Chapter 14: Thebes
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♠ Hik 131-61 – Euripides, Hiketides (The Suppliants)
Theseus
Why did you lead your seven armies against Thebes?
Adrastus
To confer that favor on the husbands of my two daughters.
Theseus
To which of the Argives did you give your daughters in marriage?
Adrastus
I made no match for them with kinsmen of my family.
Theseus
What! did you give Argive maids to foreigners?
Adrastus
Yes, to Tydeus, and to Polyneices, who was Theban-born.
Theseus
What induced you to select this alliance?
Adrastus
Dark riddles of Phoebus stole away my judgment.
Theseus
What did Apollo say to determine the maidens’ marriage?
Adrastus
That I should give my two daughters to a wild boar and a lion.
Theseus
How do you explain the message of the god?
Adrastus
One night two exiles came to my door—
Theseus
The name of each declare; you are speaking of both together.
Adrastus
They fought together, Tydeus with Polyneices.
Theseus
Did you give your daughters to them as to wild beasts?
Adrastus
Yes, for, as they fought, I likened them to those two monsters.
Theseus
Why had they left the borders of their native land and come to you?
Adrastus
Tydeus was exiled for the murder of a kinsman.
Theseus
Why had the son of Oedipus left Thebes?
Adrastus
By reason of his father’s curse, not to spill his brother’s blood.
Theseus
That voluntary exile you have spoken of was no doubt wise.
Adrastus
But those who stayed at home were for injuring the absent.
Theseus
What! did brother rob brother of his.inheritance?
Adrastus
To avenge this I set out; hence my ruin.
Theseus
Did you consult seers, and gaze into the flame of burnt-offerings?
Adrastus
Ah me! you press on the very point where I failed most.
Theseus
It seems your going was not favored by heaven.
Adrastus
Worse; I went in spite even of Amphiaraus.
Theseus
And so heaven lightly turned its face from you?
Adrastus
I was carried away by the clamor of younger men.
Theseus
You favored courage instead of discretion. Greek Text
♠ Hik 135-45 – Euripides, Hiketides (The Suppliants)
Theseus
What! did you give Argive maids to foreigners?
Adrastus
Yes, to Tydeus, and to Polyneices, who was Theban-born.
Theseus
What induced you to select this alliance?
Adrastus
Dark riddles of Phoebus stole away my judgment.
Theseus
What did Apollo say to determine the maidens’ marriage?
Adrastus
That I should give my two daughters to a wild boar and a lion.
Theseus
How do you explain the message of the god?
Adrastus
One night two exiles came to my door—
Theseus
The name of each declare; you are speaking of both together.
Adrastus
They fought together, Tydeus with Polyneices.
Theseus
Did you give your daughters to them as to wild beasts? Greek Text
♠ 12 GLP – Fragments of more recent Greek literary papyri cited according to D.L. Page, Select Papyri III, pp. 76-109. London 1941.
Greek Text and English Translation
♠ ApB 3.6.1 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Polynices went up to his palace by night and engaged in a fight with Tydeus, son of Oeneus, who had fled from Calydon. At the sudden outcry Adrastus appeared and parted them, and remembering the words of a certain seer who told him to yoke his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion, he accepted them both as bridegrooms, because they had on their shields, the one the forepart of a boar, and the other the forepart of a lion. And Tydeus married Deipyle, and Polynices married Argia. Greek Text
♠ ΣA Il 4.376 – Scholia A to Homer, Iliad – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem I, pp. 188-89, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1875.
♠ Σ Pho 409 – Scholia to Euripides, Phoinissai (Phoinician Women) – Scholia in Euripidem 1, pp. 296-97, ed. E. Schwartz. Berlin 1887.
♠ St: Theb 1.390-497 – Statius, Thebais
There king Adratus, verging now toward old age from life’s mid-course, ruled his folk in tranquil governance, rich in the wealth of ancestry, and on either side tracing his line to Jove. Issue lacked he of the stronger sex, but was prosperous in female offspring: two daughters gave him pledge of love and service. To him had Phoebus at fate’s bidding told that sons-in-law drew nigh – a deadly horror to tell! yet soon was the truth made manifest – in the shapes of bristly swine and tawny lion. Naught comprehends the sire therein for all his ponderings, nor thou, wise Amphiaraus, for thy master Apollo forbids. Only the father’s heart sikens ever in deep-felt anxiety…. Latin Text
♠ Fab 69 – Hyginus, Fabulae
Oracular reply was given by Apollo to Adrastus, son of Talaus and Eurynome, that he would give his daughters in marriage to a boar and a lion. Latin Text
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Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, March 2020
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