already been given) was sent by the goddess Hera as a punishment to the
Thebans. Stationed on a rocky height just outside the city, she propounded
to the passers by riddles which she had been taught by the Muses, and
whoever failed to solve them was torn in pieces and devoured by the
monster, and in this manner great numbers of the inhabitants of Thebes had
perished.
Now on the death of the old king Laius, Creon, the brother of the widowed
queen, had seized the reins of government and mounted the vacant throne;
and when at length his own son fell a victim to the Sphinx, he resolved at
all costs to rid the country of this fearful scourge. He accordingly issued
a proclamation, that the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocaste should
be awarded to him who should succeed in solving one of the riddles of the
Sphinx, it having been foretold by an oracle that only then would the
country be freed from the monster.
Just as this proclamation was being made in the streets of Thebes Oedipus,
with his pilgrim's staff in his hand, entered the city.
Tempted by the
prospect of so magnificent a reward he repaired to the rock, and boldly
requested the Sphinx to propound to him one of her riddles. She proposed to
him one which she deemed impossible of solution, but Oedipus at once solved
it; whereupon the Sphinx, full of rage and despair, precipitated herself
into the abyss and perished. Oedipus {271} received the promised reward. He
became king of Thebes and the husband of Jocaste, the widow of his father,
king Laius.
For many years Oedipus enjoyed the greatest happiness and tranquillity.
Four children were born to him--two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two
daughters, Antigone and Ismene. But at last the gods afflicted the country
with a grievous pestilence, which made terrible havoc among the people. In
their distress they entreated the help of the king, who was regarded by his
subjects as a special favourite of the gods. Oedipus consulted an oracle,
and the response was that the pestilence would continue to rage until the
land was purified of the blood of king Laius, whose murderer was living
unpunished at Thebes.
The king now invoked the most solemn imprecations on the head of the
murderer, and offered a reward for any information concerning him. He then
sent for the blind old seer Tiresias, and implored him, by means of his
prophetic powers, to reveal to him the author of the crime. Tiresias at
first hesitated, but yielding to the earnest solicitations of the king, the
old prophet thus addressed him: "Thou thyself art the murderer of the old
king Laius, who was thy father; and thou art wedded to his widow, thine own
mother." In order to convince Oedipus of the truth of his words, he brought
forward the old servant who had exposed him as a babe on Mount Cithæron,
and the shepherd who had conveyed him to king Polybus.
Horrified at this
awful revelation Oedipus, in a fit of despair, deprived himself of sight,
and the unfortunate Jocaste, unable to survive her disgrace, hanged
herself.
Accompanied by his faithful and devoted daughter Antigone, Oedipus quitted
Thebes and became a miserable and homeless outcast, begging his bread from
place to place. At length, after a long and painful pilgrimage, he found a
place of refuge in the grove of the Eumenides (at Colonus, near Athens),
where his last moments were soothed and tended by the care and devotion of
the faithful Antigone.
{272}
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
After the voluntary abdication of Oedipus, his two sons, Eteocles and
Polynices, took possession of the crown and reigned over the city of
Thebes. But Eteocles, being an ambitious prince, soon seized the reins of
government himself, and expelled his brother from the throne.
Polynices now repaired to Argos, where he arrived in the dead of night.
Outside the gates of the royal palace he encountered Tydeus, the son of
Oeneus, king of Calydon. Having accidentally killed a relative in the
chase, Tydeus was also a fugitive; but being mistaken by Polynices in the
darkness for an enemy, a quarrel ensued, which might have ended fatally,
had not king Adrastus, aroused by the clamour, appeared on the scene and
parted the combatants.
By the light of the torches borne by his attendants Adrastus observed, to
his surprise, that on the shield of Polynices a lion was depicted, and on
that of Tydeus a boar. The former bore this insignia in honour of the
renowned hero Heracles, the latter in memory of the famous Calydonian
boar-hunt. This circumstance reminded the king of an extraordinary oracular
prediction concerning his two beautiful daughters, Argia and Deipyle, which
was to the effect that he would give them in marriage to a lion and a boar.
