friends is not unwelcome since I want to say what is true and just about them. ... Capaneus ... The second man I mention is Eteoclus ... The third of them, Hippomedon ... Another was the son of Atalanta the huntress, the splendidly handsome lad Parthenopaeus. He was an Arcadian, but he came to the streams of the Inachus and was raised in Argos. As for Tydeus, I shall give him high praise in brief compass. ... His richly endowed mind was eager for honor, but the source of his pride was in deeds, not words. ... Therefore raise your children well!

925–931 [Loeb]

THESEUS

As regards the noble son of Oecles,²⁸ the gods by snatching him away alive, chariot and all, into the depths of the earth openly praise him. As for the son of Oedipus, I mean Polynices, it would be no lie if we were to praise him. He was my guest friend in the days before he left the city of Cadmus and came over to Argos in voluntary exile.

²⁸ Amphiaraus: see note on line 158.

934–938 [Loeb]

THESEUS

Capaneus, struck down by the fire of Zeus . . .

ADRASTUS

Will you bury him apart from the others, as a corpse sacred to the gods?

THESEUS

Yes: all the others I shall cremate on a single pyre.

ADRASTUS

Where will you put the tomb you are setting apart for him?

THESEUS

I shall build his grave here right beside this temple.

---

857–931

Adrastus

Listen then. For in giving this task to me you find a willing eulogist of friends, whose praise I would declare in all truth and sincerity. ...

934–938

Theseus

As for Capaneus, stricken by the bolt of Zeus—

Adrastus

Will you bury him apart as a consecrated corpse?

Theseus

Yes; but all the rest on one funeral pyre.

Adrastus

Where will you set the tomb apart for him?

Theseus

Here near this temple I have built him a sepulchre.

Greek Anthology

7.431

431.—Anonymous, some say by Simonides

We the three hundred, O Spartan fatherland, fighting for Thyrea with as many Argives, never turning our necks, died there where we first planted our feet. The shield, covered with the brave blood of Othryadas proclaims “Thyrea, O Zeus, is the Lacedemonians’.” But if any Argive escaped death he was of the race of Adrastus. For a Spartan to fly, not to die, is death.

Hellanicus of Lesbos

fr. 100 [= FGrHist 4 F 100]

Fowler 2000, p. 191

Herodotus

5.61

... During the rule of this Laodamas son of Eteocles, the Cadmeans were expelled by the Argives and went away to the Encheleis. ...

5.67

In doing this, to my thinking, this Cleisthenes was imitating his own mother's father, Cleisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon,¹ for Cleisthenes, after going to war with the Argives, made an end of minstrels' contests at Sicyon by reason of the Homeric poems, in which it is the Argives and Argos which are primarily the theme of the songs. Furthermore, he conceived the desire to cast out from the land Adrastus son of Talaus, the hero whose shrine stood then as now in the very marketplace of Sicyon because he was an Argive. [2] He went then to Delphi, and asked the oracle if he should cast Adrastus out, but the priestess said in response: “Adrastus is king of Sicyon, and you but a stone thrower.” When the god would not permit him to do as he wished in this matter, he returned home and attempted to devise some plan which might rid him of Adrastus. When he thought he had found one, he sent to Boeotian Thebes saying that he would gladly bring Melanippus son of Astacus into his country, and the Thebans handed him over. [3] When Cleisthenes had brought him in, he consecrated a sanctuary for him in the government house itself, where he was established in the greatest possible security. Now the reason why Cleisthenes brought in Melanippus, a thing which I must relate, was that Melanippus was Adrastus' deadliest enemy, for Adrastus had slain his brother Mecisteus and his son-in-law Tydeus. [4] Having then designated the precinct for him, Cleisthenes took away all Adrastus' sacrifices and festivals and gave them to Melanippus. The Sicyonians had been accustomed to pay very great honor to Adrastus because the country had once belonged to Polybus, his maternal grandfather, who died without an heir and bequeathed the kingship to him. [5] Besides other honors paid to Adrastus by the Sicyonians, they celebrated his lamentable fate with tragic choruses in honor not of Dionysus but of Adrastus. Cleisthenes, however, gave the choruses back to Dionysus and the rest of the worship to Melanippus.

¹ Cleisthenes ruled at Sicyon from 600 to 570.

5.68

This, then, is what he did regarding Adrastus, but as for the tribes of the Dorians, he changed their names so that these tribes should not be shared by Sicyonians and Argives. In this especially he made a laughing-stock of the Sicyonians, for he gave the tribes names derived from the words ‘donkey’ and ‘pig’ changing only the endings. The name of his own tribe, however, he did not change in this way, but rather gave it a name indicating his own rule, calling it Archelaoi, rulers of the people. The rest were Swinites, Assites and Porkites. [2] These were the names of the tribes which the Sicyonians used under Cleisthenes' rule and for sixty years more after his death. Afterwards, however, they took counsel together and both changed the names of three to Hylleis, Pamphyli, and Dymanatae, and added a fourth which they called Aegialeis after Aegialeus son of Adrastus.

9.27

To these words the Athenians replied: “It is our belief that we are gathered for battle with the barbarian, and not for speeches; but since the man of Tegea has made it his business to speak of all the valorous deeds, old and new, which either of our nations has at any time achieved, we must prove to you how we, rather than Arcadians, have by virtue of our valor a hereditary right to the place of honor ... [3] Furthermore, when the Argives who had marched with Polynices against Thebes had there made an end of their lives and lay unburied, know that we sent our army against the Cadmeans and recovered the dead and buried them in Eleusis.

Homer

Iliad

2.572

Sicyon, wherein at the first Adrastus was king;

5.410–415

Wherefore now let Tydeus' son, for all he is so mighty, beware lest one better than thou fight against him, lest in sooth Aegialeia [Αἰγιάλεια], the daughter of Adrastus, passing wise, wake from sleep with her long lamentings all her household, as she wails for her wedded husband, the best man of the Achaeans, even she, [415] the stately wife of horse-taming Diomedes."

14.121

And [Tydeus] wedded one of the daughters of Adrastus,

23.346–7

Arion, the swift horse of Adrastus, that was of heavenly stock,

Hyginus

Fabulae

33

Centaurs

Likewise at another wedding, when Pirithous was marrying Hippodamia daughter of Adrastus, ...

68A

After a year had passed, Polynices son of Oedipus, with the help of Adrastus son of Talaus and seven generals, sought to reclaim the throne from his brother Eteocles, and they attacked Thebes. There Adrastus escaped, thanks to his horse. Capaneus ...

68B

After a year had past, Polynices <sought to reclaim> his father's <throne from his> bro<ther Eteocles,> but he refu<sed to give it> up. <Polynices> came <to attack Thebes.> There Capaneus ...

69 Adrastus

[1] Adrastus, the son of Talaus and Eurynome, received an oracle from Apollo that foretold he would marry his daughters Argia and Deipuyle to a boar and a lion. [2] About the same time, Oidepus' son Polynices, who had been driven into exile by his brother Eteocles, arrived at Adrastus' court, as did Tydeus, the son of Oeneus ... one had on a boar's hide and the other that of a lion—Adrastus remembered the oracle and so ordered them brought to him.

He asked them why they had come to his kingdom in such attire. [4] Polynices explained ... [5] The king, mindful of the oracle, gave his older daughter, Argia, to Polynices (Thersander was their son) and the younger daughter, Deipyle, to Tydeus (Diomedes, who faught at Troy, was their son).

[6] Polynices asked Adrastus to furnish him with an army to take back his father's kindom from his brother. Adrastus not only gave him an army, but when with six other generals because Thebes was enclosed with seven gates. [7] For when Amphion was putting the wall around Thebes, he constructed seven gates and named them after his daughters. These were Thera, Cleodoxe, Astynome, Astycratia, Chias, Ogygia, and Chloris.

69A

Adrastus son of Talaus had ...

70

The Seven Kings Who Set Out against Thebes Adrastus son of Talaus by Eurynome ... from Argos.

70A

Adrastus son of Talaus. ...

71

The Seven Epigoni

Aegialeus a son of Adrastus and Demonassa, from Argos. Of the seven who had set out he was the only one to die; because his father had survived, he gave up his life for his father's. The other six returned in victory:

Thersander son of Polynices by Argia daughter of Adrastus, from Argos.

71A

Aegialeus son of Adrastus. ...

242

Men Who Committed Suicide

Adrastus and his son Hipponous also threw themselves into a fire in accordance with Apollo's oracle.

Isocrates

Panegyricus

54

The character and power of Athens may be judged from the appeals which sundry people have in times past made to us for our help.... but long before the Trojan War ... Adrastus, Talaus’s son, king of Argos. Adrastus, on his return from the expedition against Thebes where he had met with disaster and had not by his own efforts been able to recover the bodies of those who had fallen under the Cadmean fortress, called upon our city to lend aid in a misfortune which was of universal concern, and not to suffer that men who die in battle be left unburied nor that ancient custom and immemorial law be brought to naught.

Lysias

Funeral Oration

[7–10]

When Adrastus and Polyneices had marched against Thebes and had been vanquished in battle, and the Cadmeans would not allow the corpses to be buried, the Athenians decided that ... the corpses of the Argives—they buried them in their own land of Eleusis. Such, then, is the character that they [the Athenians] have evinced in regard to those of the Seven against Thebes who were slain.

Ovid

Heroides

17.247–248

Or did Hippodamia of Atrax compel Haemonia’s men to declare fierce war on the Centaurs

Pancrates of Alexandria

Page, pp. 518, 519

. . . swifter than the steed of Adrastus,^a that once saved its master easily, when he was fleeing through the press of battle.

^a Adrastus was saved by his horse Arion in the battle of the Seven against Thebes: Homer Il. xxiii. 346–347, Apollod. iii. 6. 7.

Pausanias

1.30.4

In this part of the country is seen the tower of Timon, the only man to see that there is no way to be happy except to shun other men. There is also pointed out a place called the Hill of Horses, the first point in Attica, they say, that Oedipus reached—this account too differs from that given by Homer, but it is nevertheless current tradition—and an altar to Poseidon, Horse God, and to Athena, Horse Goddess, and a chapel to the heroes Peirithous and Theseus, Oedipus and Adrastus. The grove and temple of Poseidon were burnt by Antigonus1 when he invaded Attica, who at other times also ravaged the land of the Athenians.

1.39.2

A little farther on from the well is a sanctuary of Metaneira, and after it are graves of those who went against Thebes. For Creon, who at that time ruled in Thebes as guardian of Laodamas the son of Eteocles, refused to allow the relatives to take up and bury their dead. But Adrastus having supplicated Theseus, the Athenians fought with the Boeotians, and Theseus being victorious in the fight carried the dead to the Eleusinian territory and buried them here. The Thebans, however, say that they voluntarily gave up the dead for burial and deny that they engaged in battle.

1.43.1

Adrastus also is honored among the Megarians, who say that he too died among them when he was leading back his army after taking Thebes, and that his death was caused by old age and the fate of Aegialeus.

1.44.4

The hilly part of Megaris borders upon Boeotia, and in it the Megarians have built the city Pagae and another one called Aegosthena. As you go to Pagae, on turning a little aside from the highway, you are shown a rock with arrows stuck all over it, into which the Persians once shot in the night. In Pagae a noteworthy relic is a bronze image of Artemis surnamed Saviour, in size equal to that at Megara and exactly like it in shape. There is also a hero-shrine of Aegialeus, son of Adrastus. When the Argives made their second attack on Thebes he died at Glisas early in the first battle, and his relatives carried him to Pagae in Megaris and buried him, the shrine being still called the Aegialeum.

2.6.6

Sicyon had a daughter Chthonophyle, and they say that she and Hermes were the parents of Polybus. Afterwards she married Phlias, the son of Dionysus, and gave birth to Androdamas. Polybus gave his daughter Lysianassa to Talaus the son of Bias, king of the Argives; and when Adrastus fled from Argos he came to Polybus at Sicyon, and afterwards on the death of Polybus he became king at Sicyon. When Adrastus returned to Argos, Ianiscus, a descendant of Clytius the father-in-law of Lamedon, came from Attica and was made king, and when Ianiscus died he was succeeded by Phaestus, said to have been one of the children of Heracles.

