Thebes
Thebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for the tragedies of Oedipus, Antigone, and the Seven Against Thebes.
The Story of Thebes
Cadmus of Phoenicia, seeking his sister Europa, was directed by the Delphic oracle to follow a cow and build a city where it lay down. He killed a dragon sacred to Ares, sowed its teeth, and from the earth sprang armed warriors — the Spartoi, ancestors of Theban nobility. Thebes became the birthplace of Dionysus and Heracles. Its greatest tragedy was the house of Laius: despite all precautions, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, and the resulting curse destroyed his entire family across three generations.
Parents
Founded by Cadmus
Explore Further
Thebes
🏛 placetragedy, fate
The city of Cadmus and Oedipus, setting of more Greek tragedies than any other place.
Corinth
🏛 placeCity of Sisyphus and Medea
Corinth was a wealthy trading city on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, associated with Sisyphus, Medea, Bellerophon, and Pegasus.
Mycenae
🏛 placeCitadel of Agamemnon
Mycenae was the great Bronze Age citadel in the Argolid, seat of King Agamemnon who led the Greek expedition against Troy — its Lion Gate still stands after 3,200 years.
Pherae
🏛 placeGeography
A city in Thessaly where Admetus ruled and Alcestis chose to die in her husband's place
Ilium
🏛 placeGeography
The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
Arene
🏛 placegeography
A city in Messenia associated with the Dioscuri and site of the twin heroes' early adventures.
Tegea
🏛 placegeography
An Arcadian city with a great temple of Athena Alea, and possessor of the tusks of the Calydonian Boar and the bones of Orestes.
Abdera
🏛 placegeography
A Thracian coastal city founded in honour of Abderus, companion of Heracles.
Sicyon
🏛 placeGeography
An ancient city near Corinth claiming to be one of the oldest in Greece and site of Prometheus's sacrifice trick
Boeotia
🏛 placegeography
A fertile central Greek region whose name means "ox-land," birthplace of Heracles and setting of the Cadmus myth.
Libya
🏛 placeGeography
The ancient Greek name for the entire continent of Africa, personified as a daughter of Epaphus and Memphis
Arges
🏛 placegeography
The Argolid plain dominated by the city of Argos, one of the oldest and most mythologically saturated regions of Greece.