great crime, even though he had done so unintentionally, made them
unholy and brought misfortune upon them, and on account of this, the
{210} Thebans resolved to banish Oedipus from their city. He had two
sons who were strong youths and might have protected their father if
they had chosen, but they would not interfere, because they wanted to
rule over the city themselves. The blind king was led out of the
city, but when he came to the gate he turned round and prayed to the
gods to punish his sons. He would have been left quite alone to
stumble over every stone that lay in his path, if it had not been for
one of his daughters, who resolved to share his misery, and who left
the beautiful palace in order to take care of her unhappy father in
his distress. She was his eldest daughter, and her name was
Antigone. She and Oedipus wandered from place to place, living on
the food that kind people threw to them, and their couch at night was
often beneath the blue sky with a hard stone for their pillow, for
the people were afraid to allow the blind king to come into their
houses, because of the crimes that he had committed. Antigone
suffered from hunger and cold, and her feet were torn and bleeding
from the thorns, but she did not think much about that, it was the
misery of her father that pierced her heart.
After they had wandered for many years, they came at last to Athens
where Theseus, who was always willing to help those who were in
trouble was then king. In the middle of the city was the Altar of
Pity which he had erected,[1] and Oedipus seated himself on one of
the steps of the altar as a sign that he sought for help. Then
Theseus came and asked who he was, and when he heard his name,
instead of turning away from him {211} with a shudder as every one
else did, he took him by the hand and led him into the palace, where
he lived with Antigone during the rest of his life. Before long,
however, Oedipus died, and his body was solemnly burnt by the
Athenians, for the Oracle said that they must take great care of his
ashes, which would prove a blessing to the city.
[1] See page 196.
{212}
XXX.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
The sons of Oedipus were twins, and their names were Eteocles and
Polynices. When their father was banished from Thebes they succeeded
to the kingdom, and agreed that they would each reign in turn for one
year. Eteocles had his turn first; but he found it so pleasant to be
king that when the year came to an end he refused to give up the
sovereignty and drove his brother from the city. Polynices was now
an exile; but he determined that he would take no rest till he had
found some friends who would promise to help him to revenge himself
upon his brother. He set out for Argos, where King Adrastus lived,
and arrived there after dark one evening. In the darkness he
happened to jostle against another hero who was also going into the
palace, and from angry words they soon came to blows, and drew their
swords to fight one another. King Adrastus heard the clash of arms
from within the palace, and he took a torch and went out to see what
was the matter. He commanded the heroes to stop fighting, and asked
them what they wanted. Then Polynices explained how he had been
driven away from his country by his brother, and how he hoped that
the king would help {213} him to claim his rights. The other hero,
whose name was Tydeus, had been driven from his country on account of
a murder that he had committed unintentionally, and he had come to
request the king to help him to return home again. Whilst the heroes
were speaking, the king saw by the light of the torch the shining
brazen figures upon their shields. The Greek heroes used to wear
various kinds of devices on their shields by which they could be
recognised, such as serpents, griffins, eagles, and so forth. Now,
on the shield of Polynices there was a lion, and on that of Tydeus a
boar's head, and when Adrastus saw these, he remembered that once
when he had asked the Oracle to whom he should give his two daughters
in marriage, the Oracle had replied, 'To a lion and a wild boar.'
Adrastus had not understood the answer at the time, but he now
perceived that it must have referred to the two heroes, and he
therefore received them kindly, and said that he would give them his
daughters in marriage, and restore them to their homes. The wedding
soon took place, and Tydeus was married to the elder daughter, and
Polynices to the younger.
The king said that he would first help Polynices, and he assembled
his soldiers, and summoned several brave heroes to march with them.
Three heroes, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus, promised to do
so, which made six with the king and his two sons-in-law. There was
another hero in Argos, named Amphiaraus, who was very wise and could
foretell the future, and the king did not like going to war unless he
went too, for he was not only brave and fearless, but he always gave
good counsel. But when Adrastus summoned {214} him to march against
Thebes, he said he would not go, for he knew that they would not
conquer the city, but would all perish excepting Adrastus, who would
return alone. Amphiaraus knew this because he could see into the
future, but the others did not believe what he said and thought he
was afraid of going to the war, and Capaneus, who was a very
headstrong man, said, 'If the gods themselves should declare against
the expedition, I am resolved to conquer the city in spite of them.'