Hailing with delight what he regarded as an auspicious solution of the
mysterious prophecy, he invited the strangers into his palace; and when he
heard their history, and had convinced himself that they were of noble
birth, he bestowed upon Polynices his beautiful daughter Argia, and upon
Tydeus the fair Deipyle, promising at the same time that he would assist
both his sons-in-law to regain their rightful patrimony.
The first care of Adrastus was to aid Polynices in regaining possession of
his lawful share in the government of Thebes. He accordingly invited the
most powerful chiefs in his kingdom to join in the expedition, {273} all of
whom readily obeyed the call with the exception of the king's
brother-in-law, Amphiaraus, the seer. As he foresaw a disastrous
termination to the enterprise, and knew that not one of the heroes, save
Adrastus himself, would return alive, he earnestly dissuaded the king from
carrying out his project, and declined to take any part in the undertaking.
But Adrastus, seconded by Polynices and Tydeus, was obstinately bent on the
achievement of his purpose, and Amphiaraus, in order to escape from their
importunities, concealed himself in a hiding-place known only to his wife
Eriphyle.
Now on the occasion of the marriage of Amphiaraus it had been agreed, that
if he ever differed in opinion with the king, his wife should decide the
question. As the presence of Amphiaraus was indispensable to the success of
the undertaking, and, moreover, as Adrastus would not enter upon it without
"the eye of the army," as he called his brother-in-law, Polynices, bent on
securing his services, determined to bribe Eriphyle to use her influence
with her husband and to decide the question in accordance with his wishes.
He bethought himself of the beautiful necklace of Harmonia, wife of Cadmus,
which he had brought with him in his flight from Thebes.
Without loss of
time he presented himself before the wife of Amphiaraus, and held up to her
admiring gaze the glittering bauble, promising that if she revealed the
hiding-place of her husband and induced him to join the expedition, the
necklace should be hers. Eriphyle, unable to withstand the tempting bait,
accepted the bribe, and thus Amphiaraus was compelled to join the army. But
before leaving his home he extorted a solemn promise from his son Alcmæon
that, should he perish on the field of battle, he would avenge his death on
his mother, the perfidious Eriphyle.
Seven leaders were now chosen, each at the head of a separate detachment of
troops. These were Adrastus the king, his two brothers Hippomedon and
Parthenopæus, Capaneus his nephew, Polynices and Tydeus, and Amphiaraus.
{274}
When the army was collected they set out for Nemea, which was at this time
governed by king Lycurgus. Here the Argives, being short of water, halted
on the outskirts of a forest in order to search for a spring, when they saw
a majestic and beautiful woman seated on the trunk of a tree, nursing an
infant. They concluded from her noble and queenly appearance that she must
be a goddess, but were informed by her that she was Hypsipile, queen of the
Lemnians, who had been carried away captive by pirates, and sold as a slave
to king Lycurgus, and that she was now acting as nurse to his infant son.
When the warriors told her that they were in search of water, she laid the
child down in the grass, and led them to a secret spring in the forest,
with which she alone was acquainted. But on their return they found, to
their grief, that the unfortunate babe had been killed during their
absence, by a serpent. They slew the reptile, and then collecting the
remains of the infant, they buried them with funereal honours and proceeded
on their way.
The warlike host now appeared before the walls of Thebes, and each leader
placed himself before one of the seven gates of the city in readiness for
the attack. Eteocles, in conjunction with Creon, had made due preparations
to repel the invaders, and had stationed troops, under the command of
trusty leaders, to guard each of the gates. Then, according to the practice
of the ancients of consulting soothsayers before entering upon any
undertaking, the blind old seer Tiresias was sent for, who, after carefully
taking the auguries from the flight of birds, declared that all efforts to
defend the city would prove unavailing, unless the youngest descendant of
the house of Cadmus would offer himself as a voluntary sacrifice for the
good of the state.
