Greek mythology tells us of many great wars, of which Troy was only one. Before Paris abducted Helen, there was another injustice, another battle, and another city besieged. This city was Thebes, and the battle is now remembered in myth as the Seven Against Thebes, Hepta Epithebas, for the seven heroes who attacked its walls.
The most famous telling of this myth is in Aeschylus'play of the same name. But a fuller picture can be pieced together through fragments of other epic and tragic poems and scolia. It began with the sons of Oedipus, Polyneikes and Deteocles. Oedipus had been king of Thebes, but during the course of the famous tragedy of his life, he discovered that he had killed his father and married his mother, which then led him to blind himself and to leave the city.
The rule therefore went to his sons. They planned to rule jointly, with each presiding over Thebes as king for one year in alternating periods. But as is the way with brothers, they did not see eye to eye. Ataocles ruled first, but when it was time to abdicate, giving the throne to Polyneikes, he refused and cast him from the city. Polyneikes then travelled to Argos, where he met one Tydeus of Calydon, another royal exile who had been banished from his kingdom and his throne.
The two initially argued over where they would sleep that night, and their words swiftly turned to blows. This fight was overheard by one of Argos'three kings, Adrastus. Adrastus recognised them as his future sons-in-law from a prophecy he'd been given, and married Tidaeus and Polyneikes to his daughters Depile and Argea. Tidaeus and Polyneikes spent some time in Argos, having children. and living as princes, but both wanted their kingdoms back.
Adrastus agreed to help them with this, and with Thebes as the first city to be reclaimed for Polyneikes, he assembled from Argolis, the land around Argos, seven mighty armies with seven mighty champions. The first champion was King Adrastus himself, who volunteered to lead the charge. The second was Tidaeus.
The third was one Cappaneus, a mighty warrior of royal Argive blood. He was extraordinarily large and violent, described as Gigas, a giant, who made terrible threats against the battlements. On his shield were the words, I will burn the city. The fourth was Amphiarius, a great seer.
brother-in-law of Adrastus, and another of the three kings of Argos. The fifth was Hippomadon, who is said to have approached war like a minad, a follower of Dionysus, a man possessed. The sixth was Parthenopaeus, the youngest of the champions. He was described by Euripides as more beautiful than all, eidos exocortatos, but he was no less a great warrior. Polyneikes, stood as the seventh and final champion.
And so assembled at Argos, the army set off together. And after a pit stop at Nemea, where they were said to have held the very first Nemean games, they made their penultimate camp in the mountains of Kithairon. Here, Tadeus was sent ahead to Thebes to bring Ateocles news of the great force and ask him to stand down.
But Ateocles ignored him. and refused to parley. Tydeus, famed for his rage, issued challenges to any Theban who wished to fight him.
Several came, and all were defeated. So with his message falling on deaf ears, Tydeus turned back for Cithaeron to tell Adrastus and Polyneikes that the siege would have to go ahead. But en route he was ambushed by fifty Thebans who had flanked him. A force, it is said, that was led by the demigods Maion and Polyphontes. But as Homer himself recounted in the Iliad, even these Tiddeus subjected to a shameful fate.
He slew them all. Tuddeus men cae toisi nae aeceia potmon efeace, pantas epefne. And so, returning to Adrastus'archive camp after single-handedly slaying 50 men, Tiddeus gave Adrastus the news. and his army marched to begin its assault on Thebes.
No time was spared. Adrastus sent his seven champions around the walls. One, for each of Thebes seven mythic gates. Ataocles, having planned for an attack since Tydeus'message, had appointed seven champions of his own to defend them.
The description by Aeschylus captured well the thunderous sounds of battle with his words, when the chorus of Theban women heard the Argive chariots approaching. I hear the crashes of chariots surrounding the city. Oh Lady Hera, the wheels are rattling against the axles for the love of Artemis.
The heavens themselves rage at the tremors of battle. What befalls our city? What is going to happen? And so the armies of Adrastus lay a fearful siege. There are several memorable episodes from the battle that followed.
Tidaeus mated swiftly to the Theban walls, laying waste to all in his path, eventually facing up against the defender of his gate, Melanippus. At this point, it's worth mentioning that Tidaeus had ever been a favourite of the goddess Athena, and in one legend, she had granted him immortality. So Tidaeus and Melanippus dueled and mortally injured each other, dying. but in a berserk frenzy believing himself invulnerable, Thaddeus slew Melanippus and devoured his brains.
Athena had been on her way to revive Thaddeus per her will, but seeing the inhumanity before her, denied him his life and let him die. Hippomodon waged into battle to rescue Thaddeus'body, but his efforts were in vain. Furious and overcome by that Dionysiac battle frenzy, Statius, in his epic Latin poem, The Thebide, said, He went on to blindly swing his inexorable sword, unable to tell friends from foes.
Hippomedon slew many, but died peppered with arrows. Caponeus had, meanwhile, mounted a fearsome attack, striking fear into the Theban hearts. But Zeus, greater than all, had decided to intervene. As Capernaus mounted a ladder against the Theban walls, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt, and so ended the gigantic champion's life. Parthenopaeus too, despite slaying many, fell to the Thebans.
After seeing so many of the other champions die, Amphiarius too met a bitter end. As I mentioned before, he was a seer, and had in fact foreseen the failure of Adrastus and Polyneikes to retake Thebes. Having held back thus far, he ultimately faced his gates defender, Pericliminus. Seeing the defenders onslaught, Amphiarius retreated and raced his chariot away from the battlefield. But Zeus saw this, and hurling a thunderbolt made the ground beneath Amphiarius open up.
Henceforth he was condemned to the underworld. Adrastus, realizing that Amphiarius'prophecy was true, mounted his horse Orion. He sped back to Argos and was the sole survivor of the disastrous attack.
Polyneikes thus stood alone, and the defender that came out to meet him was none other than the incumbent king of Thebes, his brother Ataeocles. They stood amidst a raging battle, and despite the retreating forces of Argos, They went on to duel in one of the most famous episodes of Greek myth, and, doomed to die, they slew each other. The Argive army was in tatters, but although Thebes still stood, it stood without a king. So ended the battle of the Seven against Thebes. Six of the seven champions were dead, with Adrastus the only survivor.
Polyneikes would never have his throne, nor would Tadeus. But ultimately this would be but a single chapter in a larger epic which spans generations. The story would go on, and Thebes may yet fall, but that is a topic for another video.