In Greek mythology, Eurydice (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη), sometimes called Henioche, was the wife of Creon, king (or regent) of Thebes. In Sophocles' Antigone she takes her own life after learning of the death of her son Haemon.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Eurydice of Thebes" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Overview
In Greek mythology, Eurydice (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη, "wide justice"), sometimes called Henioche, was the wife of Creon, a king of Thebes.
II.Family
Eurydice was probably the mother of Creon's five children: Menoeceus (Megareus), Lycomedes, Haemon, Megara and Pyrrha.
III.Sophocles' account
She appears briefly in Sophocles' Antigone (as an "archetypal grieving, saddened mother" and an older counterpart to Antigone). Eurydice kills herself after a messenger tells her that her son Haemon and his betrothed, Antigone, have both killed themselves in protest of Antigone's unjust imprisonment by Haemon's father Creon. She thrusts a sword into her liver and curses Creon for the death of her two sons.
IV.Statius' account
The seer Tiresias predicts that if a son of Creon voluntarily throws himself off the wall, the city will be saved. Then Menoeceus decided to sacrifice himself and jumped off the wall. When his dead body was carried on the shoulders by a few people, Eurydice bursts through town in a wail of:
Eventually, she was led away by friendly hands to the palace. The lamentation, however, was getting worse, so her companions and servants were forced to lock Eurydice into her room. There, she ploughed her face with her nails, pulled her hair out of her head and continued to mourn for months. In the end, she lost her voice, no longer looked towards the light, did not listen to supplications and lost her mind.
V.Homonyms
This atlas entry (eurydice-thebes) is the wife of Creon of Thebes in tragedy. Other Eurydices — Orpheus's wife (eurydice-orpheus), Nestor's wife (eurydice-nestor), and a Danaid (eurydice-danaid) — are separate nodes.