Creon (King of Thebes)

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Creon , also Creon ( Greek  Κρέων - Kreōn "ruler") was king of Thebes in Greek mythology . He is best known for the Oedipus saga and Sophocles' Antigone .

Parentage and offspring

Pedigree of Kreon

Creon was the son of Menoikeus and descended from those men ( divisions ) who sprouted the dragon teeth sown by Theben's founder, Kadmos . With his wife Eurydice he was the father of three sons: Haimon , Megareus (also Menoikeus ), Lykomedes and the daughter Megara . As the brother of Iokaste he was first brother-in-law of the Theban king Laios and later both brother-in-law and uncle of Oedipus .

myth

First reign

When Laios was killed by his own son Oedipus , Creon, brother of Laios' wife, took control of Thebes.

Amphitryon , who accidentally killed his father-in-law Elektryon , fled with his wife Alkmene and their brother Likymnios to Thebes to Creon and Creon's first wife Henioche to purify themselves of their crime there . From Thebes, Amphitryon led a campaign against the Taphi with Creon's help . Alkmene gave birth to her son Heracles, fathered by Zeus , in Thebes .

During Creon's first reign, Hera sent the Thebans the Sphinx . This monster lay in wait for passers-by on the Phikeischen Berg and puzzled them. If they could not solve it, she killed them. Since Oedipus was able to solve the riddle and thus defeat the Sphinx, the latter plunged into death. Other, older versions do not know the puzzle. After this, the Sphinx strangled passers-by and was killed by Oedipus. As a thank you, Oedipus received Iokaste (according to most versions of the legend his birth mother, according to others his stepmother) as his wife and he replaced Creon as King of Thebes.

Second reign

When Thebes suffered from the plague years later and the city was helpless, the seer Teiresias revealed that Iocaste was in truth Oedipus' mother and that Oedipus had killed his father Laius. Then left Oedipus and Creon Thebes took the place of the still underage Oedipus sons Eteocles and Polynices again the kingdom.

According to other versions, Oedipus remained in Thebes. According to Homer , he continued to rule long after Epicastus' suicide and eventually fell in battle. In Hesiod's catalog of women it is mentioned several times that Argeia (daughter of Adrastus) from Argos , who is considered to be the wife of Polynices in myth, was also present at the burial of Oedipus . Accordingly, Oedipus' sons were already grown up when Oedipus died, which is indirectly confirmed by Pausanias , according to which Polynices emigrated to Argos while still alive and only got into a dispute with Eteocles after the death of his father. According to this version, there was no need for Creon to take over rule as interim king.

Third reign

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When Eteocles and Polynices grew up, they took over the reign of Creon and agreed to take turns to rule annually. After his first term of office, however, Eteocles refused to resign, so that Polynices allied himself with Argive princes and attacked Thebes (→ processing of this legend in Aeschylus ' Tragedy Seven Against Thebes ). After the failure of the storming of Thebes, the two brothers started a duel in which they killed each other.

Now Creon ascended again the throne of Thebes as guardian of Laodamas , son of Eteocles. He announced that Polynices and all those who had fallen with him in the battle against Thebes were not to be buried, but Antigone , Polynice's sister, disregarded this order and was caught by the guards when she threw earth on her brother's dead body . Although Antigone was engaged to Creon's son Haimon, Creon decreed that she should be walled up alive in a burial chamber. The gods expressed their dissatisfaction with Creon's decision through Teiresias (“The dead are to be buried and the living are to be freed from their graves!”), But when Creon had Antigone's burial chamber break open, the tragedy had already begun: Um escaping slow death Antigone had hanged himself. Haimon, the first witness of this misfortune, turned his sword against his father for the time being, but then changed his mind and killed himself. But Eurydice, who learned from a page of her son's death, also committed suicide. Creon himself remained alive and - now alone - resumed government.

Creon's end

Adrastus asked Theseus for help with the surrender of the dead. Theseus went against Thebes, won a victory and brought the fallen to Eleusis , where they were buried. As a result, Lycus , son of Lycus, came from Euboea to Thebes, murdered Creon and became the tyrant of Thebes.

swell

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Sophocles , Antigone (Sophocles)
  2. ↑ Euripides
  3. ↑ Epimenides , Scholion zu Euripides , Die Phoenikerinnen 13 names Eurycleia as the birth mother of Oedipus. See also Morris Silver: Taking Ancient Mythology Economically. Brill, Leiden 1992, p. 197., the Homer , Odyssey 11,271f. in connection with Pausanias 9,26,3 interpreted to the effect that Oedipus was begotten by the concubine Eurycleia , while Epicaste / Iocaste could have been the official main consort of the king, a virgin priestess who was not allowed to bear children herself.
  4. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 11: 275-81.
  5. ↑ Homer, Ilias 23, 679. For the interpretation of this passage from the Ilias, cf. Christiane Zimmermann : The Antigone myth in ancient literature and art (= Classica Monacensia. Munich studies on classical philology. Volume 5). Narr, Tübingen 1993, p. 39.
  6. ↑ Hesiod, ia Fragment 62 ed. Rzach.
  7. ^ Pausanias, Travels in Greece 9: 5, 12.
predecessor Office successor
Laios King of Thebes
13th century BC Chr. 		Oedipus
Oedipus King of Thebes
13th century BC Chr. 		Eteocles
Eteocles King of Thebes
13th century BC Chr. 		Lycus