2nd most important city in myth
thebes, Mycenae is number one
2 The Founding of Thebes stories
First: Cadmus fights a dragon
• Second: the divine twins Amphion and Zethus
Both stories are reflected in the city’s naming
Main city is called Thebes after Zethus’ wife Thebê.
• The acropolis (the heights) is called the Cadmeia after Cadmus.
Cadmus and the Site of Thebes
Cadmus, son of Agenor and brother of Europa, is sent by his father to
find her.
• Zeus as a bull, you will remember, had ferried Europa to Crete.
• Ultimately Cadmus goes to the oracle for help.
• Oracle at Delphi tells him to give up the search and found a city
instead.
• ‘Follow the cow with special markings and found your city where she
rests.’
Site of Thebes (naming convention)
City = Thebes; region = Boeotia: ‘Cowland’
Cadmus and the Dragon
et a huge serpent/dragon lives at a nearby spring (sacred to Ares). It
kills Cadmus’ men, who had gone to get water for the sacrifice of the
cow.
• After a great struggle, Cadmus himself pins the dragon to a tree.
• Following Athena’s suggestion, he knocks out the dragon’s teeth and
plants ½ of them. Athena gives the second ½ to Aeetes, Medea’s father.
• Armed men grow from the spot, when Cadmus throws a stone into their
midst, they immediately start fighting each other (remember this scene).
• Only five remain at the end, the Sparti, who become the heads of the five
great Theban families.
• Sparti = ‘sown men’; no relation to Sparta.
What happens to Cadmus and Harmonia?
Exhausted and grief stricken, they eventually and found a new kingdom.
• Finally, they are turned into?
• Snakes (Ares strikes back for the killing of his snake?)
Second Foundation Story:
Amphion and Zethus
Antiopê is seduced by Zeus.
• Antiopê flees in shame to Sicyon, Nycteus kills himself in shame, and Lycus pursues her and
brings her back.
• On the return, Antiope gives birth to twin sons, Amphion and Zethus.
• Twins are abandoned but raised by a shepherd on Cithaeron.
• Antiopê mistreated because of her ‘adultery,’ but escapes and finds her sons, who avenge her.
• Then they found Thebes, which is named for Zethus’ wife, Thebê.
• How build walls?
• Amphion = music and intellect, Zethus = action.
The Two Foundings of Thebes
One story has Near Eastern parallels, modelled after cosmic
dragon combat (and creation story—cf. Tiamat and Marduk)?
– Dragon’s teeth ≈ NE origin of men (men grow from earth like plants)?
– Here ‘downgraded’ to source of just 5 Theban families
• The other founding story is local and more like a folktale.
– Twins with opposing characters but saved from early death to return in
triumph.
Oedipus 1
The marriage of Laius and Jocasta thus reunites the two parts of the family
tree.
• Yet Laius was told by an oracle that if they have a son the child would kill
him.
When Oedipus is born, Laius worries about the oracle and
has Oedipus abandoned.
Slave who is supposed to abandon the baby gives him to a shepherd he
knows, who in turn gives baby Oedipus to the King and Queen of
Corinth (Polybus and Merope).
• They raise the baby as their own (and only) child.
• They heal his feet and name him Oedipus (‘swollen foot’) (oid- also
= know?)
oedipus 2
Oedipus grows up as Prince of Corinth.
• His ‘mother’ won’t address the rumors that he was adopted.
• So, he goes to Delphi to ask who his parents are.
• Oracle refuses to say who his parents are.
• But the Pythia does say that Oedipus will kill his father and
marry his mother.
oedipus 3
Oedipus then continues on to Thebes, finds the Sphinx
terrorizing the city.
• Sphinx = female human-headed lion with wings who would
kill all who did not answer her riddle (riddle is not given in
our play):
• ‘What goes on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and
three in the evening?
Oedipus: ‘A human’ (Gk. anthropos)
– crawls as baby
– walks as adult
– needs cane in old age
• Sphinx kills herself in shock and shame; Oedipus has
saved Thebes and so is made king.
• King Laius has, after all, recently died…
His ability to solve the riddle
reveals his power of
intelligence: but can he solve
the riddle of his own identity?
oedipus 4
As king, he marries the previous queen Jocasta.
• They have four kids:
– Sons Polynices and Eteocles
– Daughters Antigonê and Ismenê
• Cause of Laius’ death is never determined.
• Years later:
• Plague comes to Thebes, many sick and dying.
• This is where Sophocles’ play begins . . .
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King
Greatest of all Greek tragedies (per Aristotle), This play is about how Oedipus comes to learn the truth, NOT
about why he was fated to do what he did.Greatness of Oedipus = his greatness as a human
• His intellectual perseverance despite what the truth might bring! Oedipus now goes inside to find Jocasta, who has hanged herself.
• Oedipus pokes out his eyes with her brooch pins, because he has
seen things he should not have.
• He returns to the stage a blind man who only now sees the whole
truth (cf. the blind Teiresias earlier).The moment of recognition for Oedipus is the very moment of his reversal of
fortune
– Aristotle thought this was the perfect tragedy.
– anagnorisis (recognition) and peripeteia (reversal of fortune) happen at the
same moment!
The Death of Oedipus
Under the protection of Theseus, Oedipus dies in the Grove
of the Furies near Colonus, near Athens (this is Athenian
tragedy, remember!).
• Only Theseus knows where Oedipus lay down in the grove.
• The grove then becomes a hero shrine to Oedipus and, thus,
a local hero to protect Athens.
• Sophocles himself was from Colonus, a village just outside of
Athens: this was his last play and put on after his death.
Thebes After Oedipus
Oedipus’ sons Eteocles and Polynices agree to share power
in Thebes and rule in alternate years.
• Eteocles goes first, refuses to give up the kingship, then
forces Polynices into exile; Polynices flees to Argos.
• Adrastus, King of Argos, takes up his cause and assembles his
warlords to capture Thebes for Polynices.
• Including Adrastus and Polynices, these great warlords are
the ‘Seven Against Thebes’.
• Thebes, by the way, has seven gates, so each warlord attacks
one of them.
Seven Against Thebes
Eteocles finds himself paired with Polynices, brother upon brother
in this cursed family.
• Each stabs the other with a spear.
• Eteocles delivers what looks like the death blow with his sword, then
starts to strip Polynices of his armor.
• Polynices with his last breath thrusts his sword into his brother’s guts;
both die.
• Of the Seven, only Adrastus escapes back to Argos; Thebes is spared.
Thebes After the Seven
Oedipus’ sons are dead, and the kingship now goes to Jocasta’s brother
Creon.
• Creon declares Eteocles a hero, Polynices a traitor, and he decrees
that anyone who buries this traitor will suffer the death penalty.
Sophocles’ Antigonê
Antigonê defies Creon’s order, offers Polynices symbolic burial (last rites
with a handful of dust).
• She claims that the laws of the gods demand burial and that those laws are
greater than the laws of Creon and the city. Creon finds that Antigonê has hanged herself.
• The grieving Haemon tries to kill Creon, but fails; kills himself.
• Creon’s wife when she learns that Haemon has killed himself will do the
same.
Antigonê: Revenge of the Parthenos?
Politically, Antigonê is the conservative, and Creon is the progressive.
– Advantage goes to? Creon at first, then Antigonê.
• Philosophically, Creon advocates customary law (nomos) and Antigonê
natural law (physis).
– Advantage goes to? Likely Antigonê.
• Gender-wise, Antigonê is the untamed parthenos which no civic power can
stop.
– Advantage goes to? Very likely Creon.
• Sophocles the progressive man who yet believes in natural law?
• His hero = a flexible Creon?
