The War of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

         Oedipus' curse.

                         When Oedipus was found guilty of murder and incest he was forced to abdicate.
                         The man who unwittingly had killed his father and slept with his mother, found
                         himself, not only deprived of his throne and reputation, but also despised by his
                         sons, who kept him isolated afraid of showing this walking family shame. Oedipus
                         met this outrage by cursing his sons Polynices and Eteocles 1 so that they never
                         would come to terms as to who would become Oedipus' successor and king of
                         Thebes.

                              "When I was thrust from hearth and home; when I was banned and
                              banished, they never raised a hand. Then may the gods never quench
                              their fatal feud. That neither he who holds the sceptre now may keep
                              his throne, nor he who fled the realm return again."

[Oedipus.Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus ]

         Brothers' compact

                         In order to avoid their father's curse Polynices and Eteocles 1 had made at first an
                         agreement with each other, and decided that each should rule alternately for one
                         year at a time. But this deal did not last long, and Oedipus had not yet died when
                         Polynices was already raising an army to march against his younger brother
                         Eteocles  who, having seized power, banished him, refusing to share the throne.
 

         Renewed curse.

                         When Polynices met the exiled Oedipus at Colonus, asking for his father's support
                         because an oracle had said that he who counted Oedipus as an ally would win, he
                         received a renewed curse from Oedipus, which also meant that the brothers were
                         doomed to kill each other and never rule:

                              This curse I leave you as my last bequest: Never to win by arms your
                              native land, nor return to Argos, but by a kinman's hand to die and
                              slay."

                              [Oedipus to Polynices. Sophocles]
 

         Help from abroad.
 

When Polynices saw himself betrayed and banished he took with him the
Robe &Necklace of Harmonia , a Theban treasure, and came to Argos. On arriving by
night to the palace of King Adrastus  he met another exile, Tydeus, who had fled
 from Calydon, and engaged in a fight with him. With their noises they woke up the
king who parted them. Some say that Adrastus  compared them to wild beasts
because they came to blows about the bed. But others say that when Adrastus
examined the boar and lion in their shields he remembered the words of a seer who
had told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion. So Adrastus
thought he would interprete the seer's words in the best manner if he married these
two exiles to his daughters, which he did, at the same time promising that he would
restore them both to their native lands, Polynices first. Not seldom internal
disorders in one land lead to foreign involvement, and this is how the Theban
conflict turned into an affair between different kingdoms.

         Different opinions about the Theban crisis.
 

                         But just as there are always those who find high reasons to intervene in what they
                         feel is the concern of all, there are also those who are always reluctant to engage in
                         what they feel should not concern them. So, on the matter of intervention in
                         Thebes, the opinions of the Argives were almost as divided as Argos itself, as at
                         that time there were in Argos three kingdoms, the kings being Adrastus ,
                         Amphiaraus and Iphis . And while Adrastus  had already promised the exiles to
                         make war, Amphiaraus, who was a seer and knew that the expedition against
                         Thebes would fail, refused to participate. But as he who has disorder at home is
                         weaker, Amphiaraus was at last forced to join the coalition, betrayed by his own
                         wife Eriphyle who let herself be bribed by the party that advocated war [read
                         details about this treason in Robe & Necklace of Harmonia ]. That Amphiaraus
                         was not taking counsel only from his own peaceful nature is proved by the fact that,
                         on leaving for Thebes, he instructed his sons, that, when they were grown up, they
                         should slay their mother and march against Thebes.

         Right & Force.
 

                         In this way was achieved the coalition who marched against the town of the seven
                         gates. And while Eteocles  sat in his precarious throne at Thebes, and was
                         suspected of being a man who breaks his promises because of his power
                         ambitions, his brother Polynices, who succeeded in raising an army to defend his
                         own rights, was now suspected of wishing to cause his own native land's
                         destruction.

                              Antigone : Turn back your host to Argos with all speed, and ruin not
                              yourself and Thebes as well.
                              Polynices: That cannot be. It is a shame to live in exile, and shall I, the
                              elder, bear a younger brother's flouts?
                              Antigone : But brother, what profit from your country's ruin comes?
                              Will you then bring to pass the prophecies of he who threatens mutual
                              slaughter to you both?