2.18.4

The Argives are the only Greeks that I know of who have been divided into three kingdoms. For in the reign of Anaxagoras, son of Argeus, son of Megapenthes, the women were smitten with madness, and straying from their homes they roamed about the country, until Melampus the son of Amythaon cured them of the plague on condition that he himself and his brother Bias had a share of the kingdom equal to that of Anaxagoras. Now descended from Bias five men, Neleids on their mother's side, occupied the throne for four generations down to Cyanippus, son of Aegialeus, and descended from Melampus six men in six generations down to Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus.

2.30.10

On the return of the Heracleidae, the Troezenians too received Dorian settlers from Argos. They had been subject at even an earlier date to the Argives; Homer, too, in the Catalogue, says that their commander was Diomedes. For Diomedes and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, who were guardians of the boy Cyanippus, son of Aegialeus, led the Argives to Troy. Sthenelus, as I have related above, came of a more illustrious family, called the Anaxagoridae, and he had the best claim to the Kingdom of Argos. Such is the story of the Troezenians, with the exception of the cities that claim to be their colonies. I will now proceed to describe the appointments of their sanctuaries and the remarkable sights of their country.

3.18.12

There is Peleus handing over Achilles to be reared by Cheiron, who is also said to have been his teacher. There is Cephalus, too, carried off by Day because of his beauty. The gods are bringing gifts to the marriage of Harmonia. There is wrought also the single combat of Achilles and Memnon , and Heracles avenging himself upon Diomedes the Thracian, and upon Nessus at the river Euenus. Hermes is bringing the goddesses to Alexander to be judged. Adrastus and Tydeus are staying the fight between Amphiaraus and Lycurgus the son of Pronax.

2.20.5

A little farther on is a sanctuary of the Seasons. On coming back from here you see statues of Polyneices, the son of Oedipus, and of all the chieftains who with him were killed in battle at the wall of Thebes. These men Aeschylus has reduced to the number of seven only, although there were more chiefs than this in the expedition, from Argos, from Messene, with some even from Arcadia. But the Argives have adopted the number seven from the drama of Aeschylus, and near to their statues are the statues of those who took Thebes: Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus, son of Talaus; Polydorus, son of Hippomedon; Thersander; Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, the sons of Amphiaraus; Diomedes, and Sthenelus. Among their company were also Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, and Adrastus and Timeas, sons of Polyneices.

8.25.5

When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter, she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius; realizing that he was outwitted, Poseidon too changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter.

8.25.7

The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a torch; her height I conjecture to be nine feet. Lusia seemed to be six feet high. Those who think the image to be Themis and not Demeter Lusia are, I would have them know, mistaken in their opinion. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion [Ἀρείονα]. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse.

8.25.8

They quote verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid in confirmation of their story. In the Iliad there are verses about Areion himself:

"Not even if he drive divine Areion behind,

The swift horse of Adrastus, who was of the race of the gods." (Hom. Il. 23.346)

In the Thebaid it is said that Adrastus fled from Thebes:

"Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion." (Thebaid, unknown location).

They will have it that the verses obscurely hint that Poseidon was father to Areion, but Antimachus says that Earth was his mother:

8.25.9

"Adrastus, son of Talaus, son of Cretheus,

The very first of the Danai to drive his famous horses,

Swift Caerus and Areion [Ἀρείονα] of Thelpusa,

Whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo

Earth herself sent up, a marvel for mortals to see. (Antimachus, unknown location)

8.25.10

But even though sprung from Earth the horse might be of divine lineage and the color of his hair might still be dark. Legend also has it that when Heracles was warring on Elis he asked Oncus for the horse, and was carried to battle on the back of Areion [Ἀρείονι] when he took Elis, but afterwards the horse was given to Adrastus by Heracles. Wherefore Antimachus says about Areion [Ἀρείονα]:

"Adrastus was the third lord who tamed him." (Antimachus, unknown location.)

9.5.13

Both fell in the duel, and the kingdom devolved on Laodamas, son of Eteocles; Creon, the son of Menoeceus, was in power as regent and guardian of Laodamas. When the latter had grown up and held the kingship, the Argives led their army for the second time against Thebes. The Thebans encamped over against them at Glisas. When they joined in battle, Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus, was killed by Laodamas but the Argives were victorious in the fight, and Laodamas, with any Theban willing to accompany him, withdrew when night came to Illyria.

9.9.1

This war between Argos and Thebes was, in my opinion, the most memorable of all those waged by Greeks against Greeks in what is called the heroic age. In the case of the war between the Eleusinians and the rest of the Athenians, and likewise in that between the Thebans and the Minyans, the attackers had but a short distance through which to pass to the fight, and one battle decided the war, immediately after which hostilities ceased and peace was made.

9.9.2

But the Argive army marched from mid-Peloponnesus to mid-Boeotia, while Adrastus collected his allied forces out of Arcadia and from the Messenians, and likewise mercenaries came to the help of the Thebans from Phocis, and the Phlegyans from the Minyan country. When the battle took place at the Ismenian sanctuary, the Thebans were worsted in the encounter, and after the rout took refuge within their fortifications.

9.9.4

A few years afterwards Thebes was attacked by Thersander and those whom the Greeks call Epigoni （Born later）. It is clear that they too were accompanied not only by the Argives, Messenians and Arcadians, but also by allies from Corinth and Megara invited to help them. Thebes too was defended by their neighbors, and a battle at Glisas was fiercely contested on both sides.

9.19.2

Seven stades from Teumessus on the left are the ruins of Glisas, and before them on the right of the way a small mound shaded by cultivated trees and a wood of wild ones. Here were buried Promachus, the son of Parthenopaeus, and other Argive officers, who joined with Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus, in the expedition against Thebes. That the tomb of Aegialeus is at Pegae I have already stated in an earlier part of my history1 that deals with Megara.

10.10.3

Near the horse are also other votive offerings of the Argives, likenesses of the captains of those who with Polyneices made war on Thebes: Adrastus, the son of Talaus, Tydeus, son of Oeneus, the descendants of Proetus, namely, Capaneus, son of Hipponous, and Eteoclus, son of Iphis, Polyneices, and Hippomedon, son of the sister of Adrastus. Near is represented the chariot of Amphiaraus, and in it stands Baton, a relative of Amphiaraus who served as his charioteer. The last of them is Alitherses.

Pherecydes

fr. 122a Fowler (Fowler 2008, p. 340) [= FGrHist 3 F 122 = Apollodorus 1.8.5]

fr. 122b Fowler (Fowler 2008, pp. 340–341) [= FGrHist 3 F 122 = Schol. (A, *B (4.45.3 Dindorf), D codd. CHVLa, Ge I (1.170.23 Nicole) +) Il. 14.119]

Pindar

Nemean

8.50–51

Yes, truly the hymn of victory existed long ago, even before that strife arose between Adrastus and the Cadmeans.¹¹

¹¹ That is, there were encomia before the Nemean games were founded by Adrastus and his army on their way to Thebes (schol.).

9.8–27

Let us rouse up, then, the resounding lyre and rouse the pipe for the very apex of contests

for horses, which Adrastus established for Phoebus by the streams of Asopus. Having mentioned them,

I shall exalt the hero with fame-bringing honors, [10]

who, reigning there [Sicyon] at that time, made the city famous

by glorifying it with new festivals and contests for men’s strength and with polished chariots.

For in time past, to escape bold-counseling Amphiaraus and terrible civil strife, he had fled

from his ancestral home and Argos. No longer were Talaus’² sons rulers; they had been overpowered by discord.

But the stronger man puts an end to a former dispute.³ [15]

After giving man-subduing Eriphyle as a faithful pledge

to Oecles’ son⁴ for a wife, they⁵ became the greatest of the fair-haired Danaans . . .

and later they led an army of men to seven-gated Thebes

on a journey with no favorable omens, and Cronus’ son brandished his lightning and urged them not to set out

recklessly from home, but to forgo the expedition.⁶ [20]

But after all, the host was eager to march, with bronze

weapons and cavalry gear, into obvious disaster, and on the banks of the Ismenus⁷

they laid down their sweet homecoming and fed the white-flowering smoke with their bodies,

for seven pyres feasted on the men’s young limbs.⁸ But for Amphiaraus’ sake Zeus split the deep-bosomed

earth with his almighty thunderbolt and buried him with his team, [25]

before being struck in the back by Periclymenus'⁹ spear

and suffering disgrace in his warrior spirit.

² Talaus was Adrastus’ father.

³ I.e. Adrastus put an end to the quarrel by giving his sister Eriphyle in marriage to Amphiaraus. Others take it to refer to Amphiaraus: the stronger man puts an end to what was just before. The scholia support both interpretations.

⁴ Amphiaraus. Eriphyle persuaded him to embark on the expedition against his better judgment.

⁵ The sons of Talaus. No convincing supplement has been proposed for the lacuna at the end of the verse.

⁶ For lightning as a warning to hold back, see Od. 24.539–544. If οὐδέ is taken with both ἐλελίξαις and ἐπώτρυν᾿, the passage means: and by not brandishing his lightning Cronus’ son did not urge them to set out.

⁷ A river near Thebes.

⁸ There was a pyre for each contingent of the Seven.

⁹ A Theban defender, son of Poseidon and Chloris (Teiresias’ daughter), with the same name as the son of Neleus at Pyth. 4.175 (schol.).

10.26–28

[he] won the crown at both the Isthmus and Nemea and gave the Muses work for their plow, by thrice winning crowns at the gates to the sea,¹² and thrice on the hallowed ground in Adrastus’ institution.¹³

¹² I.e. at the Isthmus.

¹³ Adrastus instituted the Nemean games on his way to Thebes (cf. Nem. 8.51).

Olympian

2.43–45

but Thersandrus, who survived the fallen Polyneices,

gained honor in youthful contests

and in the battles of war,

to be a savior son to the house of Adrastus’ line.⁸

⁸ He was the son of Polyneices and of Adrastus’ daughter, Argeia. He saved the line because Adrastus’ own son was killed in the attack of the Epigoni against Thebes (cf. Pyth. 8.48–55).

6.13–17

that Adrastus once justly proclaimed aloud about the seer Amphiaraus, son of Oecles,

when the earth had swallowed up the man himself and his shining steeds.

Afterwards, when the corpses of the seven funeral pyres had been consumed,³ Talaus’ son⁴

spoke a word such as this at Thebes: “I dearly miss the eye of my army,

good both as a seer and at fighting with the spear.”

³ These are apparently pyres for each of the seven contingents led by Adrastus against Thebes.

⁴ Adrastus.

Pythian

8.39–55

... Oecles’ son⁷ once spoke in riddles as he beheld

the sons standing firm in battle at seven-gated Thebes, [40]

when the Epigoni came from Argos

on a second expedition.

Thus he spoke as they fought:

"By nature the noble resolve from fathers

shines forth in their sons. I clearly see [45]

Alcman wielding the dappled serpent on his flashing shield in the forefront at the gates of Cadmus.⁸

But he who suffered in a former defeat,

the hero Adrastus,

is now met with news [50]

of better omen, but in his own household

he will fare otherwise: for he alone from the Danaan army

will gather the bones of his dead son and with the favor

of the gods will come with his host unharmed

to the spacious streets of Abas."⁹

⁷ Amphiaraus.

⁸ Amphiaraus was both a seer and a fighter (cf. Ol. 6.16–17); the snake on Alcman’s shield symbolizes his own prophetic powers (schol.).

⁹ Twelfth king of Argos.

Plato

Phaedrus

269a

Well then, if the mellifluous Adrastus¹

¹ Tyrtaeus, ed. Bergk, first ed. frg. 9, 7, οὐδ᾿ εἰ Τανταλίδεω Πέλοπος βασιλεύτερος εἴη γλῶσσαν δ᾿ Ἀδρήστου μειλιχόγηρυν ἔχοι, "not even if he were more kingly than Pelops and had the mellifluous tongue of Adrastus." Perhaps the orator Antiphon is referred to under the name of Adrastus, cf. chapter xliii. above.

