Fragment #1—Contest of Homer and Hesiod: Homer travelled about reciting
his epics, first the “Thebaid”, in seven thousand verses, which begins:
‘Sing, goddess, of parched Argos, whence lords...’
Fragment #2—Athenaeus, xi. 465 E: ‘Then the heaven-born hero,
golden-haired Polyneices, first set beside Oedipus a rich table of
silver which once belonged to Cadmus the divinely wise: next he filled
a fine golden cup with sweet wine. But when Oedipus perceived these
treasures of his father, great misery fell on his heart, and he
straight-way called down bitter curses there in the presence of both
his sons. And the avenging Fury of the gods failed not to hear him as
he prayed that they might never divide their father’s goods in loving
brotherhood, but that war and fighting might be ever the portion of
them both.’
Fragment #3—Laurentian Scholiast on Sophocles, O.C. 1375: ‘And when
Oedipus noticed the haunch 2801 he threw it on the ground and said:
“Oh! Oh! my sons have sent this mocking me...” So he prayed to Zeus the
king and the other deathless gods that each might fall by his brother’s
hand and go down into the house of Hades.’
Fragment #4—Pausanias, viii. 25.8: Adrastus fled from Thebes ‘wearing
miserable garments, and took black-maned Areion 2802 with him.’
Fragment #5—Pindar, Ol. vi. 15: 2803 ‘But when the seven dead had
received their last rites in Thebes, the Son of Talaus lamented and
spoke thus among them: “Woe is me, for I miss the bright eye of my
host, a good seer and a stout spearman alike.”’
Fragment #6—Apollodorus, i. 74: Oeneus married Periboea the daughter of
Hipponous. The author of the _Thebais_ says that when Olenus had been
stormed, Oeneus received her as a prize.
Fragment #7—Pausanias, ix. 18.6: Near the spring is the tomb of
Asphodicus. This Asphodicus killed Parthenopaeus the son of Talaus in
the battle against the Argives, as the Thebans say; though that part of
the _Thebais_ which tells of the death of Parthenopaeus says that it
was Periclymenus who killed him.