The Seven Against Thebes

The Seven against Thebes in Greek mythology is about the seven champions who were killed fighting against Thebes after the fall of Oedipus, the king of Thebes. The twins Eteocles and Polyneices, the sons of Oedipus had been cursed by their father, Oedipus, argued about who was to succeed to the throne and came to the decision to rule on alternate years. As Eteocles was the first, Polyneices traveled to Argos, and he married Argeia, daughter of King Adrastus.

At the end of the year, Polyneices’ turn came to rule Thebes. Eteocles refused to give up the throne. Adrastus assembled an army, whose chiefs, were Tydeus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Amphiaraus, and Polyneices. The generals from Argos, who take the oath before the gates of the walled city, will not try to get out of it. They will fight to the last. Each of the seven sends his army against one of the gates, as selected by lot.

In the course of their attack on the city’s seven gates, Capaneus was struck by Zeus’s lightning bolt; Amphiaraus was swallowed up by the earth; Polyneices and Eteocles killed each other, this fulfilled the curse by their father Oedipus; and the others were killed by the guards at Thebes. When the sons of the dead Seven, had grown to be men, Adrastus again assaulted the city and occupied it after the Thebans had fled. 

The champions who fought the war all suffered death in fulfillment of the curse of their forebears. Oedipus was an hero himself and knew that the fight for the throne that he had left would bring about the opposition between the two sons.