Plutarch

Theseus

29.4

He also aided Adrastus in recovering for burial the bodies of those who had fallen before the walls of the Cadmeia,¹ not by mastering the Thebans in battle, as Euripides has it in his tragedy,² but by persuading them to a truce; for so most writers say, and Philochorus adds that this was the first truce ever made for recovering the bodies of those slain in battle,

¹ The citadel of Thebes.

² Eur. Supp. 653 ff.

29.5

although in the accounts of Heracles it is written that Heracles was the first to give back their dead to his enemies. And the graves of the greater part of those who fell before Thebes are shown at Eleutherae, and those of the commanders near Eleusis, and this last burial was a favour which Theseus showed to Adrastus. The account of Euripides in his Suppliants¹ is disproved by that of Aeschylus in his ‘Eleusinians,’² where Theseus is made to relate the matter as above.

¹ Eur. Supp. 1213 ff.

² Not extant.

Propertius

Elegies

2.37–38

and how Adrastus’ Arion spoke aloud,⁸⁸ the horse which had gained victory⁸⁹ at the funeral games of ill-starred Archemorus:

⁸⁸ When it warned Adrastus of the outcome of the fight (cf. Statius, Theb. 11.442).

⁸⁹ Ridden by Polynices (ib. 6.316) and granted victory by favour of Neptune (ib. 6.529).

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Posthomerica

4.569–573

It was a divine offspring of swift Arion, far the best of all the colts born to Harpyia and roaring Zephyrus; Arion could gallop quickly enough to compete with his father’s swift hurricanes. Adrastus was given it as a gift by the blessed gods.

[Way translation:]

Of swift Arion [Ἀρίονος] ran, the foal begotten

By the loud-piping West-wind on a Harpy,

The fleetest of all earth-born steeds, whose feet

Could race against his father's swiftest blasts.

Him did the Blessed to Adrastus give :

And from him sprang the steed of Sthenelus [son of Capaneus],

Sophocles

Epigoni (or Eriphyle?)

fr. 187

ALCMEON

You are the brother of a woman who killed her husband!

ADRASTUS

And you are the murderer of the mother who gave you birth!^a

^a Adrastus, king of Argos and leader of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, was brother of Eriphyle and uncle of Alcmeon. A fragmentary passage of Philodemus’ book on music seems to imply that in this play a dispute between Alcmeon and Adrastus was put an end to by the power of music.

Oedipus at Colonus

1302

[Polynices:] I got Adrastus as my father-in-law,

Statius

Thebaid

1.138–139 (alternating rule)

It was agreed that each change rule for banishment as the alternate year decreed.

1.164–165 (by lot, Eteocles ruled first)

Already Polynices’ royalty lay low, deferred by the lot.

1.390–399 (oracle)

There king Adrastus governed his people in tranquillity, verging from life’s midway into old age. Rich was he in ancestry, back to Jove on either side. The better sex he lacked, but flourished in female offspring, supported by twin pledge of daughters. To him Phoebus prophesied (a deadly prodigy to tell, but the truth of it was soon revealed) that husbands for them were on their way by fate’s leading: a bristly pig and a tawny lion. That pondering, neither the father himself nor Amphiaraus skilled in futurity sees light, for Apollo the source forbids. Only in the parental heart anxiety sits and festers.

1.400–512 (Polynices and Tydeus' fight and are discovered by Adrastus)

But see! Fate makes Olenian Tydeus leave ancient Calydon, driven by guilty terror of a brother’s blood, ... And mayhap they would have unsheathed the swords that girt their sides (so anger urged) and the young Theban would have fallen by an enemy’s weapon for his brother to mourn (and better so), save that the king, whose old age, sober and careridden, hovered in asleep no longer sound, wondered at this unwonted hubbub in the dark of night and the groans shrilling from the depth of their breasts and thither took his way. Passing through the lofty halls in the light of many a torch and unbarring the doors, he sees a sight dreadful to tell on the threshold before him—torn faces and cheeks clotted with gory shower. ‘Why this madness, young strangers?—for no countryman of mine would dare violence such as this. What this implacable urge to disrupt night’s tranquil silence with your brawls? Is the day so short, does it so irk you to suffer peace of mind and sleep for a little while? But come, reveal: where are you from, whither your way, what your quarrel? For such wrath argues you of no mean degree and great signs of proud race show plain in your blood-letting.’ ... Then kindly Adrastus: ‘Nay come, put aside the threats that night and sudden valour or sudden wrath inspired, and pass under my roof. Let your right hands now join and pledge your hearts. This that has passed is not in vain, nor were the gods elsewhere. It may even be that your anger is harbinger of amity to come, to be pleasant in memory.’ ... Here first he has time to survey the heroes’ garb and mighty weapons. On the back of one he sees on either side a lion’s pelt, ... Set against that, the glorious spoils of Calydon strive to surround Tydeus’ broad shoulders, terrible with bristles and backward-curving tusk. Stunned motionless by so great an omen, the old king recognizes Phoebus’ oracle divine, warning issued from the vocal cavern. Fixed his eyes, mute his frozen lips, and a shudder of joy ran through his frame. He saw that here would be the sons-in-law led by manifest deity whose portended advent in the delusive semblance of wild beasts augur Apollo had announced in riddling wise. Then stretching his palms to the stars, ‘Night,’ he cried, ‘that embracing the toils of heaven and earth do send the fiery stars across in their wide-ranging course, granting sick creatures to recruit their spirit until the morrow’s sun prompt them rise to action, graciously you offer me the proof I have long sought in perplexity and error, unveiling the rudiments of ancient destiny: stand to the work and make firm your omens. Ever shall this house do you honour and worship as the years measure out their circles. Black herds with chosen neck shall be your sacrifice, goddess, and Vulcan’s flame, drenched with fresh milk, shall consume the lustral entrails. Hail ancient truth of tripods, dark recesses! Fortune, I have caught the gods.’ So he spoke, and taking both by the hand, proceeds to the chambers of the inner palace.

1.514–720 (Feast with daughters)

He gives order to rouse the fires and renew the recent feast. ... Then they saw men’s visages, new to their bashful eyes. Pallor and blush together consumed their radiant cheeks, and their eyes in shame returned to their reverend sire. ...

2.141 (son of Talaus)

Then did Talaus’ time-worn son

2.152–205 (marriage offers and promises of restoration)

‘Young men and goodly, whom not without a higher will has favouring Night brought to my realm, whose steps my Apollo himself has guided to this my dwelling through rains and lightning and freak of weather, I cannot think it unknown to you and the Pelasgian folk how eagerly a crowd of suitors seek marriage into my house; for I have two daughters growing into womanhood under an equal star, happy pledge of grandchildren. Their grace and modesty (credit not their father) you could e’en judge at yesterday’s feast. ... Thanks be to the gods, such you come in birth and spirit that the oracles are welcome. This is the prize you have won in the space of a harsh night, this the reward that follows those fisticuffs.’ ... the throne of your ancestral Sicyon you bring law and order to unruly Argos?²⁰ ... But as to us, we are willing and our hearts lie open.’ So spoke the one, and the other adds: ‘Would any man not join such a father-in-law? ... No further tarrying in speech, they rise. The Inachian father heaps every promise higher and pledges to be their helper and to bring them back to their native kingdoms.

So the report spreads through the city that bridegrooms have come for the king’s daughters and that admired Argia and Deipyle, her peer in beauty, virgins already ripe, are to be joined in first nuptials.

²⁰ According to Iliad 2.572 Adrastus originally reigned in Sicyon, and so Statius, as also in 4.49.

2.214–267 (weddings ... ill omens)

The awaited day had spread Argos abroad. ... But the dire omens of things to come move them all and they swell the fear with various talk. And no wonder. For Argia wears the unlucky ornament that her husband gave, the dire necklace of Harmonia.

2.363–451 (Tydeus sent to Thebes, embassy rejection by Eteocles)

So he speaks and hastens forth from the beloved threshold. Sadly he addresses Tydeus, now partner in his enterprise and loyally matching his cares (so strong a love has bound them after their quarrel), and Adrastus, his wife’s father. Counsel long delays, as considering many courses all finally settle on one as best: to test first his brother’s good faith, exploring by plea safe access to sovereignty. Bold Tydeus volunteers for the task. ...

Tydeus stood in their midst; the olive branch manifests the ambassador. ... "If clear good faith and care for uttered pledge abode with you, ’twas fairer that envoys go hence to your brother now that the year is out and that you put off your dignity ... I counsel you: unlearn the joys of royalty and by patience of exile deserve to return."

He spoke. ... [Eteocles:] "Were the signs uncertain that gave me foreknowledge of my brother’s quarrel ... Suppose me willing: the elders themselves, if I know their affection and if there be gratitude for desert, will not allow me to return the throne."

2.482–743 (Tydeus ambushed on his way back to Argos)

Nor is the ruler idle. He lacks not wit for crimes and heinous treachery. He urges trusty young men, bodies chosen for battle, now with gold, now with ardent persuasion, and viciously sets up a fight by night, eager to violate by ambush and stealthy steel an ambassador, ... He spoke and took again his road to sweet Argos.

3.324–386 (Tydeus returns urging war, supported by crowd)

And now Tydeus has retraced his journey and with weary steps ...

Entering the gates, he is suddenly there—by chance venerable father Adrastus was convoking the leaders in council—shouting even from the palace door: "Arms, arms, warriors! ... I myself, weary from those huge shades of fifty heroes and bearing these wounds with the blood dried and foul, I ask to go and go now."

The sons of Inachus start from their seats towards him in agitation and before them all the Cadmean hero runs up with countenance downcast: "Oh hated of the gods and guilty in my life that I am, do I see these wounds myself unscathed? ... I owe this throat to Thebes, to you, brother, and to you, great Tydeus!"

Thus with various speech he tests their hearts and slants entreaty. His plaints stir anger and indignation grows warm, mingled with tears. One thought comes unbidden to all hearts, not young men’s only but to the chill and sluggish with age: to leave their homes bereft, summon neighbouring force, and on the instant march.

3.386–393 (Adrastus urges restraint)

But father Adrastus, deep of counsel and no novice in manipulating the weight of command: "Leave all this, I pray you, to the High Ones and my care for remedy. Neither shall your brother wield the sceptre and you fail of satisfaction nor yet are we eager to let war loose. But now all welcome Oeneus' noble son triumphing in so great a bloodshed. Let rest at last relax his courageous spirit. For my part indignation shall not go short of reason."

3.440–597 (Seers consulted, Argives demand war)

Now the blushing countenance of a seventh dawn brings shining day to earth and gods, when the old Persean hero [Adrastus] first comes forth from his private apartments. Dis­traught he was, much perplexed in mind concerning war and his high-flying sons-in-law, whether to let arms have their way and put new spurs to the peoples or hold anger’s reins and fasten the moved swords in their scabbards. The tranquil boons of peace sway him on the one hand, on the other the shame of inglorious quiet and peoples hard to turn from newfound delight in battle. As he wavers, at length a late resolve commends itself, to move the minds of prophets and the truth-prescient rites of deities. To you, wise Amphiaraus, is given the care of the future, and beside you Melampus son of Amythaon joins his steps, now riper in years but young in mind and Phoebus’ gift. ... Terror seizes the seers, thus frightened by the weight of the future, as they suffer all that will betide under a sure semblance. They wish they had not broken in upon the assemblies of the birds and intruded their purpose on heaven that forbade them. They hate the gods that heard their prayer.

So the priest ... refuses to divulge the doings of the High Ones. (Melampus shame and anxiety hold back in the countryside.) For twice six days he keeps his mouth closed, racking people and leaders with uncertainty. And now the Thunderer’s supreme commands clamour and empty fields and ancient towns of their menfolk. Everywhere the God of War sweeps a thousand columns before him. Joyfully they left their homes and loved wives and children weeping at the threshold: so powerfully did the god fall upon them in their amazement. Eagerly they pluck weapons ... into Argos they burst and at the sad king’s doors they cry war with their hearts and war with their mouths. The shouting goes aloft, loud as the groaning of Tyrrhenian waters or as when Enceladus tries to change his side; above, the fiery mountain thunders in its caverns, the peaks gush forth, Pelorus contracts his waves, and the severed earth hopes to return.