When Creon heard the words of the seer his first thought was of his
favourite son Menoeceus, the youngest scion of the royal house, who was
present at the interview. He therefore earnestly implored him to leave the
city, and to repair for safety to Delphi. But the gallant youth heroically
resolved to sacrifice his life for the {275} benefit of his country, and
after taking leave of his old father, mounted the city walls, and plunging
a dagger into his heart, perished in the sight of the contending hosts.
Adrastus now gave his troops the word of command to storm the city, and
they rushed forward to the attack with great valour. The battle raged long
and furiously, and after heavy losses on both sides the Argives were routed
and put to flight.
After the lapse of some days they reorganized their forces, and again
appeared before the gates of Thebes, when Eteocles, grieved to think that
there should be such a terrible loss of life on his account, sent a herald
into the opposite camp, with a proposition that the fate of the campaign
should be decided by single combat between himself and his brother
Polynices. The challenge was readily accepted, and in the duel which took
place outside the city walls, in the sight of the rival forces, Eteocles
and Polynices were both fatally wounded and expired on the field of battle.
Both sides now claimed the day, and the result was that hostilities
recommenced, and soon the battle raged with greater fury than ever. But
victory at last declared itself for the Thebans. In their flight the
Argives lost all their leaders, Adrastus excepted, who owed his safety to
the fleetness of his horse Arion.
By the death of the brothers, Creon became once more king of Thebes, and in
order to show his abhorrence of the conduct of Polynices in fighting
against his country, he strictly forbade any one to bury either his remains
or those of his allies. But the faithful Antigone, who had returned to
Thebes on the death of her father, could not endure that the body of her
brother should remain unburied. She therefore bravely disregarded the
orders of the king, and endeavoured to give sepulture to the remains of
Polynices.
When Creon discovered that his commands had been set at defiance, he
inhumanly condemned the devoted maiden to be entombed alive in a
subterranean vault. {276} But retribution was at hand.
His son, Hæmon, who
was betrothed to Antigone, having contrived to effect an entrance into the
vault, was horrified to find that Antigone had hanged herself by her veil.
Feeling that life without her would be intolerable, he threw himself in
despair on his own sword, and after solemnly invoking the malediction of
the gods on the head of his father, expired beside the dead body of his
betrothed.
Hardly had the news of the tragic fate of his son reached the king, before
another messenger appeared, bearing the tidings that his wife Eurydice, on
hearing of the death of Hæmon, had put an end to her existence, and thus
the king found himself in his old age both widowed and childless.
Nor did he succeed in the execution of his vindictive designs; for
Adrastus, who, after his flight from Thebes, had taken refuge at Athens,
induced Theseus to lead an army against the Thebans, to compel them to
restore the dead bodies of the Argive warriors to their friends, in order
that they might perform due funereal rites in honour of the slain. This
undertaking was successfully accomplished, and the remains of the fallen
heroes were interred with due honours.
THE EPIGONI.
Ten years after these events the sons of the slain heroes, who were called
Epigoni, or descendants, resolved to avenge the death of their fathers, and
with this object entered upon a new expedition against the city of Thebes.
By the advice of the Delphic oracle the command was intrusted to Alcmæon,
the son of Amphiaraus; but remembering the injunction of his father he
hesitated to accept this post before executing vengeance on his mother
Eriphyle. Thersander, however, the son of Polynices, adopting similar
tactics to those of his father, bribed Eriphyle with the beautiful veil of
Harmonia, bequeathed to him by Polynices, to induce her son {277} Alcmæon
and his brother Amphilochus to join in this second war against Thebes.
Now the mother of Alcmæon was gifted with that rare fascination which
renders its possessor irresistible to all who may chance to come within its
influence; nor was her own son able to withstand her blandishments.
Yielding therefore to her wily representations he accepted the command of
the troops, and at the head of a large and powerful army advanced upon
Thebes.
