CHAPTER17
THE THEBAN SAGA
THE FOUNDING OF THEBES
The historical Thebes was the leading city of Boeotia, the plainland area of cen-
tral Greece, ringed by the mountain ranges of Parnes, Cithaeron, Helicon, and
Parnassus and bounded on the east by the Straits of Euboea. Thebes was situ-
ated on the low ridge that separates the two chief plains of Boeotia; its citadel
was called the Cadmeia, preserving the name of Cadmus, legendary founder of
the city. Cadmus was son of Agenor, king of Tyre, and brother of Europa. Agenor
sent him to find Europa, whose abduction from Tyre is one of several myths in
which a woman was taken against her will from Asia to Europe or vice versa.
Herodotus narrates these legends at the beginning of his History in order to un-
derline the difference between mythology and history. In these myths the op-
position of the Greek and Asiatic worlds, which came to a historical climax in
the Persian Wars of 494^79 B.c., began when Phoenician traders kidnapped the
Argive princess Io and took her to Egypt. The Greeks (whom Herodotus calls
"Cretans") in return seized the Phoenician princess Europa and took her to Crete.
The pattern was then reversed: the Greeks took Medea from Colchis and in re-
turn the Trojan Alexander (Paris) took Helen from Sparta. Herodotus explained
that the Persians, reasoning from these myths, believed that Europe and Asia
were permanently divided and hostile. As a historian he was skeptical about
these tales, for he could not vouch for their truth, whereas he could report things
of which he had knowledge: "About these things I am not going to come and
say that they happened in this way or in another, but the man who I myself
know was the beginner of unjust works against the Greeks, this man I will point
out and advance with my story.. ." (1.5). So for the Greek historian of the Per-
sian Wars the distinction between myth and history was evident.
EUROPAThe story of Europa is the first in which the Asiatic figure makes her way to the
Greek world. In the usual version of the myth (which is different from the skep-
tical account of Herodotus) Zeus, disguised as a bull, took her to Crete. Here is