01The broken pact
Eteocles and Polynices agreed to alternate the throne of Thebes year by year. Eteocles refused to yield it, and Polynices went as an exile to Argos, where king Adrastus gave him a daughter and an army.
SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας
Cursed by their father Oedipus, the sons of the Theban house turned on each other: Polynices brought seven Argive captains against the seven gates of Thebes, and the brothers died on each other's spears.
The tale
02Seven captains at seven gates
Seven champions led the host against the seven gates. The boast of Capaneus ended in lightning — Zeus struck him from the wall as he swore not even the gods would keep him out of the city.
03Menoeceus at the gates
Tiresias told the besieged Thebans they would prevail if Menoeceus, son of Creon, offered himself freely to Ares. Hearing it, the young man went out and slew himself before the gates.
04The brothers' duel
Eteocles and Polynices met in single combat and killed each other. The kingdom passed into Creon's hands — as king outright by one telling, as regent for Eteocles' son Laodamas by another.
05Antigone's defiance
Creon cast out the Argive dead unburied and set watchmen over them. Antigone stole the body of her brother Polynices and buried it in secret — and was detected by Creon himself.
06The Epigoni
A generation later the sons of the Seven returned. Thebes was beaten at Glisas and abandoned; Laodamas fell to Alcmaeon — or led the survivors away to Illyria — and the Argives set Thersander, son of Polynices, upon the throne.
Cast
OedipusFather of the curseEteoclesHolder of the thronePolynicesThe exiled brotherCreonRuler after the fallAntigoneThe defiant sisterTiresiasThe blind seerMenoeceusThe willing sacrificeAdrastusKing of Argos, leader of the hostCapaneusThe lightning-struck boasterAmphiarausThe seer who foresaw his deathLaodamasEteocles' heirThersanderKing set up by the Epigoni
Places
Told in
- Pseudo-Apollodorus — The Library3.6-3.7
- Pausanias — Description of Greece9.5, 9.8-9.9
- Hyginus — Fabulae67-72