6The Argives took up their arms and advanced towards the walls.* There were seven gates,* and Adrastos stationed himself in front of the Homoloidian Gate, Capaneus in front of the Ogygian, Amphiaraos in front of the Proitidian, Hippomedon in front of the Oncaidian, Polyneices in front of the Hypsistan, Parthenopaios in front of the Electran, and Tydeus in front of the Crenidian. Eteocles, on his side, armed the Thebans and appointed an equivalent number of leaders, stationing each of them opposite his counterpart. And he consulted the diviners to discover how they could prevail over the enemy.
Excursus: the earlier history of Teiresias
7 Now there lived amongst the Thebans a diviner, Teiresias, son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo. He was a descendant of Oudaios, one of the Spartoi, and had lost the use of his eyes; on how he came to be blind and gained his prophetic powers, conflicting stories are told. Some say that he was blinded by the gods because he divulged to the human race what they wanted to keep concealed. Or according to Pherecydes, he was blinded by Athene; for Athene and Chariclo were close friends [and it came about that he] saw the goddess completely naked,* and she covered his eyes with her hands, depriving him of his sight. When Chariclo begged her to restore the use of his eyes, she lacked the power to do so, but purified his ears instead, giving him a complete understanding of the language of birds.* She also gave him a cornel-wood staff, thus enabling him, while he carried it, to walk like those who can see. Hesiod says,* however, that he caught sight of some snakes coupling near Mount Cyllene, and when he injured the snakes, he was changed from a man to a woman; but when he saw the same snakes coupling on a further occasion, he became a man again. And for this reason, when Zeus and Hera were having an argument as to whether men or women gain more pleasure from love-making, they consulted Teiresias. He said that judging the act of love on a scale of ten, men get one part of the pleasure and women nine parts.* On that account, Hera turned him blind, but Zeus granted him the gift of prophecy;† and he lived to a considerable age.*
The Theban victory and its aftermath
So when the Thebans consulted him, Teiresias told them that they would be victorious if Menoiceus, the son of Creon, offered himself as a sacrifice to Ares.* On hearing this prophecy, Menoiceus, son of Creon, slaughtered himself in front of the gates. In the ensuing battle, the Cadmeians were chased back to their walls, and Capaneus seized a ladder and was using it to climb the wall when Zeus struck him down* with a thunderbolt. 8When this took place, the Argives turned and fled. Because so many had died, Eteocles and Polyneices, in accordance with the decision of both armies, fought for the throne in single combat and killed one another. Fierce fighting broke out once again, and the sons of Astacos performed deeds of valour, Ismaros killing Hippomedon, Leades killing Eteoclos, and Amphidicos killing Parthenopaios (though according to Euripides, Parthenopaios was killed by Periclymenos, son of Poseidon). And Melanippos, the last of the sons of Astacos, wounded Tydeus in the stomach. As he lay half dead, Athene asked Zeus for a remedy and brought it along, with the intention of applying it to make him immortal. But Amphiaraos realized what she intended, and in his hatred against Tydeus for persuading the Argives to march against Thebes in opposition to his own judgement, he cut off the head of Melanippos (for Tydeus, although wounded, had killed Melanippos*) and gave it to Tydeus, who split it open and gulped down the brains. At the sight of this, Athene was so revolted that she withheld her intended favour and refused to grant it. Amphiaraos fled beside the River Ismenos, and before Periclymenos could wound him in the back, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt to open a chasm in the earth. And Amphiaraos was swallowed up in it, together with his chariot and his charioteer Baton (or according to some, Elaton); and Zeus made him immortal.* Adrastos, the sole survivor, was saved by his horse Areion (which Demeter had borne to Poseidon after having intercourse with him in the likeness of a Fury*).
1Creon, who then succeeded to the Theban throne,* caused
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the bodies of the Argive dead to be thrown out unburied, issued a proclamation that nobody should bury them, and posted guards. But Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, stole the body of Polyneices and gave it a secret burial; and when she was caught in the act, she was buried alive in the grave by Creon himself.
Adrastos made his way to Athens, where he sought refuge at the altar of Pity, and placing a suppliant’s bough* on the altar, he asked to be allowed to bury his dead. The Athenians marched against Thebes with Theseus, captured the city,* and gave the dead to their relatives for burial. As the pyre of Capaneus was blazing, his wife Evadne, daughter of Iphis, threw herself on to it and was burned with her husband.
The Epigoni and the Second Theban War
2Ten years later, the sons of the fallen, who were called the Epigoni,* decided to mount an expedition against Thebes because they wanted to avenge the death of their fathers. When they consulted the oracle, the god foretold victory if Alcmaion was their leader. Although Alcmaion had no desire to lead the expedition before he had punished his mother, he went to war none the less; for Eriphyle, on receiving the robe [of Harmonia] from Polyneices’ son Thersandros, persuaded her sons also to take part* in the expedition. So taking Alcmaion as their leader, the Epigoni went to war against Thebes. Those who took part in the expedition were the following: Alcmaion and Amphilochos, sons of Amphiaraos; Aigialeus, son of Adrastos; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachos, son of Parthenopaios; Sthenelos, son of Capaneus; Thersandros, son of Polyneices; and Euryalos, son of Mecisteus.
3They began by sacking the villages in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and then, when the Thebans under Laodamas, son of Eteocles, advanced against them, they fought with valour. Laodamas killed Aigialeus,* but was killed in his turn by Alcmaion, and after his death the Thebans fled inside their walls. Teiresias then advised them to send a herald to the Argives to talk about a truce while they themselves made their escape. So they sent a herald to the enemy, and in the meantime loaded their women and children on to the wagons and fled from the city. They arrived by night at a spring called Tilphoussa, and as Teiresias drank from it, his life came to an end. After travelling a great distance, the Thebans founded the city of Hestiaia* and settled there. 4When the Argives eventually learned that the Thebans had fled, they entered the city, where they gathered together the plunder and pulled down the walls. They sent part of the plunder to Delphi as an offering to Apollo, and with it Manto, daughter of Teiresias; for they had made a vow that if they captured Thebes, they would dedicate the finest of the spoils to the god.
The later history of Alcmaion
5After the capture of Thebes, when Alcmaion learned that his mother Eriphyle had accepted bribes to his detriment also, his outrage was all the greater, and in obedience to an oracle granted him by Apollo, he put his mother to death. Some say that he killed her with the help of his brother Amphilochos, others that he did so on his own. Alcmaion was pursued by the Fury of his mother’s murder,* and overcome by madness, he went first to Oicles in Arcadia and then to Phegeus in Psophis; and after he had been purified by Phegeus, he married his daughter Arsinoe, and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards, as a result of his presence, the earth grew barren, and he was told by the god in an oracle to depart to Acheloos and receive from him [a land which had not yet been seen by the Sun*]. So he went first to Oineus in Calydon, who offered him hospitality, and then to the Thesprotians, who drove him from their country; but finally he arrived at the springs of Acheloos, and was purified by him, and received his daughter, Callirrhoe, in marriage. And on land that Acheloos had formed by laying down his silt, he founded a city and settled there.