Galaxy/The codex of Hippomedon

In Greek mythology, Hippomedon was one of the Seven against Thebes — an Argive champion who attacked a gate of the city (Oncaidian / Athena Onca in Aeschylus; Ogygian in Euripides) and was slain in the assault. Ancestry varies among Talaus, Aristomachus, and Mnesimachus; Pausanias still pointed to house foundations near Lerna. He is the Theban-war hero, not Trojan namesakes.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Hippomedon (Seven against Thebes)" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Family

Fathers named include Talaus (father of Adrastus), Aristomachus son of Talaus (Apollodorus' preference), or Mnesimachus by Metidice daughter of Talaus — making him Adrastus' sister's son. By Euanippe daughter of Elatus he is father of Polydorus the Epigonus; elsewhere his wife is Nealce and his son Demophon.

Homonyms include a father of Ereuthalion and Trojan defenders in Quintus Smyrnaeus. This entry is the Argive of the Seven only.

II.Among the Seven

Euripides' Suppliants paints him as austere, uninterested in comfort, devoted to combat training. In Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes he is huge and powerful, bears a fire-breathing Typhon on his shield, and assails Athena Onca's gate against Hyperbius. In the Phoenician Women his shield shows Argus Panoptes at the Ogygian Gates. Apollodorus has Ismarus son of Astacus kill him in the fighting.

Pausanias knew foundations of his house on Mount Pontinus at Lerna.

III.Statius' Thebaid

Statius gives him a long Book-9 aristeia: he fights over Tydeus' body, slays many (including young Crenaeus), and is nearly drowned when the river-god Ismenus swells against him. Hera persuades Zeus to spare that death; stripped of armor he falls under a storm of missiles. Hypseus takes his helmet as trophy before Capaneus kills Hypseus in turn.

The Latin epic elaborates a figure the Greek tragic lists keep brief.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameἹππομέδων
Roman nameHippomedon
Typehero
Domainsthe Seven against Thebes · the Oncaidian gate
ParentageAristomachus · Talaustellings differ →
SymbolsShield device (Typhon or Argus) · Seven gates
Cult centersLerna / Mount Pontinus (house foundations shown to Pausanias)
EtymologyAncient Greek Hippomédōn (Ἰππομέδων), "horse-ruler" or "lord of horses."
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