                              [Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus ]
 

         Polynices' view.
 

                         Polynices has argued that:

                              "After consenting to our deal and calling the gods to witness his oath,
                              Eteocles has performed none of his promises, but is still keeping the
                              sovereignty in his own hands together with my share of our heritage.
                              And now I am ready to take my own and dismiss the army from this
                              land, receiving my house in turn to dwell in, and once more restore it
                              to him for an equal period, instead of ravaging our country and
                              bringing scaling-ladders against the towers as I shall attempt to do if  I
                              do not get my rights."
 
                              [Polynices. Euripides, Phoenician Women ]
 

         How Eteocles argued.

                              "I am ashamed to think that Polynices should gain his object by
                              coming with arms and ravaging the land; for this would be a disgrace
                              to Thebes, if I should yield my scepter up to him for fear of Argive
                              might. He ought not to have attempted reconcilement by armed force.
                              Still, if on any other terms he cares to dwell here, he may; but power I
                              shall never willingly let go. Shall I become his slave, when I can rule? I
                              will not give up government to him. For if we must do wrong, to do so
                              for government is the fairest cause, but in all else piety should be our
                              aim."

                              [Eteocles 1. Euripides, Phoenician Women]
 
 

         Face to face.

                         When war had already broken, the brothers met during a short truce and harshly
                         declared their views to each other:

                              Polyneices: Once more I demand back my scepter and share of the
                              land.
                              Eteocles: I admit no demand; I will live in my own house.
                              Polyneices: And keep more than your share?
                              Eteocles: Yes. Leave the country!
                              Polyneices: O altars of my fathers' gods...
                              Eteocles: Which you are here to destroy.
                              Polyneices:...Hear me...
                              Eteocles: Who would hear you after you have marched against your
                              fatherland?
                              Polyneices: I am being driven from my country...
                              Eteocles: Yes, for you came to destroy it.
                              Polyneices: You have become unholy...
                              Eteocles: But I have not, like you, become my country's enemy.
                              Polyneices: By driving me out without my portion.

                                                          [Euripides, Phoenician Women ]
 

         Meeting in Nemea.

                         As the brothers could not be reconciled the Argive army, with Theban Polynices as
                         one of its seven commanders marched against Thebes.

                         The army of the SEVEN came first to Nemea where they sought for water. King of
                         Nemea was at the time Lycurgus , son of Pheres , son of Cretheus , son of
                         Aeolus , son of Hellen , son of Deucalion , the man who survived The Flood.
                         Lycurgus , who some call Lycus , was father of the child Opheltes, and in
                         charge of this child as his nurse was Hypsipyle. This Hypsipyle had been Queen of
                         the Lemnian women but was afterwards sold into slavery by them, the reason being
                         that, when the Lemnian women decided to kill their husbands and all men in
                         Lemnos because of their having taken Thracian wives, Hypsipyle secretly spared
                         her father. But this was not yet public when the ARGONAUTS arrived to Lemnos,
                         and Jason, their captain, fell in love with her and had children by her. One of them,
                         Euneus , became later King of Lemnos, and is known for having sent ships from
                         the island with cargoes of wine for the Achaeans during the Trojan War.
 

         Absent-minded nurse.

                         But now, years after the expedition of the ARGONAUTS and years before the
                         Trojan War, when the SEVEN came to Nemea looking for water, Hypsipyle
                         showed them the way to a spring, and doing so she left behind the little prince
                         Opheltes  who was killed by a serpent, or as some say, devoured by a dragon.
 

         Embassy.

                         After celebrating the Nemean games in honor of the dead prince, the army came to
                         Cithaeron (the mountain between Boeotia and Attica) whence Tydeus was sent as
                         ambassador to Thebes to tell Eteocles  to cede the kingdom to Polynices as they
                         had previously agreed.
 
 

         The Army ad portas.

                         As this embassy had no effect the army approached the walls of Thebes and each
                         commander was stationed in each of the seven gates, with the whole host behind
                         them. Now, when the sight becomes blurred in face of growing troubles, some
                         think that resorting to divination might help them to see clearer, and so did Eteocles
                         and his government, who decided to listen to what the famous seer Tiresias had
                         to say, and the seer was of the opinion that the Thebans should be victorious if
                         Menoeceus , son of Creon , would sacrifice himself voluntarily. And that is why
                         Menoeceus , a firm believer in seers, slew himself before the gates.
 
