The Seven Against Thebes

After the voluntary abdication of Oedipus, his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, took possession of the crown and reigned over the city of Thebes. But Eteocles, being an ambitious prince, soon seized the reins of government himself and expelled his brother from the throne.

Polynices now traveled to Argos, where he arrived in the dead of night. Outside the gates of the royal palace he encountered Tydeus, the son of Oeneus, king of Calydon. Having accidentally killed a relative while hunting, Tydeus was also a fugitive; but being mistaken by Polynices in the darkness for an enemy, a quarrel ensued, which might have ended fatally, had not King Adrastus, aroused by the clamor, appeared on the scene and separated the combatants.

By the light of the torches borne by his attendants, Adrastus observed, to his surprise, that on the shield of Polynices a lion was depicted, and on that of Tydeus a boar. The former bore this insignia in honor of the renowned hero Heracles, the latter in memory of the famous Calydonian boar hunt. This circumstance reminded the king of an extraordinary oracular prediction concerning his two beautiful daughters, Argia and Deipyle, which was to the effect that he would give them in marriage to a lion and a boar. Hailing with delight what he regarded as an auspicious solution of the mysterious prophecy, he invited the strangers into his palace; and when he heard their history, and had convinced himself that they were of noble birth, he bestowed upon Polynices his beautiful daughter Argia, and upon Tydeus the fair Deipyle, promising at the same time that he would assist both his sons-in-law to regain their rightful inheritance.

The first care of Adrastus was to help Polynices regain his lawful share in the government of Thebes. He accordingly invited the most powerful chiefs in his kingdom to join in the expedition, all of whom readily obeyed the call with the exception of the king's brother-in-law, Amphiaraus, the seer. As he foresaw a disastrous end to the enterprise, and knew that not one of the heroes, except Adrastus himself, would return alive, he earnestly dissuaded the king from carrying out his plan, and declined to take any part in the undertaking. But Adrastus, supported by Polynices and Tydeus, was stubbornly bent on achieving his purpose, and Amphiaraus, in order to escape their urgings, hid himself in a hiding place known only to his wife Eriphyle.

Now on the occasion of the marriage of Amphiaraus it had been agreed that, if he ever differed in opinion with the king, his wife should decide the question. Since the presence of Amphiaraus was necessary for the success of the undertaking, and because Adrastus would not proceed without "the eye of the army," as he called his brother-in-law, Polynices, determined to secure his services, decided to bribe Eriphyle to use her influence with her husband and to decide the question in line with his wishes. He thought of the beautiful necklace of Harmonia, wife of Cadmus, which he had brought with him in his flight from Thebes. Without delay he presented himself before the wife of Amphiaraus, and held up to her admiring gaze the glittering trinket, promising that if she revealed the hiding place of her husband and induced him to join the expedition, the necklace would be hers.

Eriphyle, unable to resist the tempting bait, accepted the bribe, and thus Amphiaraus was forced to join the army. But before leaving his home he extracted a solemn promise from his son Alcmaeon that, should he die on the battlefield, he would avenge his death on his mother, the treacherous Eriphyle.

Seven leaders were now chosen, each at the head of a separate detachment of troops. These were Adrastus the king, his two brothers Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, Capaneus his nephew, Polynices and Tydeus, and Amphiaraus.

When the army was assembled they set out for Nemea, which was at that time ruled by King Lycurgus. Here the Argives, being short of water, stopped on the edge of a forest to search for a spring, when they saw a majestic and beautiful woman seated on the trunk of a tree, nursing an infant. They concluded from her noble and queenly appearance that she must be a goddess, but were informed by her that she was Hypsipyle, queen of the Lemnians, who had been carried away captive by pirates, and sold as a slave to King Lycurgus, and that she was now acting as nurse to his infant son. When the warriors told her that they were in search of water, she laid the child down in the grass, and led them to a secret spring in the forest, with which she alone was acquainted. But on their return they found, to their grief, that the unfortunate baby had been killed during their absence by a serpent.

They killed the reptile, and then collecting the remains of the infant, they buried them with funeral honors and proceeded on their way.

The warlike host now appeared before the walls of Thebes, and each leader placed himself before one of the seven gates of the city in readiness for the attack. Eteocles, together with Creon, had made proper preparations to repel the invaders, and had stationed troops, under the command of trusted leaders, to guard each of the gates. Then, according to the custom of the ancients of consulting soothsayers before entering upon any undertaking, the blind old seer Tiresias was sent for, who, after carefully taking the omens from the flight of birds, declared that all efforts to defend the city would be useless, unless the youngest descendant of the house of Cadmus would offer himself as a voluntary sacrifice for the good of the state.

When Creon heard the words of the seer, his first thought was of his favorite son Menoeceus, the youngest scion of the royal house, who was present at the interview. He therefore earnestly begged him to leave the city and to seek safety at Delphi. But the gallant youth heroically resolved to sacrifice his life for the benefit of his country, and after taking leave of his old father, mounted the city walls, and plunging a dagger into his heart, perished in the sight of the contending armies.

Adrastus now gave his troops the command to storm the city, and they rushed forward to the attack with great valor. The battle raged long and furiously, and after heavy losses on both sides the Argives were routed and put to flight.

After the passage of some days they reorganized their forces, and again appeared before the gates of Thebes, when Eteocles, grieved to think that there should be such a terrible loss of life on his account, sent a herald into the opposite camp, with a proposal that the fate of the campaign should be decided by single combat between himself and his brother Polynices. The challenge was readily accepted, and in the duel which took place outside the city walls, in the sight of the rival forces, Eteocles and Polynices were both fatally wounded and died on the battlefield.

Both sides now claimed the victory, and the result was that hostilities resumed, and soon the battle raged with greater fury than ever. But victory at last declared itself for the Thebans. In their flight the Argives lost all their leaders, except Adrastus, who owed his safety to the speed of his horse Arion.

By the death of the brothers, Creon became once more king of Thebes, and in order to show his abhorrence of the conduct of Polynices in fighting against his country, he strictly forbade anyone to bury either his remains or those of his allies. But the faithful Antigone, who had returned to Thebes on the death of her father, could not bear that the body of her brother should remain unburied. She therefore bravely disobeyed the orders of the king, and tried to give burial to the remains of Polynices.

When Creon discovered that his commands had been defied, he cruelly condemned the devoted maiden to be entombed alive in a subterranean vault. But retribution was at hand. His son, Haemon, who was engaged to Antigone, having managed to enter the vault, was horrified to find that Antigone had hanged herself by her veil. Feeling that life without her would be intolerable, he threw himself in despair on his own sword, and after solemnly calling down the curse of the gods upon the head of his father, died beside the dead body of his betrothed.

Hardly had the news of the tragic fate of his son reached the king, when another messenger appeared, bearing the news that his wife Eurydice, on hearing of the death of Haemon, had put an end to her own life, and thus the king found himself in his old age both widowed and childless.

Nor did he succeed in carrying out his vengeful plans; for Adrastus, who after his flight from Thebes had taken refuge at Athens, convinced Theseus to lead an army against the Thebans, to compel them to restore the dead bodies of the Argive warriors to their friends, so that they might perform proper funeral rites in honor of the slain. This undertaking was successfully accomplished, and the remains of the fallen heroes were buried with due honors.