3.618–677 (Adrastus reveals omens, Argives undeterred)

The Achaean band yells joyfully and fills out his madness with their assent. Forced at length to burst forth, thus the son of Oecles: ‘Tumult of other cares harasses me. Not for a young blasphemer’s unbridled clamour or for fear of his words, frantic though his threats, am I drawn from darkness. My last day is owed me by a different fate; it may not be granted to mortal arms. But my love for you and too potent Phoebus drive me to speak secrets out. Sadly I am going to lay bare to you things to come and whatever lies beyond. ... But why do I prophesy in vain? Why ward off fortunes fixed? We shall go.’ Here the priest groaned and closed his mouth once for all.

Him again Capaneus: ‘Let your ravings make these auguries just to yourself, that you keep empty, inglorious years and Tyrrhenian clangour never echo around your temples. Why do you delay the better hopes of the brave? Forsooth, so that you may have your silly birds ...

Again thunders out the great roar of the backers and flies in vast tumult to the stars. ... Night interposing parted this altercation of chieftains.

3.678–721 (Argia asks for war, Adrastus agrees)

But Argia no longer bore her husband’s misery calmly, pitying the distress she shared. Just as she was, her beauty long marred by tearing of her hair and with marks of weeping on her face, she went to her venerable father’s lofty dwelling, carrying little Thessander at her breast to his loved grandsire. ... "Why I seek your threshold at night in tearful supplication without my sorrowing ... Give war, father; ... But when the sorrowful day shall break our kisses and the trumpets give their harsh signals to the departing host and your faces shall gleam with cruel gold, then, alas, perhaps, dear father, I shall ask a second time."

The father answered, taking kisses from her tearful face: "Never, daughter, should I blame these plaints. Lay fears aside; what you ask is praiseworthy nor meet to be denied. ... Great preparations, my child, are in our delaying. ’Tis gain for the war.’ As he so speaks, the nascent light advises him and cares of great moment bid him rise.

4.38–73 (The expedition sets out with Adrastus leading)

King Adrastus, sad and sick with weight of cares and nearer to departing years, walks scarce of his own accord amid words of good cheer, content with the steel that girds his side; soldiers bear his shield behind him. His driver grooms the swift horses right at the gate and Arion is already fighting the yoke. For him Larisa arms her menfolk and lofty Prosymna and Midea ... With them go the men who sow the rocks of Drepanum and the fields of olive-bearing Sicyon, mindful of the king whom they originally sent elsewhere,⁴ ... This band, three thousand strong, follows Adrastus exulting. ... He himself joins them, venerable alike in years and sceptre, like a bull moving tall among the pastures he has long possessed; his neck is slack now and his shoulders empty, but still he is the leader; the steers have no stomach to attempt him in battle, for they see his horns broken from many a blow and the massive nodules of breast wounds.

⁴ Adrastus; cf. 2.179.

4.646–745 (The expedition needing water stops at Nemea)

Meanwhile the sons of Inachus in errant host held chill Nemea and the thickets that knew Hercules’ glory. ... Adrastus sends scouts this way and that; are the Licymnian meres 100 still there, does any of Amymone’s water survive? All stagnate, drained by hidden fires, nor is there hope of a watery sky. They might as well scour yellow Libya and the sandy deserts of Africa and Syene that no cloud ever shades.

4.746–752 (They encounter Hypsipyle carrying Opheltes)

At last as they wander in the forest (so Euhius himself had planned it) suddenly they see Hypsipyle, fair in her sadness. Opheltes, not hers but the ill-starred child of Inachian Lycurgus, hangs at her breast, ... misfortune.

4.752–771 (Adrastus asks Hypsipyle for water)

Then Adrastus in amazement thus addresses her: "Goddess, Lady of the woods (for your countenance and modesty say you are of no mortal stock), happy in that under this blazing sky you seek not for water, help neighbour peoples. ... Our purpose was to raze guilty Thebes with the sword, but now harsh thirst humbles our courage in a fate unwarlike, eats away our idle strength. Aid us in our sorry case, whether you have a muddy river or a foul swamp. ... I shall repay you, goddess, with Dircaean flocks and quantity of blood, and here a great altar shall mark the grove."

4.782–850 (Hypsipyle takes them to water)

Come with me now, let us see whether Langia keeps her perennial waters in their channel. ... The poor babe clings to her; and lest she be too slow a guide to the Pelasgi, alas, she places him on the ground nearby ... he raises a joyous shout of "Water!" ... and graciously recognize the army you have protected."

Book 5

5.1–27 (Thirst satisfied, Adrastus asks Hypsipyle to tell her story)

Thirst quenched by the river, the army was leaving its ravaged bed and banks—a smaller stream. ... Then once more speaks the leader, Talaus’ son [Adrastus], circled by a band of noble peers, as he stands beneath an ancient ash, leaning on the spear of Polynices at his side: "And yet come tell us, whosoever you be to whom we have brought such glory, the glory of owing countless cohorts to fate an honour which the begetter of the gods himself would not despise, come tell us, as we briskly leave your waters, what is your home and country, under what stars you draw your breath. And say, who is that father? For the gods are not far from you, though Fortune has deserted, high blood is in your aspect, awe breathes in your afflicted face."

5.29–498 (Hypsipyle tells her story)

The Lemnian sighs, stays awhile in modest tears, then makes reply: "Ruler, you bid me freshen monstrous wounds ... and took me to your country as a slave."

5.499–578 (Opheltes killed by a serpent, the Seven kill the serpent)

So the Lemnian exile told her tale anew to the Lernaean kings, solacing her losses with lengthy plaint, oblivious (so the gods would have it) of her absent charge. He sinks his heavy eyes and drooping head on the lush ground and wearied with length of childish doings glides into sleep. His hand stays clutching the grass.

Meanwhile an earthborn serpent arises in the meadow, ... his great bulk he hisses his beseeching life-breath at his master’s altar.

5.653–661 (Ophletes' father the king tries to kill Hypsipyle)

But great-hearted Lycurgus’ love for his son is up and doing. It takes strength from calamity; a father’s furious anger sucks back his tears, and with long strides he despatches the fields that stay him, shouting ‘And where is she to whom spilt blood of mine is a trifle or a pleasure? Does she live? Take her, thrust her, comrades, bring her quickly. I shall make her forget all her rigmarole of Lemnos, and her father, and the lie of race divine that she is so proud of.’ Snatching up a sword and advancing, he was about to deal death in his rage,

5.662–667

... when the hero son of Oeneus went into action, pushing back the other’s chest with blocking shield and gnashing his teeth: ‘Stop this madness, lunatic, whoever you are.’ Capaneus likewise was on the spot and fierce Hippomedon and the Erymanthian (sword drawn back the one, levelled the other), dazzling the young man with many a flash. From the other side a band of peasants rally to their king.

5.667–671 (Adrastus intercedes between the Nemeans and the Seven)

Between them Adrastus in gentler style and Amphiaraus respecting the commerce of a fillet like his own: "Not so, I pray. Put away the steel. Our ancestry is one. Indulge not rage. And be you first."

5.691–698 (The army attacks the palace)

There the dwellings are loud with another clash of arms. Recent Rumour had gone ahead of the swift squadrons, embracing twin tumults 65 with her wings. Some say and say again that Hypsipyle, their benefactress, is being dragged to her doom, others that she is already suffering death. They believe and their anger tarries not. Now torches and weapons threaten the palace, they shout to overthrow the monarchy, to seize Lycurgus and carry him off along with Jupiter 66 and his altars. The dwelling resounds with women’s screams and grief turns about, fleeing before terror.

5.699–703 (Adrastus restrains his army)

But Adrastus, aloft in his chariot of coursers, carrying Thoas’ daughter alongside before the clamorous faces of the men, passes through their midst and cries: "Enough, enough! No cruelty has been done, Lycurgus has not deserved such deadly usage. And she who found the grateful stream—behold!"

5.731–753 (Amphiaraus placates the king)

Then spoke the pious son of Oecles as soon as the softening anger of the multitude gave silence and tranquil ears allowed approach: ‘Hear, ruler of Nemea ... all these flow down from the supreme will of the High Ones. ... The child must be accorded lasting honours. ... He ended, and night wrapped hollow darkness round the sky.

Book 6

6.45–53 (Adrastus tries to console the king)

Adrastus himself, whenever he has the chance and the noise is suspended and the house lapses into stunned silence, unprompted consoles the father with words of comfort. Now he rehearses destinies and the cruelty of man’s condition and the inexorable thread, now speaks of other offspring and children who would remain with heaven’s blessing. His speech unfinished, the laments return. Lycurgus too is no more mollified by well-meant words than the rage of the fierce Ionian heeds the clamour of men’s prayers upon the deep or wandering lightnings thin showers.

6.249–923 (Adrastus presides over games in honor of Opheltes, awarding prizes)

And now comes a multitude eager to see mock battles ... These riches Adrastus orders bestowed upon the victors [of the chariot race] . ... Then he invites the fleet of foot to ample rewards; ... and old Adrastus’ judgment [of the disputed foot race] delays in doubt. At last he speaks: ‘Boys, cease your quarrel. Your prowess must be tested a second time. But go not on a single track. This side is given to Idas, do you keep the other. Let there be no cheating in the race.’ ... Then Talaus’ son orders an empty tiger be presented to the victor [of the discus] ... When Adrastus saw him struggling from the ground lifting his hands and purposing the unbearable: ‘Go, I beg you, comrades, he [Capaneus] is mad; go, oppose your hands, hurry, he is mad! Bring the palm and the prizes. He will not stop till he mingles bone with shattered brain, I see it. Take the Laconian away or he dies.’ ... Some too come forward to fight with the naked sword. Already Epidaurian Agreus and the Dircaean exile [Polynices], whose doom is not yet upon him, stood in arms. The royal scion of Iasus forbids: ‘Young sirs, great plenty of death remains. Keep your high hearts and mad greed for adversary blood. And you, on whose account we have left desolate our ancestral acres and beloved cities, do not, I pray, before the fray let chance and your brother’s vows (the gods forfend!) have so much power.’ So he spoke and enriches both with a gilded helm. Then he orders that his son-in-law’s tall temples be wreathed, lest he go short of glory, and that he be proclaimed victor in stentorian tone: Theban. The fell Parcae echoed back the omen.

6.924–946 (Adrastus shoots an ill-ommened arrow)

The leaders urge him also to dignify the festal contests with a feat of his own, adding this final honour to the tomb. ...

Who would deny that omens flow ...

Quickly measuring the flat, the fateful shaft touched the tree and then (awful to see!) came back through the air through which it had just flown and maintained the reverse course from the target, falling close to the mouth of its familiar quiver. The leaders make much talk astray. Some say clouds and winds on high met the arrow, others that it was repelled by the shock of the fronting wood. Deep lies the mighty outcome, the evil revealed. The shaft promised its master a war from which he alone would return, a sad homecoming.

6.301–320 (Arion)

Before them all Arion is led, conspicuous by the fire of his ruddy mane. Neptune was the horse’s father, if our elders’ tale be true. ... On this occasion the ruler lets son-in-law Polynices drive him, ... The Aonian exile straightway plunges and sprawls for a space on his back, till he frees himself from the ties; the chariot, released from guidance, is swept afar. ... Perhaps Cycnus would have gone ahead and Arion lost, but his father the sea god will not let him lose. So in fair division the horse kept his glory, victory went to the seer.