Even Adrastus did not believe that the war would end unhappily, and
he said so to Amphiaraus, and pressed him to accompany them. At last
it was agreed that Eriphyle, the wife of Amphiaraus, who was also the
sister of Adrastus, should decide the matter. There had once been a
bitter quarrel between Amphiaraus and Adrastus which had led to their
taking arms against each other, and when peace was restored, they had
agreed that if ever any dispute should again arise between them,
Eriphyle should decide about it, and that whatever she determined
should be done. So now Eriphyle had to decide about the going to
war. Amphiaraus foresaw that Polynices would try to bribe her and he
warned her to take no present from him, and she promised to obey.
But Polynices came to her secretly with a beautiful necklace and
veil, and said that he would give them to her if she would decide
that Amphiaraus should go to the war. These were no ordinary
ornaments, but had been given by the god Hephaestus to Cadmus and
Harmonia when they celebrated their marriage in the Cadmea,[1] and
had been handed down from father to son in the royal family of {215}
Thebes, till they had been worn, last of all, by Queen Jocasta. When
Eriphyle saw the glittering necklace and the snow-white veil, she
could not overcome her desire to possess them, and although she knew
quite well that if she counselled war it would cost her husband his
life, she promised to do so; and when the heroes came together to
hear her decision, she said, 'Amphiaraus shall go to the war.'
Amphiaraus knew that she must have been bribed by Polynices, but he
did not dare to make any further difficulty, and accordingly prepared
to set out; but before he left the city he called aside his two sons,
who were still young boys, and told them that when they were grown up
they were to kill their mother because she had decided upon his death.
There were thus seven princes who set out to march against Thebes,
and they were accompanied by a goodly band of soldiers, and all
except Amphiaraus were merry and in good spirits, for they did not
know that they were marching to their death. It was a long journey
to Thebes, and they had to travel for several days before they came
in sight of it. One day, as they were approaching the city of Nemea,
they had to pass through a forest where they met a woman carrying a
young child in her arms. The woman was a servant of King Lycurgus,
who ruled over the city of Nemea, and it was his child that she was
taking care of. Her name was Hypsipele, and her home was in the
island of Lemnos, where she had once been a queen herself.[2] The
women of Lemnos had killed all the men in the island and formed a
kingdom composed entirely of women, and they had made a law that any
woman who {216} should spare even her husband or son and not kill
him, should be severely punished. But Hypsipele loved her old father
too dearly not to be willing to brave the punishment, and she kept
him alive secretly, and used to take him food and talk to him when
the others were asleep. This went on for a great many years, but at
last the other women found it out, and then they killed the old
father, and sold the queen as a slave to some pirates who happened to
be sailing past the island at the time. The pirates sold her again
in Nemea, and this was how she came to be the slave of King Lycurgus,
and the nurse of his child. The heroes were very thirsty, for it was
just then mid-day, and they asked Hypsipele if she knew of a spring
where they could quench their thirst. She told them that farther
down in the valley there was a spring of beautiful clear water, and
said that she would show them the way to it. The child was
frightened at their shining armour and clanging weapons, so she left
it playing on the grass, and went alone with the men. They soon
reached the spring and quenched their thirst, and then they returned
to the place where they had left the child. But the child was gone,
and on a tree close by, there sat a great ugly serpent who had eaten
him up. The serpent was soon punished for his wickedness, for one of
the heroes pierced him through and through with his lance and killed
him, but Hypsipele wept and sobbed, for she felt sure that King
Lycurgus would kill her. The heroes were very sorry for her, and
they went with her to Nemea in the hope that they might be able to
save her from being punished. King Lycurgus thought at first that
they were enemies who were coming to attack the {217} city, but
Adrastus explained why they had come, and begged him not to be angry
with Hypsipele, as it was really they who were the cause of the
child's death. Lycurgus was very sorrowful at hearing about it, so
the heroes tried to comfort him, and said that they would honour his
child as no child had ever been honoured before, by celebrating
magnificent funeral games over its tomb. They took the child out of
the snake's body and burnt it on a pyre, and then they put the ashes
into a beautiful urn and buried them and heaped up a mound over them.
After this they held games near the mound, and vied with each other
in all kinds of sports such as heroes take pleasure in. Such games
as these were at that time only celebrated in memory of rich and
famous kings, and Lycurgus thanked the heroes for honouring his child
in this manner. From that time games were celebrated every third
year at Nemea, which were called the Nemean Games, and were famed far
and wide. Numbers of people came to them from all countries, and
whoever did best in any trial of skill received a crown as a prize.
When the funeral festivities were at an end, the heroes took leave of
Lycurgus, who promised that for their sake he would not do any harm
to Hypsipele. Amphiaraus warned them once again that they had better
return home, and said that the death of the child was a bad omen.
