Cadmus⚖
Founder of the Cadmeia. Homer instead credits Amphion and Zethus with first establishing and walling seven-gated Thebes.1
Pentheus⚖
Son of Echion and Agave, torn apart on Cithaeron. Apollodorus has him succeed Cadmus directly; Hyginus lists him after Polydorus.2
Polydorus⚖
Son of Cadmus and Harmonia. In Hyginus' king list he follows Cadmus directly, before Pentheus.3
Labdacus
Son of Polydorus; perished like-minded with Pentheus, leaving the year-old Laius.4
Lycus
Brother of Nycteus — appointed guardian of the child Laius, or usurper of the throne, by the teller.5
Amphion & Zethus⚖
The twin sons of Antiope overthrew Lycus and walled the city — for Homer they are the founders of Thebes itself.6
Laius
Restored by the Thebans after the houses of Amphion and Zethus perished.7
Oedipus
Solved the Sphinx's riddle and took the kingdom — and, unknowing, his father's widow.8
Eteocles & Polynices
The brothers agreed to alternate the throne; Eteocles refused to yield, and the Seven marched on Thebes.9
Creon⚖
Succeeded to the kingdom after the brothers fell — in this telling, as king in his own right.10
Creon⚖
For Pausanias the kingdom devolved on Laodamas, with Creon merely guardian and regent.11
Laodamas
Son of Eteocles, faced the Epigoni — killed by Alcmaeon in Apollodorus, escaped to Illyria in Pausanias.12
Thersander
Son of Polynices, set over Thebes by the victorious Argives; fell to Telephus in Mysia on the way to Troy.13
Peneleos
Not king in his own right: Pausanias says Thebes sent Peneleos to lead the Boeotian contingent because Thersander's son Tisamenus was still too young; he fell to Eurypylus son of Telephus at Troy.14
Tisamenus
Son of Thersander and Demonassa daughter of Amphiaraus; chosen king after Peneleos' death. The Furies spared him as they had spared his father.15
Autesion
Son of Tisamenus; the Erinyes of Laius and Oedipus drove him out at the oracle's bidding, and he migrated to the Dorians. Father of Theras and, in the Spartan genealogies, of Argeia.16
Damasichthon
Son of Opheltes son of Peneleos; chosen when Autesion departed. One of the last sole kings at Thebes.17
Ptolemy
Son of Damasichthon; father of Xanthus in the closing Peneleid roll.18
Xanthus
Son of Ptolemy; last sole king. Killed in a duel with Andropompus by craft, not fair fight — after which Thebes divided the government among several magistrates.19
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · the reign index on the card follows your place · starred rulers link to their codices
HER SKY
a mini-galaxy of 101 dwellers
MYTHS SET HERE
21 tales walk these walls
… and 16 more
ON THE MAP
in Boeotia — Central Greece
Coordinates: Pleiades gazetteer, CC BY · place 541138