Seven against Thebes

This article is about the seven champions who fought a war against Thebes. For the play by Aeschylus, see Seven Against Thebes.
The Seven champions swearing an oath, illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians, by Alfred Church, 1879.[1]

The Seven against Thebes were seven champions in Greek mythology who made war on Thebes.[2] They were chosen by Adrastus, the king of Argos, to be the captains of an Argive army whose purpose was to restore Oedipus' son Polynices to the Theban throne. Adrastus, although always the leader of the expedition against Thebes, was not always counted as one of the Seven champions. Usually the Seven were Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Parthenopaeus, Hippomedon, and Adrastus or Eteoclus, whenever Adrastus is excluded.[3] They tried and failed to take Thebes, and all but Adrastus died in the attempt.[4]

On their way to Thebes, the Seven stopped at Nemea, where they held funeral games for the infant Opheltes, which became the origin of the Nemean Games. Before arriving at Thebes, Adrastus sent Tydeus on ahead to resolve the dispute through negotiation, which failed. At Thebes, Capaneus was struck down by Zeus' thunderbolt while attempting to scale the city walls. Tydeus was mortally wounded, and although Athena intended to make him immortal, she let him die when she saw him eating the brains of his attacker. Polynices was killed by (and killed) his brother Eteocles, the seer Amphiaraus was swallowed up by the earth, and Adrastus escaped the battlefield on his divine horse Arion. The victorious Thebans refused to allow the burial of the Argive dead, but Theseus marched an Athenian army to Thebes and recovered the bodies of the fallen warriors.

The war of the Seven against Thebes occurred in the generation prior to that of the Trojan War. According to Hesiod's Works and Days, these two wars were the two great events of the fourth age, the age of heroes.[5] The Seven's war against Thebes was the first of two Theban wars. The second Theban war was fought, and won, ten years later by the Seven's sons, the Epigoni.[6]

  1. ^ Project Gutenberg, EBook #14949.
  2. ^ For discussion of the Seven against Thebes see Hard, pp. 317–321; Gantz, pp. 510–519; Tripp, s.v. Seven against Thebes; Parada, s.v. SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
  3. ^ Hard, p. 317.
  4. ^ Hard, pp. 319–321.
  5. ^ Gantz, p. 510; West, p. 4; Hesiod, Works and Days 156–165.
  6. ^ Hard, p. 325; West, pp. 4–5; Gantz, p. 522.