But when the gods meant to let misfortune overtake people, they
blinded their eyes and prevented them from listening to any warning
or good counsel, and thus the heroes rejected the advice of
Amphiaraus, and continued their march. After some days they came to
a mountain from which they could {218} see Thebes in the distance,
and there they halted and held a council, at which it was resolved
that before they began the war, Tydeus should go to Thebes and tell
Eteocles that he had better give up the kingdom to his brother
peaceably, for if he did not, the Argives would take possession of
the city by force. Tydeus set out for Thebes, and finding the Theban
heroes at a banquet, he delivered his message to them there.
Eteocles answered that he hated his brother and would rather die than
share the kingdom with him, and that he was not afraid of the
Argives, but was quite ready to fight them. On hearing this, Tydeus
prepared to return to the camp, but as Eteocles asked him to stay and
feast with him, he accepted the invitation, and they talked together
in a friendly manner as host and guest, although they were just going
to meet one another in deadly conflict. In those days when heroes
met they always took the opportunity of vying with one another in
feats of strength, and so when the banquet was over, Tydeus
challenged the Thebans to wrestle with him. First one presented
himself, and then another, but Tydeus was stronger than any of them,
and overcame them all. The Thebans were ashamed of themselves and
furious with Tydeus, and they placed an ambush of fifty youths in a
copse not far from the city, who rushed out and fell upon him as he
was returning home. It was an unequal struggle, but Tydeus killed
them all except one, who fled back into the city and told the Thebans
what had become of the others, and then they wondered still more at
the extraordinary strength of Tydeus.
When the princes understood that Eteocles would not give up the
kingdom peaceably, they led their army {219} against the city in
order to get possession of it by force. The gates were fastened with
strong bars, and on the walls stood the Thebans in arms, prepared to
beat off the enemy. There were seven gates in the walls of the city,
and Adrastus allotted one gate to each of the princes to attack with
his band of followers. The Thebans, on their side, had also placed
the seven gates under the special charge of their seven most valiant
heroes, each of whom had a band of men to fight under him. Then a
fierce battle took place,--the Argives tried to scale the walls by
means of ladders, and hurled javelins and arrows at their enemies,
while the Thebans rolled great stones to the top of the walls, and
just when there were a number of Argives upon one of the ladders and
they were hoping that in another moment they would have gained
possession of the wall, the Thebans let fall a huge stone, which
broke the ladder and crushed to death all those who were upon it.
Capaneus was the most impetuous of all the Argives, and wherever he
fought the Thebans gave way before him. He set up a ladder against
the wall and had climbed almost to the top of it, when, thinking that
the city was already in his hands, he looked up at the sky and cried
out in a mocking tone, 'The strength of heroes is mightier than the
will of the gods.' But as the presumptuous hero raised his foot to
place it upon the wall, there came a flash of lightning which
destroyed him in a moment, and the Thebans, who were inspired by this
with fresh courage, drove back the band of soldiers that he had been
leading. All day long the Argives fought against the city, but at
last the sun went down, and they were obliged to give over for the
time.
{220}
The next day Eteocles ascended a tower, and took with him a herald
whom he caused to make a proclamation to the Argives in the following
words: 'Ye heroes of Argos, Eteocles offers to fight alone with
Polynices, on the understanding that whichever of them gets the
better of the other shall be king of Thebes.' Polynices on his part
was also eager to fight with his brother, and readily accepted the
challenge to single combat. Then the Thebans came and encamped
outside the city to watch the fight; and the Argives in the plain
beyond planted their spears in the ground by their side, thinking
they would have no more use for them. Between the two armies was a
field, where the brothers were to engage in the deadly struggle. As
each of them took his shield and sword from his friends, he eyed the
other angrily, longing to begin the fight, and as soon as they were
armed they both rushed at one another, each of them so intent on
killing his brother that he forgot to cover himself with his shield.
And thus, at the same moment, each of the brothers ran his spear
through the body of his opponent, and they both sank down dead. But
this did not end the quarrel, for the two armies rose up, each
desirous of avenging the death of its champion upon the enemy, and a
fierce battle took place. Zeus gave the victory to the Thebans, and
all the Argives,--heroes and followers alike,--were slain: and thus
the prophecy of Amphiaraus was fulfilled. As for the seer himself,
he was standing in his war-chariot, urging on his horses that he
might not be overtaken by the enemy, when a Theban hero pursued him
hotly and gained steadily upon him till he had almost come up with
him. But Zeus, who loved Amphiaraus, hurled a {221} thunder-bolt
which clove the ground asunder in front of him, and he sank far down
into the earth. It closed over him before the eyes of his pursuer
who was thus unable to reach him, and Zeus granted him immortality
and took him to live among the gods on Mount Olympus. All the rest
of the Argives had by this time perished, excepting only Adrastus.
