Which of the Following Are Members of the Theban Royal Family?

Unit 7: Greek Theater Aeschylus Bio House of Atreus

Aeschylus Assist Page: Outline of Oresteia

Unit viii: Sophocles Bio Oedipus equally Tragic Hero Firm of Thebes

Sophocles Help Page: Outline of Oedipus Rex

The House of Thebes
According to virtually popular legend, though there are variations in different sources, Thebes was founded this style. The Phoenician princess Europa was carried off over the bounding main by a bull, and her father, Agenor, commanded his sons, including Cadmus, to find her. They all failed in their search, and while his brothers went on to found colonies of their ain, Cadmus went to Delphi where the oracle told him to requite up the search, observe a cow with special markings, follow it, and establish a urban center where information technology stopped to residue.
Cadmus wanted to cede the moo-cow to Athena (or Zeus), and sent men to the spring of Aretias to fetch water, only a dragon guarding the place killed them.   Cadmus then killed the dragon and, at the suggestion of Athena, sowed half of the dragon'south teeth in the footing. Up sprang armed men, and in fearfulness, Cadmus threw a stone in their midst. Each homo thought that another one had attacked him, and they all fought. In the stop, only five men, Oudaios, Chthonios, Echion, Pelor, and Hyperenor, survived and became the ancestors of the aloof families of Thebes.
Nevertheless, the dragon had been sacred to Ares, and, every bit penalization, Cadmus had to serve Ares for i year (or eight years). At the end of his servitude, he married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. The hymeneals was a grand spectacle, with the gods, the Muses, and the Charites ("Graces") attention, amid others. Aphrodite (or Athena) gave Harmonia a divine necklace made by Hephaestus. This family heirloom brought slap-up misfortune to their descendants.
Semele, female parent of Dionysus, was destroyed when Zeus came to her in all his glory with lightning and thunder. Ino killed her children and then threw herself off a cliff. Acteon was turned into a stag past Artemis and so torn autonomously past his own dogs. Agave killed her son, Pentheus, ruler of Thebes at the time, while under the influence of Dionysus.
Later Pentheus died, Cadmus' final kid, Polydorus, ascended to the throne of Thebes and married Nycteis. At this indicate, the legend of Thebes branches off in many directions and has many variants. Most important for u.s., Polydorus and Nycteis had a son named Labdacus, whose son, Laius, fled Thebes to take refuge with Pelops at Elis in the northwest Peloponnese. There, Laius fell in beloved with Pelops' son, Chrysippus. He lured Chrysippus out of town and raped him, then fled dorsum to Thebes as Pelops cursed him for his transgression. When he returned, his father'south successors to the throne of Thebes were expressionless, and the Thebans had Laius ascend to the vacant throne, where he married Jocasta. An oracle informed him that he would exist killed by his own son, and, as a result, Laius refrained from intercourse with his wife, until one dark, in a drunken rage, he had intercourse with her anyhow.
When Jocasta bore a son, Laius had his feet pinned together (to keep his ghost from walking) and ordered a shepherd to carelessness the baby on Mount Cithaeron virtually Thebes. Instead, the shepherd gave the infant to a friend from Corinth. This friend delivered the baby to Polybus, king of Corinth, and he and his wife, Meriope, adopted the child, giving him the name "Oedipus", which seems to hateful "bloated pes" or "sore foot".
When he was older, a drunken human being questioned Oedipus' parentage, though his mother would not speak to him about the matter. Instead, he went to Delphi to learn about his background, where the oracle instead told him that he would impale his male parent and ally his mother. Horrified, he abandoned Corinth, and headed towards Thebes where he decided to endeavour his luck equally an exile. On the way, a chariot ran him off the road and grazed his foot. In anger, Oedipus killed the commuter, the passenger, and all of his retainers except one, who escaped.
Upon arriving at Thebes, he encountered the monstrous Sphinx, perchance sent by Hera as penalty against the Thebans for failure to atone for the crimes of Laius. The Sphinx was eating Thebans. Earlier killing them, the monster posed a riddle: "What goes on 4 legs in the morn, two at midday, and iii in the evening?" Only when the riddle was answered would the Thebans be spared the agony of the Sphinx, but no ane had been able to solve the riddle. Laius had gone to Delphi to acquire how to rid Thebes of the Sphinx, but reports of his demise past bandits came back to Creon, blood brother-in-law of Laius and interim ruler of Thebes. Creon decreed that whoever could solve the riddle would go the next king. Oedipus encountered the Sphinx and quickly realized that the respond was "man". The Sphinx, in her anger, threw herself off a cliff.
