Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Eriphyle.
The gallery
Polynices Offering the Necklace of Harmonia to Eriphyle
Mannheim Painter, c. 450–440 BC
Attic red-figure oinochoe in the Louvre (G 442): Polynices extends the cursed necklace of Harmonia while Eriphyle reaches for the bribe that will send Amphiaraus to die at Thebes. The vase freezes the price of the Seven's war in a single exchange of gold for a husband's life.
Alcmaeon Killing His Mother Eriphyle
Unknown, c. 41–62
Pompeian wall painting (House of Siricus; now Naples, MANN 8994) shows Alcmaeon striking down Eriphyle — the son's revenge for the necklace that doomed Amphiaraus. Roman domestic art keeps the Argive matricide as theatre of blood and fate.
The Erinyes Drive Alcmaeon from the Corpse of Eriphyle
Henry Fuseli, 1821
Fuseli's Louvre canvas fills the aftermath with Furies: Alcmaeon recoils from his mother's body as the Erinyes claim him. Romantic terror restages the necklace's second harvest — the son who obeyed his father's dying charge.
In play
Odyssey
Homer
In the Nekyia, Odysseus names Eriphyle among the famous dead women — 'who took precious gold for her dear husband's life.'
Eriphyle
Wife of Amphiaraus, taker of Harmonia's necklace — the Argive queen whose bribe opened the road to Thebes and her own death.