Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/145

 THE GREEK HEROES 131 Oedipus correctly solved the riddle as referring to man, who creeps on all fours when a child, walks upright in middle life, and uses the support of a staff in old age. 170. Oedipus accordingly became king in his native city, and, at the same time, his mother's husband. Ac- cording to the epic poets the gods soon made this crime known, probably through the seer Tiresias, as the later form of the legend states. Epicaste killed herself and Oedipus blinded himself. Afterwards, by a second wife, Eurygania, he had the sons Eteocles and Polynices, and the two daughters Antigone and Ismene. The tragic poets mention no second marriage of Oedipus, but rather treat all these as the children of locaste herself. Later, on account of some trifling fault, Oedipus brought upon his sons the curse that they should divide the inher- itance by the edge of the sword. He himself then died in Thebes, or, according to the Attic version, in banish- ment in the sanctuary of the Semnai at Colonus, near Athens, under the protection of Theseus. 171. Eteocles and Polynices fell into a quarrel in divid- ing the inheritance and the power ; whereupon the latter fled to Adrastus, king of Argos and Sicyon, and became his son-in-law. He then equipped an expedition against his brother, of which Adrastus undertook the command. Polynices was further supported by his brother-in-law, the Aetolian Tydeus, a fiery son of Oeneus of Calydon ; also by Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, the brothers of Adrastus ; by the mighty Capaneus ; and lastly by the courageous seer Amphiaraus, brother-in-law of Adrastus. Amphiaraus, indeed, foresaw that they should almost all perish in the expedition, but was nevertheless induced to take part in it by his wife Eriphyle, who had been bribed