Thebe (Ancient Greek: Θήβη) is a feminine name borne by several distinct figures in Greek mythology, four of whom are said to have given their names to three different cities called Thebes. The best known is the nymph Thebe, daughter of the Boeotian river god Asopus and the Arcadian naiad Metope; she consorted with Zeus, and the Boeotian city of Thebes was named after her. Other women of the same name are connected with Egyptian Thebes and Hypoplacian (Cilician) Thebes, and the name also appears for an Amazon and as an alternate name for the Titaness Phoebe.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Thebe (mythology)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.The name Thebe
Thebe (Ancient Greek: Θήβη, romanized: Thēbē; pronounced /ˈθiːbiː/, THEE-beh or THAY-bay) is a feminine name mentioned several times in Greek mythology, in accounts that imply multiple female characters, four of whom are said to have had three cities named Thebes after them.
Because the sources distribute the name across many figures, the mythographers attach it to different parentages and to different cities — chiefly the great city of Thebes in Boeotia, Thebes in Egypt, and Hypoplacian (Cilician) Thebes — so that no single coherent biography belongs to 'Thebe'; instead the name functions as a recurring eponym.
II.Thebe, daughter of Asopus
The most prominent figure of the name is Thebe, daughter of the river god Boeotian Asopus and the Arcadian naiad Metope, who was herself the daughter of the river god Ladon. This Thebe was said to have consorted with Zeus.
Amphion and Zethus named Boeotian Thebes after her because of their kinship, the twins being the sons of her sister Antiope by Zeus. According to one account, Egyptian Thebes was also named after her.
III.Other eponyms of Boeotian Thebes
Several other women named Thebe are also credited with giving their name to the Boeotian city. One is described as the daughter of Zeus and Megacleite and the sister of Locrus, the man who assisted Amphion and Zethus in the building of Thebes; she later married Zethus, and the Boeotian Thebes was named after her.
Another is named as a daughter of Prometheus and is likewise put forward as a possible eponym of the Boeotian Thebes.
IV.Thebe and Egyptian Thebes
A separate Thebe is named as the eponym of Thebes in Egypt. She was said to be the daughter of either Nilus, Proteus, or Libys, the son of Epirus.
In another account she was called the daughter of Zeus and Iodame and was given in marriage to Ogygus by her father after Deucalion's flood, and was the sister of another Deucalion. One rare version of the myth makes Thebe a consort of Zeus and the mother of Aegyptus and/or Heracles.
V.Thebe and the Cilician and Hypoplacian cities
Thebe, daughter of Cilix and thus sister of Thasus, is connected with the eastern Mediterranean. By Corybas, son of Cybele, she was the possible mother of Ida, who in turn bore Minos II to King Lycastus of Crete; this Thebe is possibly the eponym of Cilician Thebe.
Another Thebe was the daughter of the Pelasgian Adramys — the eponym of Adramyttium — or of the river god Granicus. She married Heracles, who named Hypoplacian Thebes after her.
VI.Further figures named Thebe
The name is also borne by figures unconnected with the cities called Thebes. One Thebe is simply identified as an Amazon.
Finally, Thebe occurs as an alternate name for the Titaness Phoebe.