Evadne
Wife of Capaneus who threw herself onto his funeral pyre at Thebes, becoming the archetype of self-immolating devotion.
The Legend of Evadne
She jumped into fire to follow her husband — and the Greeks considered it the noblest suicide in their mythology. When Capaneus was struck down by Zeus at Thebes, Evadne attended the funeral and leaped onto the burning pyre before anyone could stop her. Euripides stages this in The Suppliants, having her appear suddenly on a cliff above the pyre while her father Iphis begs her to come down. She jumps mid-sentence. The scene prefigures the Hindu practice of sati by millennia. Athena was present and did not intervene. Evadne chose this despite having children, making her act more disturbing than romantic to modern readers.
Parents
Iphis
Symbols
Fun Fact
Euripides has Evadne appear on a cliff above the pyre — one of the most dramatic staging directions in Greek drama.
Explore Further
Laodamia
🗡 herodevotion
Wife of Protesilaus who embraced a wax image of her dead husband so desperately the gods briefly returned him to life.
Alcestis
🗡 heroWife who died for her husband
Alcestis was the devoted wife who volunteered to die in place of her husband Admetus — the only person willing to make the sacrifice.
Phaedra
🗡 heroQueen consumed by forbidden love
Phaedra was the wife of Theseus who was cursed by Aphrodite to fall hopelessly in love with her stepson Hippolytus — her suicide and false accusation destroyed him.
Polyxena
🗡 herosacrifice
Trojan princess sacrificed on Achilles's tomb after the fall of Troy to appease his ghost.
Absyrtus
🗡 herotragedy
Son of King Aeetes of Colchis, murdered and dismembered by his sister Medea to slow their father's pursuit.
Hippolytus
🗡 heroSon of Theseus destroyed by Aphrodite
Hippolytus was the chaste son of Theseus who rejected Aphrodite and was destroyed when his stepmother Phaedra fell in love with him.
Anaxarete
🗡 heroCruelty, petrification
Cypriot noblewoman turned to stone for her cold-hearted rejection of her devoted suitor Iphis
Iphigenia
🗡 heroPrincess sacrificed for the Trojan War
Iphigenia was Agamemnon's eldest daughter, sacrificed at Aulis to gain winds for Troy — or rescued at the last moment by Artemis and whisked to Tauris.
Anteia
🗡 heroDesire, false accusation
Queen of Tiryns who falsely accused Bellerophon of assault, setting in motion his legendary trials
Iphis of Argos
🗡 heroUnrequited Love, Class, Suicide
Poor Argive youth who died of unrequited love for Anaxarete, who was then turned to stone.
Megara
🗡 heroNone recorded
First wife of Heracles, given to him as a reward and later killed in his madness
Alcmene
🗡 heroMother of Heracles
Alcmene was the mortal woman whom Zeus seduced by disguising himself as her husband — she bore Heracles, the greatest hero of Greek mythology.