Seven Against Thebes
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
The Meaning of Seven Against Thebes
The Seven Against Thebes is one of the great military narratives of the Theban cycle, set in the generation before the Trojan War. After Oedipus's exile and death, his sons Eteocles and Polynices agreed to share the throne of Thebes by ruling in alternate years. Eteocles took the first turn but refused to yield power when his year expired. Polynices fled to Argos, where King Adrastus gave him his daughter in marriage and pledged to restore him by force. Adrastus assembled an army led by seven champions, each assigned to attack one of Thebes's seven gates: Adrastus himself, Polynices, Tydeus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, and the seer Amphiaraus, who joined reluctantly because he foresaw that all the champions except Adrastus would die. The campaign was catastrophic. Capaneus scaled the walls boasting he would take the city even against Zeus's will, and Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt. Tydeus, wounded and maddened, ate the brains of his slain enemy Melanippus, causing Athena to withdraw the immortality she had intended to grant him. Amphiaraus was swallowed alive by the earth as he fled. Eteocles and Polynices killed each other in single combat at the seventh gate, fulfilling Oedipus's curse that his sons would divide their inheritance with the sword. Only Adrastus escaped, carried to safety by his divine horse Arion. A generation later, the sons of the fallen Seven, called the Epigoni, returned and successfully conquered Thebes, completing the cycle of vengeance.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Amphiaraus knew the expedition was doomed but was forced to join because his wife Eriphyle was bribed with the cursed necklace of Harmonia
Explore Further
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptwar, curse
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the seven gates of Thebes, organised by Polynices to reclaim the throne from his brother Eteocles.
Theban Cycle
💭 conceptepic, dynasty
The cycle of myths surrounding the cursed royal house of Thebes, from Cadmus's founding through Oedipus's tragedy to the war of the Seven and their sons.
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Epigoni
💭 conceptwar
The sons of the Seven against Thebes who returned a generation later and successfully sacked the city their fathers died attacking.
Theban Royal Family
💭 conceptDynasty, Thebes
The cursed ruling house of Thebes spanning from Cadmus through Oedipus to the fratricidal war of his sons
Fall of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The final destruction of the city of Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse after ten years of siege
Heraclids
💭 conceptDynasty, conquest
The descendants of Heracles who claimed the Peloponnese and established the Dorian kingdoms of Sparta, Argos, and Messenia
Iliad
💭 conceptLiterature
Homer's epic poem recounting the wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War
Aeneid
💭 conceptLiterature
Virgil's epic poem following the Trojan hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome
Sack of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The brutal destruction and plundering of Troy during the night following the wooden horse stratagem
House of Oedipus
💭 conceptDynasty, fate
The doomed Theban royal line of Laius and Oedipus, destroyed by patricide, incest, and fraternal war
House of Atreus
💭 conceptNarrative
The cursed royal dynasty of Mycenae whose generations of bloodshed and vengeance form the darkest saga in Greek mythology