6.311–314 (Arion)

Nor less was [Arion] on land, bringing Amphitryon’s son [Heracles] through deep-furrowed meadows as he fought Eurystheus’ battles; even for him he was wild and unmanageable. Later by gift of the gods he deigned to obey king Adrastus;

Book 11

11.424–446

When Adrastus hears that the pair are going to battle with open taunts and that no shame any longer hinders the crime, he hastens to the spot and drives his chariot between them. He himself is right venerable in royalty and years, but what is alien dignity to such as these, who care not for their own kith and kin? Yet he beseeches: ‘Sons of Inachus and Tyrians, shall we then watch this wickedness? Where is right and the gods, where war? Persist not in your passion. I pray you desist, my enemy—though did this anger permit, you too are not far from me in blood; 20 you, my son-in-law, I also command. If you so much desire a sceptre, I put off my royal raiment, go, have Lerna and Argos to yourself.’ His words of persuasion no more change their fiery mood or check their enterprise once resolved than Scythian Pontus raised up in arching waves ever forbade the Cyanean Rocks to clash. When he sees his prayers are wasted and the horses galloping to battle in double dust and the madmen fingering their javelin straps, he flees leaving it all behind—camp, men, son-in-law, Thebes—and drives Arion on as he turns in the yoke and warns of Fate; even as the warden of the shades and last heir of the world 21 descending from his chariot after the adverse lot’s assignment grew pale on entering Tartarus with heaven lost.

Stesichorus

• Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, Greek Lyric, Volume III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others, edited and translated by David A. Campbell, Loeb Classical Library No. 476, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1991. Online version at Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99525-3

"c. 632–c. 556" (p. 3)

fr. 222A Campbell [= P. Lille 76 + 73]

222Α P. Lille 76 + 73 (ed. G. Ancher, C. Meillier, C.R.I. P.E.L. 4, 1977, 287ss.; v. etiam P. J. Parsons, Z.P.E. 26, 1977, 7ss.)

222A Papyrus (before 250 b.c.)

270-280

. . . (you brothers?), putting an end to great griefs: (you, Polynices, must go to Argos?) . . . to take the crumpled-horned cattle and the horses . . . in accordance with fate. (I tell you) what is destined to happen: (you will reach) the house of lord Adrastus,9 and he will (welcome you and) give you his beautiful daughter . . . and the people (and city of Acrisius) will give you . . . (at the prompting?) of lord (Adrastus).

Strabo

9.2.11

In regard to the Harma in Boeotia, some say that Amphiaraus fell in the battle out of his chariot⁶ near the place where his temple now is, and that the chariot was drawn empty to the place which bears the same name; others say that the chariot of Adrastus, when he was in flight, was smashed to pieces there, but that Adrastus safely escaped on Areion [Ἀρείονος].⁷ But Philochorus⁸ says that Adrastus was saved by the inhabitants of the village, and that on this account they obtained equal rights of citizenship from the Argives.

⁶ "Harma."

⁷ "The fleet horse of Adrastus, of divine descent" (Hom. Il. 23.346).

⁸ See footnote on 9. 1. 6.

Thebaid

fr. 4* West, pp. 46, 47

4*

Ἄδρηστον μελίγηρυν

Plat. Phaedr. 269a

Adrastus the honey-voiced

Plato, Phaedrus

How do we imagine the honey-voiced Adrastus or even Pericles would react, if they could hear of the wonderful rhetorical devices we were just going through, etc.

fr. 6 West, pp. 48, 49

6

(Amphiaraus), both a good seer and good at fighting with the spear.

Pindar, Olympian Odes 6.15

Then after the seven dead were hallowed on the pyre, the son of Talaos³ at Thebes said something like this: "I miss my army’s seeing eye, both a good seer and good at fighting with the spear." Scholiast: Asclepiades (of Myrlea) says Pindar has taken this from the Cyclic Thebaid.

fr. 7* West, pp. 48, 49 [= Schol. Pindar Nemean 9.30b]

7* Schol. Pind. Nem. 9.30b

7* Scholiast on Pindar

A quarrel came about between Amphiaraus and Adrastus, with the consequence that Talaos was killed by Amphiaraus and Adrastus fled to Sicyon . . . But later they came to terms, it being provided that Amphiaraus should marry Eriphyle,⁴ so that if any

great dispute should arise between the two of them,

she would arbitrate.

⁴ Adrastus’ sister.

fr. 11 West, pp. 52–55

11 Schol. (D) Il. 23.346

11 Scholiast on the Iliad

Poseidon fell in love with Erinys, and changing his form into a horse he had intercourse with her by the fountain Tilphousa in Boeotia. She conceived and gave birth to a horse, which was called Arion [Ἀρίων] because of its supremacy.⁸ Copreus, who was king at Haliartus, a town in Boeotia, received him from Poseidon as a gift. He gave him to Heracles when the latter stayed with him. Heracles used him to compete against Ares’ son Cycnus in a horse race at the shrine of Pagasaean Apollo, which is near Troezen,⁹ and won. Then Heracles gave the foal in turn to Adrastus, and thanks to him Adrastus alone was saved from the Theban war when all the others perished. The story is in the Cyclic poets.

⁸ The name suggested aristos, "best."

⁹ Perhaps an error for "Trachis." Heracles has Arion in his fight against Cycnus in pseudo-Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 120. It is mentioned as Adrastus’ steed, a byword for swiftness, at Il. 23.346.

Paus. 8.25.7–8

Pausanias, Description of Greece

They say that Demeter bore a daughter by Poseidon . . . and the horse Arion . . . And they adduce verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid as evidence of their tale, saying that in the Iliad it is written of Arion himself . . . and in the Thebaid that Adrastus fled from Thebes,

his clothes in sorry state,¹⁰ with Arion the sable-haired.

So they want the verse to hint that Poseidon was father to Arion.¹¹

Tyrtaeus

fr. 12.8

had a tongue that spoke as winningly as Adrastus’

Virgil

Aeneid

6.480

and the pale shade of Adrastus;

Modern

Brill's New Pauly

[In folder (partially)]

s.v. Adrastus

(Ἄδραστος; Ádrastos).

[1] Mythical figure, leader of the campaign of the Seven against Thebes

Leader of the campaign of the Seven against Thebes. A. originally possessed connections to Sicyon, where his cult was old (see below). In the canonical history, however, he comes from Argus. According to the most detailed report of his …

Fowler 2013

p. 414

The only fragment in the corpus dealing with the successful assault of the sons of the Seven is Hellan. fr. 100, from which we learn that the decisive battle took place at Glisas, and that Aigialeus son of Asrastos was killed.

Gantz

p. 296

The second act of statesmanship, Theseus' assistance to Adrastos in recovering the bodies of the Seven against Thebes, is dramatized for us in Euripides' preserved Hiketides [Suppliants], a play dating somewhere in the vicinity of 420 B.C. Plutarch, however, tells us that Aischylos had already prsented the same tale, with Theseus as a character, in his play Eleusinioi (Thes. 29.4-5). Plutarch's primary concern is to contrast the version of Aischylos, in which the Theban's are persuaded by diplomacy to return the bodies for burial, with that of Euripides, in which Theseus and the Athenians must actually defeat the Thebans in battle in order to accomplish their aim. Isokrates for his part refers to both verisons, and asks who has not heard of these events from the tragic poets, with never a mention of any epic or other early source (12, Panath 168-71). We should also observe that Pindar, in an ode dating probably to 476 or 474 B.C., speaks of the fallen commanders at Thebes as feeding seven funeral pyres by the banks of the Ismenos, that is, at Thebes, as if there was no question of the bodies ever being denied burial or reclaimed by relatives (Nem 9.22-24). ... the presence of venerated [cont.]

p. 297

funeral monuments ...

p. 502

... In Hesiod's Works & Days we encounter the idea that the conflict of the great heroes of the fourth age at Thebes was over the flocks of Oedipous, ... (W&D 162-63). ...

Polyneikes and Eteokles

The expedition of the Seven against Thebes, and the quarrel between Oedipous' sons which caused it, appears as early as Iliad 4, but we learn nothing beyond the fact of Tydeus' pre-attack embassy into the city and its bloody aftermath (Il. 4.376-98). Eteokles and Polyneikes are mentioned nowhere else in Homer and not anywhere in Hesiod, while the Ehoiai has only a passing reference to Polyneikes (Hes fr 193 MW). The Thebais was an epic devoted entirely to this event, since we know its opening line to have been "sing, goddess, of thirsty Argos, whence the lords ..." (fr. 1 PEG). This might seem to begin the poem with Adrastos, but other fragments show that the poet went back to the source of the conflict, as we would expect. Whether any such origins of the dispute were recounted in the Oidpodeia we do not know. What the Thebais does tell us about the beginnings is that Oedipous on at least two separate occasions cursed his sons for poor tendance of him. ...

p. 506

Thus we have a variety of possibilities for the quarrel, ... Later authors such as Diodoros and Apollodoros give us the same version of dispute as the Phoinissai, so that the roatting-year motif, whatever its antiquity, has become far and away the most familiar form of the story (DS 4.65.1; ApB 3.6.1; Fab 67 makes Oidipous ordain this alteration of rule after his self-blinding). In all accounts, after leaving Thebes Polyneikes makes his way to Argos, where he marries the daughter of Adrastos and mobilizes the Archives for a military expedition against his homeland. ...

Adrastos, Eriphyle, and Amphiaraos

In chapter 5 we found that for the Ehoiai (although not for Pherekydes) Bias and Pero's marriage is blessed with a son Talaos (Hes fr 37 MW). The Ehoiai does not develop the family further at this point in the poem, but in Bakchylides a Talaos is the father of Adrastos of Argos (9.19), and Pindar speaks of Adrastos and the other sons of Talaos who confer their sister Eriphyle on Ampiaaraos, son of Oikles (Nem 9-9-17). Adrastos (no paretage mentioned) has [cont.]

p. 507

already appeared in the Iliad as ruler of Sicyon (Il. 2.572), and owner of the divinely fast horse Areion (Il. 23.346-47). ...

The famous Middle Corintian krater ... Our later sources will specify that the whole story started with a dispute between the families of Adrastos and Amphiaraos, and indeed Pindar does say that Adrastos once fled Amphiaraos, with Eriphyle's bestowal to the latter becoming the token of reconciliation (Nem 9.13-17). But neither Bakchylides nor Pindar discuss Eriphyle's subsequent transaction in what survives of their work (although Pindar seems to have mentioned it: fr. 182 SM), and our actual account comes from Amphiaraos himself in Euripides' Hypsipyle, plus scholia to Pindar and the Odyssey.

As the Pindar scholia relate these matters, there was a quarrel over something (land and power, presumably) between the descendants of Melampous (i.e. Amphiaraous) and those of his brother Bias (Talaos and his family: Σ Nem 9.30 passim). In a version then cited as from the fourth-century historian Menaichmos of Sikyon, Pronax, son of Talaos, is king of Argos but dies, and his brother Adrastos flees to Sikyon where he inherits the kingdom of his mother's father Polybos (Σ Nem 9.30 131F10; on this last point cf. Hdt. 5.76). According to others, however, the dispute leads to Amphiaraos' slauing of Talaos, after which Adrastos flees as before but gets the kingdom of [cont.]

p. 508

Sikyon by marrying Polybos' daughter (Σ Nem 9.30b). Either way, Polybos dies without heirs, and the throne passes to Adrastos. Subsequently there is a reconcilliation between the two sides, with as in Pindar the marriage of Eriphyle, sister of Adrastos, to Amphiaraos.

The further developments ... In any event Asklepiades' ... (12F29). Somehow ... the two men declare that in the future they will always abide by her decision in disputes between them. When the expedition for Thebes is taking shape, Amphiaraos tries to warn the Archives of their impending doom, but is himself forced to join them by Eriphyle, who received from Polyneikes the necklace of Harmonia. ...

Backtracking now from this early attested phase of Polyneikes' recruitment of allies, we must start at the beginning of the affair, his actual arrival in Argos and marriage to Adrastos' daughter. The Iliad says nothing on this point, although there must be some reason for Argos' support of a Theban exile in that poem, and Homer does mention Tydeus' similar marriage (Il. 14.121, as above). All later sources, beginning with Pherekydes (probably), call the daughter whom Tydeus marries Deipyle (3F122), and likewise they agree that Polynices' bride was Argeia. Previously in this chapter we saw that an Argeia, daughter of Adrastos, came to the funeral of Oidipous at Thebes in the Ehoiai (Hes fr. 192 MW). Possibly she was at that time already married to Polyneikes, although our text says simply that she came with others. ... The Lille Stesichorus papyrus provides just enough text ... to show that Tei- [cont.]

p. 509

resias predicted Polyneikes' migration to Argos, where Adrastos would offer his daughter; ... The first preserved accounts of Polyneikes' wooing are in three plays of Euripides, Hiketides, Hypsipyle, and Phoinissai; ...