Oedipus became king of Thebes and married Jocasta. She bore two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. A plague followed and the stage was set for the action of Sophocles' Oedipus King. (for a summary of the activity of the play, see Outline of Oedipus King.)
Post-obit Oedipus' exile, his sons agreed to share the dominion of Thebes, alternating in rule every year. However, Eteocles refused to give upwards his ability afterward the first year and drove out Polynices. He fled to Argos, taking with him the gifts which the gods had given Harmonia at her wedding, including the necklace.
Meanwhile, in Argos, Adrastus, king of Argos, had learned from an oracle that he must "yoke his daughters to a boar and a lion." Confused at the oracle, he did not deed upon information technology until ane nighttime when he heard a clamor coming from the court outside of his palace. He saw Polynices and Tydeus, an exile from Calydon, fighting. Ane of them had a boar painted on his shield, the other a lion. Adrastus immediately recognized the truthful meaning of the oracle, stopped the fight, and married his daughters to them. He further agreed to restore them to their homelands, starting with Thebes.
Adrastus summoned heroes from Argos to lead the entrada against Thebes. Meanwhile, the exiled Oedipus, accompanied only by Antigone, fabricated his mode to the Grove of the Furies at Colonus, territory under the control of Athens. The inhabitants demanded that he exit before he defiled the grove, and they summoned Theseus, ruler of Athens. Ismene arrived, reporting on the fighting between Polynices and Eteocles, and she revealed that the Delphic oracle has declared that the city which possessed the bones of Oedipus could not be captured. Creon and Polynices both arrived to kidnap Oedipus, but Theseus made them leave, though not earlier Oedipus could expletive Polynices. He so withdrew, blessed his daughters, and vanished before Theseus.
Every bit Adrastus and the army approached Thebes, they sent Tydeus on ahead to try to talk Eteocles into abdicating the throne. He entered the urban center, defeated all the best Thebans at wresting, and killed all just one of the fifty men who were set in ambush to overwhelm him.
In the battle at Thebes, in that location were seven heroes on each side, and seven gates of the city. The Thebans learned from the seer Tiresias that but if Menoeceus, Creon'due south son, were sacrificed to Ares could they win the war. Menoeceus gladly killed himself outside the city. The Thebans drew lots to determine which gates they would defend. Eteocles wound up defending the gate which his brother, Polynices, was attacking.
The Thebans were soon forced from the battlefield into the urban center. One hero climbed atop the walls and proclaimed that even Zeus could not stop him. Shortly thereafter, he was struck past lightning. The tide of battle and so began to turn against the Argives. Melanippus, one of the Theban heroes, dueled with Tydeus and both were mortally wounded. Athena obtained from Zeus a potion of immortality for Tydeus, but Amphiaraus, yet angry at him for favoring the war, knew what was happening. He cut off Melanippus' head and gave it to Tydeus, who, in his rage, scooped out the brains and drank downwardly the blood. Athena saw this when she arrived and dropped the potion in her disgust. Tydeus died, and Amphiaraus fled the scene. He was well-nigh to accept a spear in the back when Zeus opened up the earth and had him swallowed alive. In classical times, a shrine was established at that place which housed his oracle.
Eteocles and Polynices met in combat and killed each other. The battle raged on, and merely Adrastus escaped death. What happened adjacent is recounted in Sophocles' Antigone, which we volition be reading for unit nine.
Adrastus fled to Athens. Theseus took compassion on him, and led an expedition to Thebes, where he forced the Thebans to allow the Argives to bury their dead.
Ten years subsequently, the sons of the original seven heroes who fought against Thebes organized another expedition, they took Thebes, sacked it, and destroyed information technology. The city is not heard from again.
Works Cited: Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993 Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1998. Green, Richard and Eric Handley. Images of the Greek Theater. London, 1995: Trustees of the British Museum

Timeline of Relevant Events

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Source: https://www2.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/tragedy/index.php?page=thebes

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