Eteocles

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfred J. Church: Eteocles and Polynices (1885)

Eteocles ( ancient Greek Ἐτεοκλῆς ) is a person from Greek mythology .

Eteocles came either, according to the versions of Attic tragedians , from the incestuous marriage between Oedipus and Iocaste or, according to the Libraries of Apollodorus and the Oidipodeia of Kinaithon , from Oedipus' second marriage to Euryganeia . He was the brother of Polynices , Antigone and Ismene , and father of Laodamas .

Eteocles and his brother Polynices were also victims of the Labdakid curse , which began with the kidnapping of Chrysippus by Oedipus' father Laios . The curse of Oedipus against his two sons has probably been documented for the first time for the cyclical Thebais . According to this, Eteocles and Polynices were cursed twice by their father: He wished them a quarrel and war over their paternal inheritance after Polynices had seated him at a table of Cadmos and handed him a cup from Laios. When Eteocles and Polynices sent him not the shoulder piece, as usual, but the loin of the sacrificial animal after a sacrifice, Oedipus cursed his sons for killing each other in battle. After the death of Oedipus or when Eteocles and Polynices were grown up - according to this version, Creon had taken over the government for the underage Oedipus sons - they should rule over Thebes alternately every year . However, Eteocles refused to relinquish the throne after his first term in office. Polynices stayed in Argos during the reign of his brother , where he married Argeia , the daughter of King Adrastus , and thus also became Tydeus' brother-in-law. Polynices, Adrastus and Tydeus won after Eteocles had refused to hand over the rule to his brother as agreed, further princes for a campaign against Thebes to help Polynices to power (see also " Seven against Thebes ", the processing of these Say through Aeschylus ). At six of the seven city gates of Thebes Eteocles was victorious, on the seventh the brothers killed each other in a duel.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So Pausanias 9,5,5.
  2. ↑ see also in more detail Oswald Wolff : Polyneikes . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.2, Leipzig 1909, Col. 2661 f. ( Digitized version ). with other sources.
  3. ↑ In addition, it has been unclear and controversial since ancient times how the word ἂφαρ (which among other things can mean “soon” ) in Homer's Odyssey (11.274) should be interpreted as the time between the marriage of Epicastus (= Iocaste) and Oedipus and the discovery used by the gods and the ensuing suicide of the epicaste. The question is whether there was enough time between marriage and death of the Iokaste to father offspring. s. in detail: Christiane Zimmermann : The Antigone myth in ancient literature and art (= Classica Monacensia. Munich studies on classical philology. Volume 5). Narr, Tübingen 1993, p. 61ff.
  4. ↑ Anders Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff : The seven gates of Thebes. Hermes 26, 1891, p. 227, note 2, according to which the Thebais “the gender curse was undoubtedly quite foreign”. Compare with Oswald Wolff: Polyneikes . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.2, Leipzig 1909, Col. 2663-2663 ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ This version also mentions Herodotus, Historien 4,147.
predecessor Office successor
Polynices King of Thebes
13th century BC Chr.
(Fictional chronology) 		Creon