 

         Oedipus' curse fulfilled.

                         As the fight was taking many lives, Capaneus' one of the first [see the list of
                         commanders above], the armies decided that the brothers should fight in single
                         combat, and in that fight Polynices and Eteocles slew each other, thus fulfilling
                         Oedipus' curse.
 

         Barbaric behaviour does not lead to immortality.
 

                         During the fight Tydeus killed the Theban Melanippus 1, but was himself mortally
                         wounded by him in the belly. As Tydeus lay almost dead, Athena approached with
                         a medicine she had received from Zeus, and by which she intended to make him
                         immortal. But then Amphiaraus cut off the head of Melanippus  and gave it to
                         Tydeus, who opened it and gulped up the brains. So when Athena saw this utterly
                         disgusting scene, she withheld the intended privilege.
 
 

         Amphiaraus vanishes.

                         Short after, when Amphiaraus was about to be killed, Zeus cleft the earth with a
                         thunderbolt, and Amphiaraus vanished, chariot and charioteer included.
 
 

         Thebes survives and so do its troubles.

                         All commanders died except Adrastus , but the defeat of the SEVEN did not put
                         an end to Thebes' troubles. Creon  came to power after the death of Eteocles ,
                         and because he forbade to bury the dead enemies, an Athenian intervention under
                         the command of Theseus took place who obliged him to carry on the regular
                         funeral practices. But Antigone , Oedipus' daughter, who resisted Creon's
                         unholy edict, and in secret buried her brother Polynices, was detected and interred
                         alive. Ten years after these events, the sons of the SEVEN, called the EPIGONI,
                         marched against Thebes and were victorious.
 

                                 The SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

 Amphiaraus.
               Son of Oicles, or as some say, son of Apollo, Amphiaraus was a seer and
               foreseeing that all who joined Adrastus 1 against Thebes would perish, he
               refused at first to join the expedition but was finally forced to go to war.
               Amphiaraus was about to be killed in battle by Periclymenus 3, but Zeus
               saved him by splitting the earth and he vanished for ever. They say Zeus
               made him immortal.
 

 Capaneus.
               Capaneus was the husband of Evadne 2, the daughter of the third king of
               Argos, Iphis 1. It is said that Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt when he
               was climbing the walls of Thebes, and that his wife threw herself on the
               funeral pyre and was burned with him. Capaneus, so they say, was raised
               from the dead by Asclepius.
 

 Eteoclus.
               King Iphis  did not join the expedition himself, but sent his son Eteoclus,
               who was killed by Leades.
 

 Hippomedon
               Hippomedon , who some call son of Aristomachus , others son of
               Talaus, and still others son of Mnesimachus, also perished in this war,
               killed by Ismarus , a brother of Leades
 

 Parthenopaeus.
               Some say that Parthenopaeus was son of Talaus & Lysimache , but
               others call him son of Atalanta (either by Meleager, Melanion or Ares). It
               is not clear who killed him at Thebes: it could have been Amphidicus,
               Periclymenus  or Dryas . Dryas , who died mysteriously in battle, was
               a chieftain from Tanagra who came to defend Thebes with one thousand
               archers.
 

 Polynices.
               Son of Oedipus in feud with his brother Eteocles . They killed each other
               in single combat. His son Thersander  became king of Thebes after the
               war of the EPIGONI, but was later killed by Telephus, son of Heracles
               when the Achaean fleet sailing against Troy arrived by mistake in Mysia.
 

 Tydeus.
               The celebrated Tydeus from Calydon was sent by the SEVEN to tell
               Eteocles  that he must cede the kingdom to Polynices, as they had agreed
               among themselves, and during his embassy, defending himself from an
               ambush, killed fifty men in single combat. Tydeus is father of Diomedes 2.
               To these commanders some have added Mecisteus , son of Talaus and
               father of Euryalus  (one of the ACHAEAN LEADERS against Troy).
               Mecisteus  was killed by Melanippus .