Source Verification: Seven Against Thebes

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

What is the curse of Thebes?

In the Seven Against Thebes story it is Oedipus's curse on his own sons. Apollodorus says he cursed Eteocles and Polynices when they let him be driven from Thebes without helping him. Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus has him pray that Polynices die by a kindred hand and kill the brother who exiled him. Aeschylus treats the curse as the Erinys at work in the family. It came true when the brothers killed each other at the gates.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.5.9

Why did Polynices raise an army to march against his brother Eteocles?

Because Eteocles broke their agreement to share the throne. Apollodorus says the brothers were to rule Thebes in alternate years, and that when Tydeus came as an envoy demanding the kingdom for Polynices, Eteocles ignored him. Polynices had married a daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos, who had promised to restore him. The sources disagree on the details: Euripides has Polynices go into exile first, while Sophocles makes him the elder brother, pushed out by the younger Eteocles.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1

Who survived the Seven Against Thebes?

Of the leaders, only Adrastus, king of Argos. Apollodorus says his divine horse Arion carried him off the field, and that the seer Amphiaraus had foreseen this: everyone who joined the expedition would die except Adrastus. Amphiaraus himself did not die in the ordinary way. Pindar says Zeus split the earth with a thunderbolt and hid him in it with his chariot, and Apollodorus adds that Zeus made him immortal.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.6.8

What is the plot of Seven against Thebes?

Aeschylus's play takes place inside the besieged city. Eteocles rebukes the panicking chorus of Theban women, then hears a scout describe the Argive champion at each of the seven gates and names a Theban defender for each. The seventh attacker is his own brother, and Eteocles goes to face him knowing his father's curse. A messenger reports that the city is saved and both brothers are dead, and the play ends in lament. Its closing scene, where a herald forbids Polynices's burial, is doubted by many modern editors.

Source: Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 375-652

Where Accounts Differ

seven-champions-lists-differ
which-brother-ruled-first
who-killed-melanippus
recovery-of-the-dead-by-battle-or-consent
aeschylus-seven-ending-authenticity

The seven champions differ by source. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 375-652, and Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1313-1325, both name Tydeus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Amphiaraus and Polynices. Euripides, Phoenician Women 1104-1138, replaces Eteoclus with Adrastus. Apollodorus 3.6.3 counts Adrastus and omits Eteoclus, and records that others drop Tydeus and Polynices for Eteoclus and Mecisteus. The Argive statue group at Delphi described by Pausanias 10.10.3 includes both Adrastus and Eteoclus. This page reports every list rather than choosing one.
Which brother ruled first is disputed. Apollodorus 3.6.1 records both versions. Euripides, Phoenician Women 71-76, calls Polynices the younger and sends him into exile first. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1295, has Polynices call himself the elder and Eteocles the younger. Pausanias 9.5.12 gives a different sequence altogether: Polynices left Thebes while Oedipus was still alive, returned after his death, quarrelled with Eteocles and went into exile a second time.
Apollodorus 3.6.8 has Melanippus wound Tydeus and Amphiaraus cut off Melanippus's head; his text also says Tydeus had killed Melanippus, words Frazer, following Heyne, suggests may be an interpolation. Pausanias 9.18.1 says Melanippus killed Tydeus and Mecisteus and was himself killed by Amphiaraus.
The recovery of the Argive dead is told two ways. Apollodorus 3.7.1 has the Athenians under Theseus capture Thebes to take them. Pausanias 1.39.2 reports the Theban version, in which the dead were handed over willingly and no battle was fought.
The ending of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, where a herald announces the ban on burying Polynices and Antigone defies it (from line 1005), is regarded by many modern editors as a later addition written under the influence of Sophocles's Antigone. This page does not treat that scene as evidence for Aeschylus's own version of the aftermath.

Sources

Primary sources

Homer, Iliad 4.370-410
Homer, Iliad 4.404-410
Homer, Iliad 5.800-808
Homer, Odyssey 11.326-327
Homer, Odyssey 15.244-247
Hesiod, Works and Days 161-163
Pindar, Nemean Odes 9.13-27
Pindar, Olympian Ode 6.12-17
Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2
Apollodorus, Library 3.5.9
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.2
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.3
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.4
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.5
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.7
Apollodorus, Library 3.6.8
Apollodorus, Library 3.7.1
Apollodorus, Library 3.7.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.39.2
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.12
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.9.3
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.18.1
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.18.3
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.25.1
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.10.3
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 375-652
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1313-1325
Euripides, Phoenissae 1104-1138