With ... a Chalkidian calyx krater of about 530 B.C. on which we can see a scene of the arrival: to the right Adrastos (named) reclines on his couch, with a woman standing to one side; both look to the far left where two men are seated on the ground, their mantles wrapped round them, with two more women standing over them talking to each other (Copenhagen VII 496). One of the two seated men is inscribed as Tydeus, the other (perhaps: the inscription is not immediately beside him) as [Pr]omachos. No other names survive, but it seems a reasonable guess that the female figures are Adrastos' wife (Amphithea?) and two daughters, and that Promachos (or whoever) is meant to be Polyneikes, come like Tydeus in search of shelter.

p. 510

... In any event, the result of Polyneikes' marriage is always the same: Adrastos promises his help, Eriphyle is bribed to commit her husband to the endeavor, and an expedition of Archives and their allies sets forth for Thebes to restore the exile to the throne his brother occupies.

The Expedition of the Seven

For the preliminaries ... Our first reference to this second phase of their journey comes from Simonides, who says that they lamented the death of child [Archemoros] (533 PMG) Bakchylides takes matters a step further: at Philous the Archive heroes set up the Nemian games in honor of Archemoros, whom a snake has slain in his sleep; the event is somehow taken as an omen of Archive failure at Thebes (Bak 9.10-20). Pindar agrees, in Nemian 9, that [cont.]

p. 511

Adrastos founded the Nemean games on the banks of the Asopos (the river that flows past Phlios and Sikyon) but does not say why (Nem 9.9). The hypothesis to the Nemean Odes as a whole offers several different versions of the story, including the fact that in Aischylos, among others, this Archemoros is the son of Nemea. Presumably, then the child's death and the games' founding were subjects of his lost play Nemea. Unfortunately, neither the hypothesis nor any other source tells us anything more about Aischylos' handling of the tale.

Elsewhere ... Pausanias tells us that on Amyklai Throne Adrastos and Tydeus halt a fight between Amphiaros and Lykourgos, son of Pronax (3.18.12). The same scene is apparently represented on the elbow guard of a shield-strap from Olympia where a central figure named as Adrastos stands with raised arm between two warriors closing in battle; ... if this is the Lykourgos of the Hypsipyle, and if he was present to [cont.]

p. 512

witness or hear of his son's death in some accounts (in Euripides, he is out of town), he might well blame Ampiaraos for the tragedy and seek vengeance. But against this possibility is the fact that the shield-relief offers no sign of a woman or child, although there is certainly room for them. We saw too, that in the Nemean Odes scholia Pronax is the son of Talaos and brother of Adrastus, and this arrangement occurs also in Apollodorus (ApB 1.9.13). Thus, if Pausanias' information is right, the Lykourgas of the Throne would be Adrastos' nephew, and more likely a part of the expedition setting out from Argos than someone encountered along the way at Nemea.

As for the quarrel on the Throne, it is apparently portrayed on a Lakonian cup by the Hunt Painter of which only a small fragment has been found (Cyrene, no #). The part preserved shows a warrior grasping the wrist of a comrade who has drawn his sword, and the restrainer is clearly named as Parthenopaios; behind him is another figure whose name ends in -os (Adrastos?). This does not help us much, but it does seem to ensure that the quarrel was somehow a part of the story of the Seven (unless Parthenopaios is here in his capacity as a member of Talaos' family). We will see shortly that in Aischylos (and probably earlier) there is bad blood between Amphiaraos and Tydeus, and it has therefore been suggested (since both are present on thr Throne) that Pausanias failed to attach the right names to the right figures in making his description. The shield-strap might confirm this view if the (restored) name "Lycourgos" there refers to one of the on-lookers, with the name of Tydeus lost over the head of the right-hand warrior.⁴⁵ ...

p. 515

There is also from the first half of the [fifth] century an Etruscan gem, now in Berlin, which shows five of the heroes (names inscribed) in conversation or brandishing weapons (Berlin:Ch GI 194).⁴⁹ The names provided are Parthenopaios, Amphiaraos, Polyneikes (all sitting), plus Tydeus and Adrastos standing in arms; of those we might definitely expected to find only Kapaneus is missing. That only five figures appear is probably not significant, given the difficulty of putting even that many on a gem.

p. 516

Sophokles' Antigone ... In Euripides' Hiketides we find a list identical to the Heptas; Adrastos is again not an actual attacker, and survives to seek from Theseus and the Atheneians the recovery of the slian (E: Hik 857-931).

One other source of uncertain date to be considered is Pausanias' description of the monument at Delphi showing the Seven, a monument set up by the Argives near the begining of the Sacred Way to commemorate their victory over the Spartans at Oinoe (10.10.3). The victory, won by the Argives with the help of Athens, does not lend itself to a precise date, but most scholaras would now agree on a time somewherein the 450s B.C.⁵⁰ More to the point for our purposes is the source of Pausanias' identifications of the various figures, since we do not know if he is working from inscriptions or local tradition, and [cont.]

p. 517

If the former, whether the inscriptions are as old as the monument. The names given are: Adrastos, son of Talos; Tydeus, son of Oineus; Kapaneus, son of Hipponoos; and Eteoklos, son of Iphis (these last two both descendants of Proitos); Polyneikes; Hippomedon, son of Adrastos' sister; Ampiaraos (or at least his chariot, in which stands a charioteer Baton); and finally one Alitherses. ... Our only real piece of evidence for that point comes from Pausanias, who says that in the Thebais Adrastos flees Thebes on his horse Areion, wearing "mournful clothing" (8.25.8). ...

p. 518

Adrastos is as we saw always saved, combatant or not, ...

p. 519

Antigone and the Burial of the Seven

Next in the sequence of events following the attack of the Seven come Kreon's refusal to inter their bodies, and the defiance of this proclamation by Antigone ...

p. 521

...

As for those other burials and the fate of the rest of the Seven, we have already seen in chapter 9 that Aischylos' lost play is our first evidence for such a prohibition of burial or Theseus' intervention; the Iliad's statement that Ty- [cont.]

p. 522

deus is buried at Thebes (Il 14.114) and Pindar's ... In Euripides' Hiketides, we see Theseus and the Athenians defeating the [Thebans] in battle to obtain the corpses, but Plutarch tells us that in Aiscylos' version the same result was obtained by diplomacy (Thes 29.4). The one significant detail of the funeral in Euripides, once the bodies are recovered, is that Euadne, wife of Kapaneus, throws herself on her husband's pyre. Such events could easily find a place in epic (more easily, I think, than Antigone's heroism) although we must ask how early Thesues and/or the Athenians are likely to have played such a central role. Later accounts offer nothing useful, but Pausanias does mention seeing tombs on the road out of Eleusis (1.39.2). As noted before, the antiquity of this kind of veneration (or rather, the objects of it) is a question that only adds to our uncertainties.

The Epigonoi

From Herodotus we learn that there was also an epic Epigonoi, at times attributed to Homer (Hdt 4.32). From this title, and the fact that in the poem Manto, daughter of Teiresias, was sent to Delphi from the spoils by the Epigonoi (there to marry Rhakios, the first person she met: fr. 3 PEG), we assume that the related the sack of Thebes by the children of the Seven, who were known as the Epigonoi or "After-born." ...

In the fifth century, first of all Pindar, ... Pythian 8 offers a prophecy from the dead Amphiaraus while the Epigonoi (so named) approach Thebes on theis "seconf march" (Py 8.39-55). The seer discerns Alkmaion as first through the gates, and Adrastos, who was beaten in the pevious adventure but is now enjoying better fortune, save in his son, who shall be the only one of the attackers to die. ...

p. 523

With Sophokles we do scarcely better on story lines. As noted above, his Epigonoi included the matricide, with a hostile exchange between Adrastos ( the deceased's brother) and Alkmaion after the deed (if Radt is correct in his attribution of these lines: fr. 187 R);

p. 524

Aigialeus we will find identified by Hellanikos as the doomed son of Adrastos (4F100), ...

Among later sources ... In fact, any source that does not count Adrastos as one of the Seven but does admit his son will probably end up with nine Epigonoi, ...

As for the assault itself, ... In Apollodoros, too, Laodamas is slain (by Alkmaion) after himself killing Aigialeus; ... Pausanias, ... Elsewhere he locates the initial battle on the plain of Glisas to the northeast of Thebes, but he also places there the tombs of Promachos and others who fought with Aigialeus, implying a tradition in which the son of Adrastos was not the only one of the leaders to fall fighting.

Grimal

p. 13 s.v. Adrastus

(Ἄδραστος) An Argive king whose legend is closely linked to that of the Expedition of the Seven against Thebes. Ever since Proetus had shared the kingdom of Argos between himself and the two sons of Amythaon, Bias and Melampus (see legend of Proetus and the Proetids, under MELAMPUS and Table 1), three families jointly ruled the country, but soon disagreements broke out between the three. During a riot Amphiarus, the descendant of Melampus, killed Talaus, the father of Adrastus, who was one of the descendants of Bias (or, in some versions, the victim is Pronax, one of the sons of Talaus). Adrastus thereupon fled to Sicyon, near his maternal grandfather, the king Polybus (Table 22), who died without male children and left him the kingdom. Once he was king of Sicyon, Adrastus' first move was to make peace with Amphiaraus and he reurned to the throne of Argos, but at heart Adrastus had never forgiven his cousin for the murder of his father. He gave Amphiaraus the hand of his sister Eriphyle and it was agreed that any further dispute between them would be left to her decision. Adrastus felt confident that in this way he would one day have the means of exacting his revenge, but it so happened that Polynices, Oidipus' son, ... under the leadership of Adrastus the seven chiefs were ... In one, Adrastus, a skilful orator, managed to persuade the Thebans to hand over the bodies of their victims; in the other—and this is the Athenian version—Adrastus fled to Athens, without resting on the way, to place himself under the protection of Theseus. ...

Wholly undeterred ... Adrastus is said to have undertaken a fresh war against Thebes ten years later ... the omens were favourable ... Adrastus lost his own son ... The aged Adrastus died of grief at Megara. There is also a story that, in obedience to an oracle of Apollo, he cast himself into the fire. ... Hippodamia, [married] Pirithous, ...

p. 14

Wholly undeterred by the outcome of the first expedition, Adrastus is said to have undertaken a fresh war against Thebes ten years later with the sons of those who had died in the earlier venture. His army was not so large but the omens were favourable. The Epigoni (the name given to the sons of those who had died earlier) took Thebes and established Polynices' son Thersandrus on the throne. But Adrastus lost his own son, Aegialeus, who was killed by Laodamas, the son of Eteocles. The aged Adrastus died of grief at Megara. There is a story that, in obedience to an oracle of Apollo, he cast himself into the fire. Adrastus had six children ... and Diomedes.

p. 471

Adrastus Hom. Il. 2.572; Pind. Nem. 9.9ff. (20ff.); Hdt. 5.67; Apollod. Bibl. 3.6.1ff.; schol. on Od. 11.326; Il. 14.119ff.; 4.376ff.; Paus. 1.43; 9.9.1; Pind. Ol. 6.13ff. (19ff.); Plutarch Thes. 29; Hyg. Fab. 242; Stat. Theb. passim; Aeschylus, Eleusinii (lost tragedy, Nuuck TGF, edn 2. p 18f.).

