Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1170

 1146 THEBAE BOEOTIAE. builders of its walls. {Od. xi. 262.) But the Ingo- graphers placed Ampliior. and Zethus lower down in the series, as ve shall presently see. The legends connected with the foundation of the city hy Cadnms are related elsewhere. [^Dict. of Biotjr. and Myth. art. Cadmus.] The five Sjjarti, who were the only survivors of the warriors sj)rung from the dragon's teeth, were the reputed ancestors of the noblest families in Thebes, which iiore the name of Sparti down to the latest times. It is probable that the name of their families gave origin to the fable of the sowing of the dragon's teeth. It appears certain that the original inhabitants of Thebes were called Cadmeii [Yio-lfxCioi, 11. iv. 388, 391, v. 807, x. 288, Od. xi. 276) or Cadmeiones (KaS/tei'toi/ey, //. iv. 385, V. 804, xxiii. 680), and that the southern plain of Boeotia was originally called the Cadmeian land (KoS^rjis yr, Thuc. i. 12). The origin of these Cadmeians has given rise to much dispute among modern scholars. K. 0. Muller considers Cadmus a god of the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians, and maintains that the Cadmeians are the same as the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians ; Welcker endeavours to prove that the Cadmeians were a Cretan colony; while other writers adhere to the old traditions that the Cadmeians were Phoenicians who introduced the Use of letters into Greece. (Miiller, Orchomenos, p. Ill, seq., 2nd ed.; Thirlwall, Hist, of Greece, vol. ). p. 111.) It is useless, however, to enter into the discussion of a subject respecting which we possess no materials for arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. It is certain that the Greeks were indebted to the Phoenicians for their alphabet; but whether the Cadmeians were a Phoenician colony or some other race must be left uncertain. But we must return to the legendary history of Thebes. Cadmus had one son, Polydorus, and four daughters, Ino, Seniele, Autonoc, and Agave, all of whom are celebrated in the mythical annals. The tales respecting them are given in ihsDlct. of Blo(jr. and Myth., and it is only necessary to mention here that Ino became the wife of Athamas and the mother of Melicertes ; Semele was beloved by Zeus and became the mother of the god Dionysus ; Autonoc was the mother of the celebrated hunter Actaeon, who was torn to pieces by the dogs of Artemis; and Agave was the mother of Pentheus, who, when Cadmus became old, succeeded him as king of Thebes, and whose miserable end in attempting to resist the worship of Dionysus forms the subject of the Bacchae of Euripides. After the death of Pentheus, Cadmus retired to the Illyrians, and his son Polydorus became king of Thebes. Poly- dorus is succeeded by his son Labdacus, who leaves at his death an infant son Laius. The throne is usurped by Lycus, whose brother Nycteus is the i'ather of Antiupe, who becomes by Zeus the mother of the twin sons, Amphion and Zethus. Nycteus having died, Antiope is exposed to the per- secutions of her uncle Lycus and his cruel wife Dirce, till at length her two sons, Amphion and Zethus, revenge her wrongs and become kings of Thebes. They fortify the city ; and Amphion, who had been taught by Hermes, possessed such exquisite skill on the lyre, that the stones, obedient to his strains, moved of their own accord, and formed the wall (" movit Amphion lapides canendo," Hor. Carrii. iii. 11). The remamder of the legend of Amphion and Zethus need not be related; and there can be no doubt, as filr. Grote has remarked, that the whole story was originally unconnected with the THEBAE BOEOTIAE. Cadmeian family, as it still stands in the Odyssey, and has been interwoven by the logograjihers into the series of the Cadjneian myths. In order to re- concile the Homeric account of the building of the city by Amphion and Zethus with the usually received legend of its foundation by Cadmus, it was repre- sented by later writere that, while Cadmus founded the Cadmcia, Amphion and Zethus built the loicer city {ti]V iroKiv t?;j' koto)), and gave to the united city the name of Thebes. (Pans. ix. 5. §§ 2, 6.) After Amphion and Zethus, Laius became king of Thebes; and with him commences the memorable story of Oedipus and his family, which is too well known to need repetition here. When Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, after discovering that he had murdered his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta, his two sons Eteocles and Polynices quarrelled for their father's throne. Their disputes led to the two sieges of Thebes by the Argive Adrastus, two of the most memorable events in the legendary history of Greece. They formed the sub- ject of the two epic poems, called the Thebais and the Epigoni, which were considered only inferior to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Polynices, having been driven out of Thebes by Eteocles, retires to Argos and obtains the aid of Adrastus, the king of the city, to reinstate him in his rights. Polynices and Adrastus are joined by five other heroes, making the confederacy known under the name of the " Seven against Thebes." The names of lliese seven chiefs were Adrastus, Amphiariius, Cafianeus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Tydeus, and Polynices; but there are discrepancies in the lists, as we shall notice more fully below: and Aeschylus (5f/jf. c. Theh. 461) in particular omits Adrastus, and in- serts Eteocles in his place. "The Seven Chiefs ad- vanced against Thebes, and each attacked one of the celebrated gates of the city. Polynices and Eteocles fell by each other's hands; and in the general engagement which followed the combat of the two brothers, the Argives were defeated, and all their chiefs slain, with the exception of Adrastus, who was saved by the swiftness of his horse Areion, the offspring of Poseidon. A few years afterwards the sons of the Seven Chiefs undertook an expedi- tion against Thebes, to avenge their fathers' fate, hence called the war of the Epigoni or Descendants. This expedition was also led by Adrastus, and consisted of Aegialeus, son of Adrastus, Thersander, son of Polynices, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiariius, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, Sthene- leus, son of Capaneus, and Promachus, son of Par- thenopaeus. The Epigoni gained a victory over the Cadmeians at the river Glisas, and drove them within their walls. Upon the advice of the seer Teiresias, the Cadmeians abandoned the city, and retired to the Illyriatis under the guidance of Laodainas, son of Adrastus. (Apollod. iii. 7. § 4; Herod, v. 57—61 ; Paus. ix. 5. § 13 ; Diod. iv. 65, 66.) The Epigoni thus became masters of Thebes, and placed Thersander, son of Polynices, on the Throne. (For a full account of the legends of Thebes, see Grote, Bist. of Greece, vol. i. c. xiv.) According to the mythical chronology, the war of the Seven against Thebes took place 20 years before the Trojan expedition and 30 years before the capture of Troy; and the war of the Epigoni wa.s placed 14 years after the first expedition against Thebes, and consequently only 4 years before tho departure of the Greeks against Troy. (CUntoD, F. E. vol. i. p. 140.)