Chapter 14: Thebes
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♠ Od 275-276 – Homer, Odyssey
Howbeit he abode as lord of the Cadmeans in lovely Thebe, suffering woes through the baneful counsels of the gods, but she went down to the house of Hades, the strong warder. Greek Text
♠ PLille 76a, b, c; PLille 73 – Stesichoros, Lille Fragment – fr. 222b in Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Melic Poets) vol. 1, pp. 213-18, ed. M. Davies. Oxford 1991.
♠ Hepta 752-57 – Aischylos, Hepta epi Thebas (Seven Against Thebes)
He fathered his own death, the parricide Oedipus, who sowed his mother’s sacred field, where he was nurtured, and endured a bloody crop. Madness united the frenzied bridal pair. Greek Text
♠ Pherekydes 3 F95 FGrH – Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker 1, p. 86, ed. F. Jacoby. 2nd ed. Leiden 1957.
Pherekydes records Oidipous’s children and wives as follows: “Kreon,” he says, “gives to Oidipous the kingship and Laios’s wife, also Oidipous’s mother, Iokaste, from whom Phrastor and Laonytos are born to him, who are killed by the Minyans and Erginos. And when a year has gone by, Oidipous marries Euryganeia daughter of Periphas, from whom are born to him Antigone and Ismene, whom Tydeus kills over a spring, and the spring is called Ismene after her. And Eteokles and Polyneikes are his sons from her. And when Euryganeia has ended, Oidipous marries Astymedousa daughter of Sthenelos.” (Transl. Silvio Curtis) Greek Text
♠ Σ Pho 1760 – Scholia to Euripides, Phoinissai (Phoinician Women) – Scholia in Euripidem 1, pp. 414-15, ed. E. Schwartz. Berlin 1887.
♠ Hes fr 193 MW – Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 92, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
Alkmaon, s[hephe]rd [of] the army . . . the trailing-ro[bed] daughters of Kadmos . . . [was] astounded, seeing the body before . . . of sorrowful Oidipodes . . . beast . . . Danaan [warrior]s, servants of Are[s] . . . to Polyneikes . . . by Zeus’s divine . . .
. . . from deep-swirli[ng] Alpheios on [hor]ses and fast[ened] chariots [Elektryon brought Lysidike,] the gorgeous [daughter] of Pelops. [She bore him child]ren, mount[ing] the same bed: [Gorgophonos] the warrior and the spearman Per[i-] . . . and Nomios and Kelaineus [and] Am[phimachos] and [Deimachos] and Eurybios and famous E[pilaos. And them] the ship-famous Taphi[an]s sl[ew over roll]foot cattle, [sailing] in [s]hips over the s[ea’s] w[i]de back f[rom] the Echinai [islands; but Alkmene] alone was l[eft] as a joy to her pa[rents, dau]ght[er of Lysidike] and [of illustrious El]ektryon . . . to the b[lack-]cloud [son of] Kro[nos] . . . (Transl. Silvio Curtis)
♠ Il 23.677-80 – Homer, Iliad
Euryalus alone uprose to face him, a godlike man, son of king Mecisteus, son of Talaus, who on a time had come to Thebes for the burial of Oedipus, when he had fallen, and there had worsted all the sons of Cadmus. Greek Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2020
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