Hard

p. 101

... and a legend that is no less extraordinary tells how he came to father Areion, the divine horse of Adrastos, by mating with Demeter while the pair of them were in horse-form. As recounted at Thelpousa in Arcadia, where the goddess was honoured as Demeter Erinys, the myth ran as follows. While Demeter was wandering through the world in search of her lost daughter (see pp. 126ff.), Poseidon stalked her in hope of making love to her; and when she tried to escape him by turning herself into a mare and mingling with some horses outside Thelpousa, he assumed the form of a stallion and had intercourse with her. The products of this union were the divine horse Areion or Arion (whose name probably meant 'very swift') and a daughter whose name could be revealed to initiates alone. It was claimed that Demeter had acquired her local title of Erinys (Fury) because she 'had been enraged' at Poseidon's tretent of her (for the verb erineuein could carry that meaning, i.e. to rage like a Fury). ...^{13 Paus. 8.25.4-7; cf. Apollod. 3.6.8 (Demeter mated with him in the form of an Erinys).}

p. 102

Areion was famous in legend from early epic onwards as the horse that carried Adrastos, king of Argos, to safety after his disastrous attack on Thebes (see p. 321). Some claimed that Areion was previously owned by Herakles, who had acquired him from Onkos, king of Thelpousa (or from Kopreus, king of Haliartos near Tilphousa), and later passed him on to Adrastos.^{14 Paus. 8.25-10; schol. Il. 15.639 and 23.346 (Kopreus).} There were alternate accounts in which Posidon fathered Areion by an Erinys near the spring of Tilphousa (see p. 144)...

p. 315

THE THEBAN WARS AND THEIR AFTERMATH

Polyneikes, son of Oedipus, quarrels with his brother Eteokles and departs to Argos

POLYNEIKES and ETEOKLES, the two sons of Oedipus, quarrelled over the succession after the exile or death of their father (or when he became to old to rule, or when they were due to take over from Kreon who had been ruling as regent until they came of age). The resulting conflict proved disastrous to both of them, for they were destined to kill one another when Polyneikes tried to settle the matter by marching against Thebes with foreign allies from Agrgos. ...

p. 316

Whatever the exact circumstances of his exile, Polyneikes travelled across the Isthmus of Corinth to the city of Argos, where he married a daughter of the king and ... Euripides supplies the earliest surviving account of the events leading up to his marriage. ... ADRASTOS ... oracle ... lion and a boar ... offered his daughter ARGEIA to Polyneikes and his other daughter, Deipyle, to Tydeus.¹³⁰

p. 317

Polyneikes went into exile for a second time, ...¹³³ in the Hesiodic Catalogue, ... [Argeia] is reported to have attended the funeral of Oedipus,¹³⁴ ...

Adrastos appoints seven champions for an expedition against Thebes; Ampiaraos and Eriphyle

Adrastos lost no time in gathering together a sizeable army to attack Thebes. In tragedy and the later tradition at least, he appointed seven champions to lead the assault, one for each of the seven gates in the walls of the city. It is not known whether these champions; who were known as the Seven against Thebes, already figured in early epic; Pindar may have been following the epic tradition in stating that the Archive dead were burned on seven funeral pyres,¹³⁵ but this does not necessarily imply that there were seven champions (especially if it is remembered that two of the usual champions, Amphiaraos and Kapaneus, could have been cremated, for reasons that will become apparent presently).

Most sources agree on the names of at least six of the Seven.¹³⁶ Three of the most important of them belonged to Archive royal lines, namely Adrastos himself, who was descended from Bias, Amphiaros, son of Oikles, who was descended from Melampos, and Kapaneus son of Hippnoos, who belonged to the old Inachid ruling line as a descendant of Proitos. To these we can add the two outsiders Polyneikes and Tydeus, and also Partheopaios, who was usually regarded as a son of Atalanta from Arcadia (but sometimes as a son of Talaos and brother of Adrastos). As for the remaining champion ...

AMPHIARAOS, the most formidable of the men who were selected as champions by Adrastos, was a gifted seer like his forebear Melampous and relized that the expedition was doomed to disaster. ... ERIPHYLE ... Adrastos had given his sister Eriphyle to Ampiaros on the sworn agreement that they should accept her decision if they should ever quarrel in the future. So [cont.]

p. 318

Polyneices approached [Eriphyle] in secret ... ¹³⁷

The death of Opheltes and embassy of Tydeus

As Adrastos and his army were marching toward the Isthmus they passed through Nemea in the northern Argolid, where they became involved in a strange incident that led to the founding of the Nemean Games. The city was ruled at that time by Lykourgos, son of Pheres, an immigrant from Thessaly (see p. 426), who had appointed HYPSIPYLE, the former queen of Lemnos, to act as nursemaid to his infant son OPHELTES. As we will see, the Lemnian women had onspired together to kill all their menfolk, but Hypsipyle had broken the agreement by sparing her aged father Thoas (see p. 384); and when the other women had discovered this, they sold her into slavery. Or in another version, she had escaped abroad after her action had been discovered, but had then been captured by pirates who had sold her to Lykourgos.¹³⁹ Adrastos and his companions now encountered her in Nemea and asked her to show them the way to a spring, for they were thirsty after their long journey (or else needed water for a sacrifice). So she placed the infant Opheltes on a bed of parsley and led them to water. Although an oracle had warned that Opheltes should never be placed on the ground until he could walk, she thought that he would be safe because he would not actually be in contact with the ground. On returning from the spring, however, she found that the child had been killed by a snake. Adrastos and his followers killed the snake, and interceded with Lykourgos on Hypsipyle's behalf; and they then gave little Opheltes a magnificent funeral, renaming him Archemoros (Beginning of Doom) because Amphiaros declared that his death was an evil sign that indicated that many members of the army would lose their lives in the forthcoming conflict. They also held funeral games in honour of the dead child, so founding the Nemean Games, at which the judges wore dark clothing as a sign of mourning and the victors were awarded a crown of wild parsley. ... the two sons she had had with Jason.¹⁴⁰

p. 321

Of all the Argive champions, Asrastos alone escaped, thanks to the speed of his wondrous horse Areion, which was a child of Poseidon and Demeter Erinys (see p. 101).^{149 Thebais fr. 6A Davies (see Paus. 8.25.8; line on Areion quoted), Apollod. 3.6.8, Hyg. Fab. 70.} ...

Kreon tries to forbid the burial of the Archive dead

After the death of the two sons of Oedipus, KREON took power at Thebes once again, either as king in his own right or as regent for Laodamas, the infant son of Eteokles. He ordered ... that the bodies of the attackers should be left to rot, a decree that [cont.]

p. 322

... ¹⁵² There is no indication that this story of the prohibition was known before the fifth century BC (although it should be remembered that we have very little early archaic evidence on anything connected to the war). When the fateful decree first appears in Attic tragedy, it has two notable consequences: Kreon's niece Antigone tries to bury her brother Polyneikes, ... and Adrastos enlists the aid of Theseus, ... to force the Thebans to allow the burial of the Archive dead. Polyneikes was finally buried at Thebes, ... in some accounts,¹⁵³ while the bodies of the other champions (apart from Amphiaraos of course) were taken off to Attica to be buried at Eleusis.¹⁵⁴ Pindar is doubtless drawing on the early epic tradition when he speakes of seven funeral pyre burning near Thebes itself.¹⁵⁵

The decree forbidding the burial of the Archive dead is first attested for the Eleusinians of Aschylus, a lost tragedy dating to the first quarter of the fifth century. In this play, Theseus helped Adrastos to recover the bodies of his comrades by negotiating a settlement, evidently with the threat of force, rather than by defeating the Thebans in battle as in the usual account.¹⁵⁶ Pausanias reports that the Thebans themselves preferred this version of the story,¹⁵⁷ as is wholly understandable; ... ¹⁵⁸ ... When the theme is taken up in Euripides' Suppliants, a play written half a century later, the chorus is made up of the mothers of the Archives dead, who accompany Adrastos to Athens and appeal as suppliants to Aithra, the mother of Theseus, at the shrine of Demeter at Eleusis. On arriving to investigate, Theseus responds sympathetically to the entreaties of Adrastos snd warns him not to set foot on Theban soil, Thesues collects an army together to attack Thebes, defeats Creon and the Thebans, and takes the dead back to give them an honourable burial. Since Kapaneus was killed by a thunferbolt from Zeus, his corpse is marked off from the others as sacred and burned on a separate funeral-pyre;¹⁵⁹ as it is burning, his wife Euadne throws herself on it to join him in death.¹⁶⁰

p. 325

The Epigonoi capture Thebes under the leadership of Alkmaion

Ten years after the expedition of the Seven, the sons of the fallen champions launched a second expedition against Thebes to avenge the fate of their fathers. ...

p. 326

... Pindar reports that Amphiaraos delivered a prophecy from the grave when they arrived at Thebes, foretelling that Alkmaion would enter the city first of all carrying a shiled showing an image of a dragon, and that the omens were more favourable for Adrastos than they had been on the previous expedition, except with regard to his own family (for his son was destined to be the only victim among the Argive leaders).^{184 Pi. Pyth. 8.39-56.} In Apollodorus' account, which is probably based on the early epic tradition, the Epigonoi ravaged the villages around Thebes to provoke the Thebans to venture out of their city, and then defeated them in battle, presumably at some site near the city. Although LAODAMAS, son of Eteokles, the king and commander of the Thebans, killed Aigialeus, the son of Adrastos, he was soon killed in turn by Alkmaion, and the Thebans were so dismayed by his death that they lost courage and took refuge behind their city walls. ...

p. 327

As the Argive army was marching home to Argos, Adrastos died on the way to Megara of old age and sorrow at the death of his son. His tomb could be seen in the city (although he also had heroic shrines in other places), and his son Aigialeus was buried nearby, at Pagai in the Megarid.^{191 Paus. 1.43.1 (Adrastos), 1.44.7 [1.44.4?] (Aigialeus).}

Kovacs

p. 4

In our play Adrastus, king of Argos, and the mothers and sons of the Seven have come to Eleusis in Attica to appeal to the Athenians for help in burying their dead. They first approach Aethra, Theseus’ mother, who is in Eleusis to sacrifice to the two goddesses of Eleusis, Demeter and Kore (Persephone). But then Theseus, king of Athens, arrives,and Adrastus addresses him. At first he refuses to help: Adrastus, he has learned, ignored warnings against the expedition from god and seer alike.

p. 6

...Their grieving is redoubled when the cortege arrives bearing the bodies of their sons, and Adrastus joins the Chorus in a long duet of lamentation.

Theseus asks Adrastus for an oration over the fallen, an explanation of their great courage. It was the custom at Athens for a public oration to be made each year over those who died for the city in war. Here Adrastus, in myth a speaker notable for his eloquence, is given the role that fell to Pericles and others in historical times. He describes the way of life adopted by the five men he praises, a life of modesty, poverty, and physical austerity. Training like this, he says, taught them to be brave. (Only Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, and Tydeus are eulogized by Adrastus. Amphiaraus’ body is not available since both he and his chariot were swallowed up in the earth. Polynices himself was presumably buried in Theban soil.)

Leaf

[In folder]

p. 78

In the Trojan Catalogue (Il. 2.828-831) we find Adresteia, Apsaios (Paisos), Pityeia (Lampaskos, see below) and "the steep hill of Tereia" given to Adrestos and Amphios, sons of Merops of Perkote. Here the name Adrestos is in all probability abstracted from that of his domain; it is of course familiar in early legend, and may have further suggested the association of Amphios, a possible reminiscence of Amphiaraos. But it is a stock name for Trojans; the Adrastos who is killed in a detailed scene in Il. vi-35-65 is evidently the son of Merops; but another falls in Il. xvi 694, an undistinguished victim.