He had a horse, named Arion, who was of divine origin and was swifter
than any other horse in the world, so when the king took to flight,
the Thebans could not overtake him, and he returned alone to Argos,
as Amphiaraus had foretold.
A brother of Jocasta's, whose name was Creon, now became king of
Thebes, and he commanded that the fallen Thebans should be buried
with great honour, but that Polynices and the Argives should be left
unburied on the field of battle, to be food for dogs and vultures.
The Greeks believed that those whose bodies were not buried found no
rest in the Lower World, and they never offered such an insult as
this to the memory of any but their most deadly enemies. A herald
went through the city, proclaiming to the Thebans that if any one
dared to give burial to Polynices or any of the Argives, he would
have to answer for it with his life. Every one was afraid to disobey
excepting one, and that one was a woman,--Antigone, the sister of
Polynices. She had been very angry with her brothers for casting off
their father Oedipus in his time of need, but now that they were
dead, she wept for them and could not bear that either of them should
be dishonoured. So in the night she went to the field where the
corpses lay, and sought for that of her brother. It {222} was
disfigured with dust and blood, but she recognised it, and she
covered it over with loose sand and poured out the libations for the
dead which consisted of wine, milk, and honey, over the mound. When
a corpse had been covered over in this manner and had received the
due libations for the dead, the gods accepted it as if it had been
properly buried,--so that everything that was necessary had now been
done for the corpse of Polynices. But Creon had set watchmen round
the field to catch any one who should come to disobey his orders, and
just as Antigone had finished her work, the watch-men seized her and
took her as a prisoner to Creon, although they were loth to do this,
for every one loved the noble maiden. The king was very angry when
he heard what she had done, but nevertheless, if she would have
consented to admit that she had done wrong in disobeying his orders
and to beg for mercy, he would have been willing to spare her life.
But she scorned to save her life by such means, and instead of
begging for forgiveness, she spoke out boldly, and said: 'Higher than
thy commands do I esteem those laws which set before us that which is
noble and right.' Then the king was still more angry with her for
not being afraid of him, and he condemned her to a cruel death.
There was a cave outside the city, and the king commanded that she
should be shut up there and left to die of hunger. Her friends
accompanied her as far as the cave, weeping bitterly, but Antigone
herself shed no tears. A pitcher of water and a little bread had
been placed in the cave, and when Antigone had taken leave of her
friends, she went inside, and the workmen piled up stones against the
mouth of the cave and {223} walled her in. Thus the noble Antigone
died; but she did not wait for the lingering death of
starvation,--instead of that she made her veil into a noose and
hanged herself.
King Adrastus heard with grief and anger that Creon had refused to
allow the Argives to be buried, but as all the heroes of Argos had
died in the war and there were none but young boys left in the city,
he was unable to raise an army in order to compel him to do so. So
he went to Athens with a twig in his hand (which it was the custom
for those who wanted help to carry) and seated himself on the steps
of the Altar of Pity.[3] Theseus came and asked what he wanted, and
Adrastus told him of his misfortune and begged him to procure an
honourable burial for the Argives. When Theseus heard about it all,
he was very sorry for him, and he marched to Thebes at the head of a
band of heroes, and said that unless Creon at once countermanded his
wicked orders, he would destroy the city. Creon was afraid of
Theseus, so he granted all that he required, and the heroes were
buried with due honours.
[1] See page 58.
[2] See page 153.
[3] See page 196.
{224}
XXXI.
THE EPIGONI.
King Adrastus never ceased to grieve over his heroes who had been
slain by the Thebans, and when ten years had gone by, and the boys
who were then quite young had grown up to be men, he assembled them
and proposed to them to march against Thebes in order to avenge their
fathers. They were quite ready to do this, for they were true
heroes, with strong arms and brave hearts. Each of the seven heroes
who had accompanied Adrastus on the former expedition had left a son,
and these young men were called the Epigoni, or 'Those who come
after.' They chose a strong band of followers from among the youths
of Argos, and when they were all armed in readiness for the war, they
sent to the Oracle at Delphi to ask whom they should take for their
leader, for Adrastus was now too old and grey to head them himself.
The Oracle said that they had better choose the son of Amphiaraus,
who was named Alcmaeon, and who was wise and brave. Adrastus was
full of joy at seeing the army of young men set out on its march, and
trusted that the gods would give them the victory. The Epigoni took
the same road by which their fathers had gone ten years before, {225}
but instead of meeting with bad omens on the way, everything was now
most prosperous.