Before the gates of the city Alcmæon encountered the Thebans under the
command of Laodamas, the son of Eteocles. A fierce battle ensued, in which
the Theban leader, after performing prodigies of valour, perished by the
hand of Alcmæon.
After losing their chief and the flower of their army, the Thebans
retreated behind the city walls, and the enemy now pressed them hard on
every side. In their distress they appealed to the blind old seer Tiresias,
who was over a hundred years old. With trembling lips and in broken
accents, he informed them that they could only save their lives by
abandoning their native city with their wives and families. Upon this they
despatched ambassadors into the enemy's camp; and whilst these were
protracting negotiations during the night, the Thebans, with their wives
and children, evacuated the city. Next morning the Argives entered Thebes
and plundered it, placing Thersander, the son of Polynices (who was a
descendant of Cadmus), on the throne which his father had so vainly
contested.
ALCMÆON AND THE NECKLACE.
When Alcmæon returned from his expedition against the Thebans he determined
to fulfil the last injunction of his father Amphiaraus, who had desired him
to be revenged on his mother Eriphyle for her perfidy in accepting a bribe
to betray him. This resolution was further strengthened by the discovery
that his unprincipled mother had urged him also to join the expedition
{278} in return for the much-coveted veil of Harmonia.
He therefore put her
to death; and taking with him the ill-fated necklace and veil, abandoned
for ever the home of his fathers.
But the gods, who could not suffer so unnatural a crime to go unpunished,
afflicted him with madness, and sent one of the Furies to pursue him
unceasingly. In this unhappy condition he wandered about from place to
place, until at last having reached Psophis in Arcadia, Phegeus, king of
the country, not only purified him of his crime, but also bestowed upon him
the hand of his daughter Arsinoë, to whom Alcmæon presented the necklace
and veil, which had already been the cause of so much unhappiness.
Though now released from his mental affliction, the curse which hung over
him was not entirely removed, and on his account the country of his
adoption was visited with a severe drought. On consulting the oracle of
Delphi he was informed that any land which offered him shelter would be
cursed by the gods, and that the malediction would continue to follow him
till he came to a country which was not in existence at the time he had
murdered his mother. Bereft of hope, and resolved no longer to cast the
shadow of his dark fate over those he loved, Alcmæon took a tender leave of
his wife and little son, and became once more an outcast and wanderer.
Arrived after a long and painful pilgrimage at the river Achelous, he
discovered, to his unspeakable joy, a beautiful and fertile island, which
had but lately emerged from beneath the water. Here he took up his abode;
and in this haven of rest he was at length freed from his sufferings, and
finally purified of his crime by the river-god Achelous.
But in his
new-found home where prosperity smiled upon him, Alcmæon soon forgot the
loving wife and child he had left behind, and wooed Calirrhoë, the
beautiful daughter of the river-god, who became united to him in marriage.
For many years Alcmæon and Calirrhoë lived happily together, and two sons
were born to them. But {279} unfortunately for the peace of her husband,
the daughter of Achelous had heard of the celebrated necklace and veil of
Harmonia, and became seized with a violent desire to become the possessor
of these precious treasures.
Now the necklace and veil were in the safe-keeping of Arsinoë; but as
Alcmæon had carefully concealed the fact of his former marriage from his
young wife, he informed her, when no longer able to combat her
importunities, that he had concealed them in a cave in his native country,
and promised to hasten thither and procure them for her.
He accordingly
took leave of Calirrhoë and his children, and proceeded to Psophis, where
he presented himself before his deserted wife and her father, king Phegeus.
To them he excused his absence by the fact of his having suffered from a
fresh attack of madness, and added that an oracle had foretold to him that
his malady would only be cured when he had deposited the necklace and veil
of Harmonia in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Arsinoë, deceived by his
artful representations, unhesitatingly restored to him his bridal gifts,
whereupon Alcmæon set out on his homeward journey, well satisfied with the
successful issue of his expedition.