Munn

[In folder] p. 333

Several sources report that Adrasteia was the name given to a diety who was commonly identified with Nemesis, sometimes as Artimis, in a cult founded in Hellespontine Phrygia by a certain King Adrastus.⁶³ This King Adrastus was a native of Hellespontine Phrygia, and not the same as the better-known Adrastus of Sicyon, leader of the Seven against Thebes. Homer knows Adrastus as the name of three different Asiatic heroes, all of whom fought and died at Troy.⁶⁴ Like Homer Herodotus saw Asiatic Adrastus as the archetypal bearer of the doom that not even the mighty can escape. In Herodotus' story, the Phrygian Adrastus, "royal by descent, ... son of Gordias son of Midas," was himself the agent of Nemesis, in Heodotus' own phrase ( ... , "great nemesis from god seized Croesus"), when he inadvertently killed Cresus' son Atys.⁶⁴

⁶³ Antimachus of Colophon (fr. 53 Wyss, quoted at note 75 below) derives both the toponym and the divinity Adrasteia from a foundation made by King Adrastus in honor of Nemesis. Callisthenes FGrHist 124 F 28 (in Strabo 13.1.13) makes the same identifications. Demetrius of Scepsis (in Harpocration s.v. Ἀδράστειαν) says that a certain Adrastus (Ἀδράστου τινός) established Adrasteia as a name for Artemis. Harpocration s.v. Ἀδράστειαν also reports that "some say" that Nemesis got the name Adrasteia from "a certain King Adrastus [παρὰ Ἀδράστου τινός βασιλέως], or from Adrastus the son of Talaus" (i.e. the king of Sicyon).

Oxford Classical Dictionary

s.v. Adrastus

the name of several mythological persons, the only one of importance being the son of Talaus, king of Argos. His name, if it means 'the inescapable', is very appropriate to a warrior-prince and gives no grounds for supposing he was originally a god. In historical times he had a cult at Sicyon and Megara (see Farnell, Hero-cults, 334 ff.). Probably much of the tradition concerning him is derived from the cyclic epic Thebais; whether it has historical content is doubtful.

When he was a young man he was driven out of Argos by dynastic rivalries and took refuge in Sicyon with his mother's father Polybus (q.v.). He married Polybius' daughter and succeeded him as king (Il. 2.572 and scholiast there; Pind. Nem. 9.9 ff., with schol.); afterwards he returned to Argos, making terms with Amphiaraus (q.v.). While reigning there he received in his house Tydeus and Polynices (qq.v.), both exiles, and recognized in them the lion and boar to whom he had been bidden to marry his daughters, Argeia (to Polynices) and Deipyle (to Tydeus) (see, e.g., Apollod. 3.58–59). He then undertook to restore them, and began by attempting to set Polynice on the throne of Thebes. The army was led by himself, his two sons-in-law, and Parthenopaeus (originally Adrastus' brother, in later accounts son of Atalanta, q.v.), Amphiaraus, Capaneus, and Hippomedon—the famous Seven against Thebes; in some lists the exiles are omitted and Mecisteus and Eteclus substituted (see Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Aischylos Interpretationen (1914), 97 ff.). On the march to Thebes the army halted at Nemea, and there were shown the way to water by Hypsipyle (q.v.). While she was thus engaged her charge, the baby Archemorous, was killed by a serpent; Ampiaraus secured her pardon and the Nemean Games were founded in memory of the infant (see especially Eur, Hypsipyle, ed. G. W. Bond 1963). The attack on Thebes was a complete failure, only Adrastus escaping home, thanks to his marvellous horse, Arion. Our chief authorities here are Aeschylus, Septem and some odes of Pindar, notably Ol. 6.12 and Pyth. 8. Ten years later Adrastus led the sons of the Seven, the Epigoni, against Thebes with better success; the city fell, but Adrastus' son Aegialeus was killed in the fighting. According to the earlier story (Paus. 1.43.1) the aged Adrastus died of grief on the way home; a sensational and late account (Hyg. Fab. 242.5) makes father and son burn themselves alive ex responso Apollinis. H.J.R

Parada

s.v. Cyanippus

King of Argos

•a)Adrastus 1 ∞ Amphithea 1.

•b)Aegialeus 1: ∞

•a)Apd.1.9.13. D.-•b)Pau.2.18.4-5.

Smith

s.v. Adrastus 1

*)/Adrastos), a son of Talaus, king of Argos, and of Lysimache. (Apollod. 1.9.13.) Pausanias (2.6.3) calls his mother Lysianassa, and Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 69) Eurynome. (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 423.) During a feud between the most powerful houses in Argos, Talaus was slain by Amphiaraus, and Adrastus being expelled from his dominions fled to Polybus, then king of Sicyon. When Polybus died without heirs, Adrastus succeeded him on the throne of Sicyon, and during his reign he is said to have instituted the Nemean games. (Hom. Il. 2.572; Pind. N. 9.30, &c.; Hdt. 5.67; Paus. 2.6.3.) Afterwards, however, Adrastus became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. During the time he reigned there it happened that Tydeus of Calydon and Polynices of Thebes, both fugitives from their native countries, met at Argos near the palace of Adrastus, and came to words and from words to blows. On hearing the noise, Adrastus hastened to them and separated the combatants, in whom he immediately recognised the two men that had been promised to him by an oracle as the future husbands of two of his daughters; for one bore on his shield the figure of a boar, and the other that of a lion, and the oracle was, that one of his daughters was to marry a boar and the other a lion. Adrastus therefore gave his daughter Deipyle to Tydeus, and Argeia to Polynices, and at the same time promised to lead each of these princes back to his own country. Adrastus now prepared for war against Thebes, although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in it should perish, with the exception of Adrastus. (Apollod. 3.6.1, &c.; Hyg. Fab. 69, 70.)

Thus arose the celebrated war of the " Seven against Thebes," in which Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, viz. Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. Instead of Tydeus and Polynices other legends mention Eteoclos and Mecisteus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted, and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Areion, the gift of Heracles. (Hom. Il. 23.346, &c.; Paus. 8.25.5; Apollod. 3.6.) Creon of Thebes refusing to allow the bodies of the six heroes to be buried, Adrastus went to Athens and implored the assistance of the Athenians. Theseus was persuaded to undertake an expedition against Thebes; he took the city and delivered up the bodies of the fallen heroes to their friends for burial. (Apollod. 3.7.1 Paus. 9.9.1.)

Ten years after this Adrastus persuaded the seven sons of the heroes, who had fallen in the war against Thebes, to make a new attack upon that city, and Amphiaraus now declared that the gods approved of the undertaking, and promised success. (Paus. 9.9.2; Apollod. 3.7.2.) This war is celebrated in ancient story as the war of the Epigoni (Ἐπίγονοι). Thebes was taken and razed to the ground, after the greater part of its inhabitants had left the city on the advice of Tiresias. (Apollod. 3.7.2-4; Hdt. 5.61; Strab. vii. p.325.) The only Argive hero that fell in this war, was Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus. After having built a temple of Nemesis in the neighbourhood of Thebes [ADRASTEIA], he set out on his return home. But weighed down by old age and grief at the death of his son he died at Megara and was buried there. (Paus. 1.43.1.) After his death he was worshipped in several parts of Greece, as at Megara (Paus. l.c.), at Sicyon where his memory was celebrated in tragic choruses (Hdt. 5.67), and in Attica. (Paus. 1.30.4.) The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes have furnished most ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece (Paus. 9.9.3), and some works of art relating to the stories about Adrastus are mentioned in Pausanias. (3.18.7, 10.10.2.)

From Adrastus the female patronymic Adrastine was formed. (Hom. Il. 5.412.)

Sommerstein

pp. 56–57

Our information about this play comes mainly from a reference to it in Plutarch’s Life of Theseus (29.4–5), which shows that it dealt with the same events as Euripides’ Suppliants—the recovery by Theseus, at the request of Adrastus, of the bodies of the Seven against Thebes, which the Theban authorities were refusing to release for burial. In Euripides, Theseus secures possession of the bodies by defeating the Thebans in battle; in Aeschylus, according to Plutarch (compare also Isocrates, Panathenaicus 168–171), he did so by a negotiated agreement, and afterwards gave Adrastus permission to have the bodies buried at Eleusis.¹ The play may have formed a trilogy with Women of Argos and Epigoni (qq.v.)

¹ Where “the tombs of the Seven” existed in Pausanias’ time (Pausanias 1.39.2) and doubtless in Aeschylus’ time too. Euripides also speaks of tombs being built at Eleusis (Suppliants 935–8), but these appear to be cenotaphs, since while he has the Seven cremated at Eleusis, their ashes are then taken back to Argos (Suppliants 1185–8).

Tripp

s.v. Adrastus (1)

A king of Argos and leader of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Adrastus was a son of Talaüs and Lysimache. By his niece Amphithea he had two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus (unless this was Aegialeus' son), and three daughters Argeia, Deïpyle, and Aegialeia (unless she was Aegialeus' daughter). He was driven from his throne in a feud with the seer Amphiaraüs and took refuge in Sicyon, where, after the death of the childless king Polybus, he became king. While there he founded the Sicyonian games.

In time Adrastus and his brothers patched up their quarrel with Amphiaraüs, and the seer married their sister Eriphyle. Again on the archive throne, Adrastus was visited by Polynices and Tydeus. Because of an oracle, he married them to his daughters and, in spite of Amphiaraüs' warnings of disaster, raised a force from among his Argive kinsmen—seven champions and their followers—to restore Polynices to power in Thebes.

The expedition began with the ominous death of the infant Opheltes at Nemea; in his honor Adrastus instituted the Nemean games. At Thebes, the rash courage of the seven Argive champions could not prevent their rout and death. Adrastus was saved only by the swiftness of his fabulous horse, Arion. He was forced to go as a suppliant to Theseus at Thebes before he could even bury his dead.

When they reached manhood, the sons of the Seven, called the EPIGONI, marched against Thebes under Alcmeon to avenge their fathers. Adrastus accompanied them. This campaign succeeded but, as Adrastus alone had survived the first war, his son Aegialeus was the only Argive leader to die in the second. Adrastus died of grief and old age at Megara on his way home with the victors. Hyginus [Fabulae 242] claims, however, that Adrastus and a son Hipponoüs threw themselves into a fire because of an oracle from Apollo. [Pindar, Nemian Odes, 9.9; Apollodorus 3.6.1-3.7.2; Euripides, The Suppliants.]

West

p. 9

Epigoni

The opening line of the Epigoni (fr. 1) proclaims it to be a continuation of the Thebaid. It may have been attached to it in some ancient texts, though at least from the time of Herodotus (4.32) it had the status of a separate poem. The Epigoni and their expedition are known to the Iliad poet (4.405–408), although in other passages, such as 5.115–117 and 14.111–127, he seems to forget that Diomedes has proved himself in a previous war.⁷ If we trust the mythographers’ accounts,⁸ the sons of the Seven were led not by Adrastus’ son Aegialeus, as we might have expected, but (on the advice of Apollo’s oracle) by Alcmaon. After laying waste the villages in the surrounding country [cont.]

⁷ Robert, Oidipus, i.186, 195.

⁸ See especially Pindar, Pyth. 8.39–56; Diodorus 5.66; Apollodorus 3.7.2–4; Pausanias 9.5.13, 8.6, 9.4–5; Hyginus, Fabulae 71; Gantz, Early Greek Myth, 522–525.

p. 10

they met the Cadmean army at Glisas, five miles northeast of Thebes. Aegialeus was killed by Laodamas, the son of Eteocles,⁹ but the Thebans were routed and fled back to the city. Their seer Teiresias advised them to abandon it, and a stream of refugees departed. He went with them as far as Tilphusa, where he died. Some of them went and founded Hestiaea in Thessaly, others settled among the Encheleis, an Illyrian tribe. The victorious Epigoni sacked Thebes and captured Teiresias’ daughter Manto, whom they sent to Delphi as a thanks offering to Apollo (fr. 4). She ended up at Claros in Asia Minor, and established Apollo’s sanctuary there. The famous seer Mopsus was said to be her son.

Herodotus (4.32) expresses doubt about Homer’s authorship of the Epigoni, and a scholiast on Aristophanes (fr. 1) ascribes it to Antimachus, presumably meaning Antimachus of Teos, a poet who was supposed to have seen a solar eclipse in 753 bc.¹⁰ On the strength of this a verse quoted from Antimachus of Teos may be assigned to the Epigoni (fr. 2), and we may also infer that the epic contained a portent in which the sun turned dark. The interest in Claros would be appropriate for a poet from nearby Teos. But he probably wrote long after the eighth century.

⁹ He was the only one of the Epigoni to lose his life, as his father had been the only one to escape with his in the earlier conflict.

¹⁰ Plutarch, Life of Romulus, 12.2.