Seven Against Thebes, Third Of The Theban Trilogy -- June 27, 2020

Geography:

• Thessaly (Aeolia): northeastern Greece 
• Boeotia: sits between Aeolia (Thessaly) and Attica
• Attica: southeastern Greece; end of the Greek peninsula coming down from rest of Europe: Thebes, Athens;
• Peloponnesia: to the southwest of rest of mainland Greece; became an island with canal across Corinth cut; Argos just on the other side of the canal (in Peloponnese); Sparta

Thebes: about an hour north of Athens on modern roads.

• a city in Boeotia: one of the regional units of Greece
• part of the region of Central Greece
• capital is Livadeia, but the largest city is Thebes
• Boeotia, southwest of Thessaly, was known as Aeolia 
• Boeotians may have been related to Thessaly
• said to have been dispossessed by the northwestern Thessalians two generations after the fall of Troy

Thebes: why it's important

• played an important role in Greek myths
• site of stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysis, Heracles, others
• clay tablets, Linear B script -- Bronze Age
• remember: fall of Troy: end of the Bronze Age
• largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia; leader of the Boeotian confederacy
• a major rival of Athens
• sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes
• Theban forces ended the power of Sparta, 371 BC
• elite Sacred Band of Thebes fell against Philip II and Alexander the Great, 335 BC

Diomedes:

• a hero in Greek mythology for role in Trojan War
• Iliad: Achilles at the top warrior, but the next three:
• Ajax the Great; Agamemnon; and Diomedes
• these three: the Aecheans want one of these three to fight Hector out of nine volunteers (included Odysseus and Ajax the Lesser)
• note: Jason and the Argonauts, Golden Fleece: about 1300 BC; before the Trojan War;
• Argos: Peloponnese
• maternal grandfather: Adrastus -- legendary king of Argos during the wars of the Seven Against Thebes
• parents: Tydeus (Aetolian) and Deipyle (Argive -- resident of Argos)
• Diomedes: becomes king of Argos following his maternal grandfather, Adrastus
• founded ten Italian cities
• after his death, worshipped as a god by both Greeks and Romans

Background:

• Tydeus expelled from his homeland, Thebes
• found refuge with his maternal grandfather, the king of Argos
• Argos agreed to help; gathered an expeditionary force to march against Thebes
• this force made up up seven individual champions, each assigned to lead an assalt on one of the seven gates of the city
• Tydeus, Polynices and Adrastus were among them
• sort of foreshadowing the Trojan War
• these seven known as the "Seven Against Thebes"
• disastrous; all seven slain except King Adrastus, escaped on his fast horse Arion
• Tydeus was slain
• Diomedes was four years old when his dad was killed -- so, if Diomedes fought in the Trojan War, "seven against Thebes" occurred before the Trojan War;
  
• the sons of the seven fallen vowed to vanquish Thebes in order to avenge their father; called the Epigoni -- they were born after everything has happened
• ten years later they march on Thebes
• the war of the Epigoni is remembered as the most important expedition in Greek mythology before the Trojan War
• a favorite topic for epics but all those epics have been lost
• the son of King Adrastus was killed in this battle; the only male heir left was Diomedes
• Diomedes made king; in order to secure the throne, he married the daughter of his brother princes Aegialia
• so, Diomedes was king of Argos

Now switching gears:

• Diomedes paternal grandfather, Oeneus put in jail -- Calydonian politics; Caldon, homeland of Tydeus

Now, back to Tydeus:

• an Aeolian hero of the generation before the Trojan War
• Aeolian (Thessaly): northeast mainland Greece; northeast of Athens
• one of the seven against Thebes
• father of Diomedes, frequently known by the patronymic Tydides
• Tydeus: parents were Oeneus and either Periboea or Oeneus's daughter (incest)
• Tydeus: husband of Deipyle, the mother of Diomedes
• Adrastus, king of Argos
• housed Tydeus, who married daughter of Adrastus
• also housed Polynices (led the seven against Thebes)
• exiled son of Oedipus who had shared the rule of Thebes with brother Eteocles
• Tydeus and Polynices got into a brawl
• Tydeus (boar) and Polynices (lion)
• Adrastus wed his daughters to those two men
• so ultimately, Diomedes becomes king of Argos and heirs of Polynices are restored to Thebes

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Aeschylus
Seven Against Thebes

Zeld, p. 351:

"Considering how few of Aeschylus' tragedies have survived, it is amazing that in The Frogs Aristophanes mentions both The Persians and Seven Against Thebes, from five years earlier, as examples of military bravado. Aeschylus replies that they were written in praise of Ares -- that is to say a sort of mobilization-text intended to around the spectators' "spirit of war" and the desire to fight the enemy by showing what heroic courage is."

Greeks defeat the Persians:

• Greeks: moderating
• Persians: defeated by their own hubris

Thebes: setting for the story of Oedipus.

Oedipus was brother of Polynices; the latter led the seven against Thebes; all seven died except King Andrastus

• if I understand the genealogy, Oedipus impregnated his mother Jacosta: Polynices was one of the four offspring from that incestuous relationship
• mother Jacosta
• sons (and brothers) Oedipus and Polynices
• father and son: Oedipus (father) and Polynices (son)
• father and brother: Oedipus
• mother and wife: Jacosta

The trilogy, referred to as the Oedipodea:

• Laius (no long extant)
• Oedipus (no long extant)
• Seven Against Thebes (only one of the three that survives)

The trilogy won first prize at Dionysia.

Three generations, beginning with King Laios, through Oedipus, and the children of Oedipus and his wife/mother:

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene.

 

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Sophocles

Three Theban Plays

See "the three tragedians."

Sophocles "three Theban plays":

• Oedipus Rex
• Oedipus at Colonus
• Antigone

Parents -- King Laios and Queen Jacosta: Thebes


Oedipus:

• daughter: Antigone was his guide after he blinded himself
• sons: Eteocles and Polynices, sharing the kingdom; ultimately leads to seven against Theses
• both Eteolcles and Polynices are killed (killed each other)
• a third brother, Creon, took the throne
• conflict between Antigone and Creon (different stories by Sophocles and Euripides

Apparently all three great Greek tragedians wrote about this story.

• Sophocles, already mentioned
• in Euripides' plays on the subject; Jocasta did not kill herself
• the blinding of Oedipus does not appear in sources earlier than Aeschylus