But the fatal necklace and veil were doomed to bring ruin and disaster to
all who possessed them. During his sojourn at the court of king Phegeus,
one of the servants who had accompanied Alcmæon betrayed the secret of his
union with the daughter of the river-god; and when the king informed his
sons of his treacherous conduct, they determined to avenge the wrongs of
their sister Arsinoë. They accordingly concealed themselves at a point of
the road which Alcmæon was compelled to pass, and as he neared the spot
they suddenly emerged from their place of ambush, fell upon him and
despatched him.
When Arsinoë, who still loved her faithless husband, heard of the murder,
she bitterly reproached her brothers for the crime which they had
perpetrated, at which they were so incensed, that they placed her in a
chest, and conveyed her to Agapenor, son of Ancæus, at Tegea. {280} Here
they accused her of the murder of which they themselves were guilty, and
she suffered a painful death.
Calirrhoë, on learning the sad fate of Alcmæon, implored Zeus that her
infant sons might grow at once to manhood, and avenge the death of their
father. The ruler of Olympus heard the petition of the bereaved wife, and,
in answer to her prayer, the children of yesterday became transformed into
bearded men, full of strength and courage, and thirsting for revenge.
Hastening to Tegea, they there encountered the sons of Phegeus, who were
about to repair to Delphi, in order to deposit the necklace and veil in the
sanctuary of Apollo; and before the brothers had time to defend themselves,
the stalwart sons of Calirrhoë rushed upon them and slew them. They then
proceeded to Psophis, where they killed king Phegeus and his wife, after
which they returned to their mother with the necklace and veil, which, by
the command of her father Achelous, were deposited as sacred offerings in
the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
THE HERACLIDÆ.
After the apotheosis of Heracles, his children were so cruelly persecuted
by Eurystheus, that they fled for protection to king Ceyx at Trachin,
accompanied by the aged Iolaus, the nephew and life-long friend of their
father, who constituted himself their guide and protector. But on
Eurystheus demanding the surrender of the fugitives, the Heraclidæ, knowing
that the small force at the disposal of king Ceyx would be altogether
inadequate to protect them against the powerful king of Argos, abandoned
his territory, and sought refuge at Athens, where they were hospitably
received by king Demophoon, the son of the great hero Theseus. He warmly
espoused their cause, and determined to protect them at all costs against
Eurystheus, who had despatched a numerous force in pursuit of them.
When the Athenians had made all necessary preparations to repel the
invaders, an oracle announced that the {281} sacrifice of a maiden of noble
birth was necessary to ensure to them victory; whereupon Macaria, the
beautiful daughter of Heracles and Deianira, magnanimously offered herself
as a sacrifice, and, surrounded by the noblest matrons and maidens of
Athens, voluntarily devoted herself to death.
While these events were transpiring in Athens, Hyllus, the eldest son of
Heracles and Deianira, had advanced with a large army to the assistance of
his brothers, and having sent a messenger to the king announcing his
arrival, Demophoon, with his army, joined his forces.
In the thick of the battle which ensued, Iolaus, following a sudden
impulse, borrowed the chariot of Hyllus, and earnestly entreated Zeus and
Hebe to restore to him, for this one day only, the vigour and strength of
his youth. His prayer was heard. A thick cloud descended from heaven and
enveloped the chariot, and when it disappeared, Iolaus, in the full
plenitude of manly vigour, stood revealed before the astonished gaze of the
combatants. He then led on his valiant band of warriors, and soon the enemy
was in headlong flight; and Eurystheus, who was taken prisoner, was put to
death by the command of king Demophoon.
After gratefully acknowledging the timely aid of the Athenians, Hyllus,
accompanied by the faithful Iolaus and his brothers, took leave of king
Demophoon, and proceeded to invade the Peloponnesus, which they regarded as
their lawful patrimony; for, according to the will of Zeus, it should have
been the rig