Chapter SeventeenLecture One

Oedipus and the Myths of Thebes

Cadmus and the Dragon

Cadmus and the Dragon

• Cadmus, son of Agenor, gives up looking for Europa

• Goes to Delphi

• “Follow the cow with the special mark and found your city where she rests”

• His men are killed by serpent near a spring of Ares

• Cadmus kills the dragon

Cadmus and the Dragon

• To replace his men, he sows half the dragons teeth (Athena’s idea)

• The “seed-sown” men arise

• Cadmus throws rocks among them and they fight until only five are left

• They will become the ancestors of the aristocratic families in Thebes

Cadmus and the Dragon

• Cadmus serves Ares for eight years

• Marries Harmonia (daughter of Ares and Aphrodite)

• Hephaestus gives her a necklace, which turns out to be cursed

Cadmus and the Dragon

• Cadmus and Harmonia retire in Illyria

• Changed to snakes and live in the Elysian fields

The Twins Amphion and Zethus

Amphion and Zethus

• After a while, Nycteus rules in Thebes

• Antiopê, a daughter of Nycteus, becomes pregnant by Zeus

• Nycteus banishes her

• Not satisfied, Nycteus kills himself after ordering his brother Lycus to punish Antiopê more

Amphion and Zethus

• Lycus takes her from her new husband in the hills, Epopeus, and drags her to Thebes

• On the way, she gives birth to twins Amphion and Zethus – raised by a shepherd

Amphion and Zethus

• At Thebes, Antiopê is tortured daily by Dircê (wife of Lycus)

• Antiopê escapes one day, and comes upon her twins

• They return to Thebes and kill Dircê; throw her body into a spring

• They attack Thebes and kill Lycus

Amphion and Zethus

• Amphion – the musician

• Zethus – the cattleman

• Raising the walls of the new city

• Marriages– Zethus – Thebê– Amphion – Niobê

The Two Foundings of Thebes

Two Foundings of Thebes

• One Near Eastern, modeled after cosmic dragon combat– Brought by immigrants or original founders– The Mesopotamian cylinder seals– Phoinikia grammata or kadmeia

• The other is local and more like folktale– Twins with opposing characters, wicked

stepmother, “just in time”

Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

• Labdacus (another son of Polydorus)

• His son Laius flees Thebes to Elis (King Pelops)

• Chrysippus

• “Curse on the house of Labdacus”

• Jocasta

Oedipus the King

• An oracle’s message: “Your son will kill you and marry your wife.”

• His effort to avoid Jocasta failed one night

• A son is born

• Best known version is told by the tragedian Sophocles

Oedipus the King

• Laius and Jocasta mutilate the feet of the child and give him to a shepherd to expose on the mountain

• Shepherd instead gives it to a friend on the other side of Mt. Cithaeron

• The child is adopted by Queen Meropê and King Polybus in Corinth

• They name him “swollen foot” : Oedipus

Oedipus the King

• Friends taunt him with the truth

• He goes to Delphi

• The Pythia recoils at his sight and tells him his fate

• At Daulis, Oedipus resolves never to return to Corinth, heads toward Thebes

• On the way, he kills all but one of a train of men

Oedipus the King

• City is plagued by the Sphinx and her riddle

• Oedipus solves the riddle

• Becomes king and gets the queen as his wife

• They have children by and by:– Polynices and Eteocles; Antigonê and Ismenê

Oedipus the King

Sophocles

Oedipus the King

• Begins after these events• Oedipus determined to find the cause of a

new plague in Thebes– The plague is caused by the pollution of

Laius’s murder; the perpetrator is still in Thebes

• Oedipus discovers gradually and reluctantly that he has fulfilled the prophecy

Next Plays in the Cycle

• Oedipus at Colonus

• Antigonê

• Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes (Aeschylus)

End