Classical Mythology

(^398) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
top, he boasted that not even Zeus could keep him out, and for his blasphemy
"Zeus," says Sophocles (Antigone 131-137), "hurled him with brandished fire as
he stood upon the parapet eager to raise the victory cry. Down he fell to the
hard earth, hurled through the air, as he breathed out rage and madness in his
frenzied assault."
Eteocles and Polynices killed each other in single combat, which Statius de-
scribes at great length in Book 11 of his epic, Thebaid. Even after death their en-
mity continued. Statius imagines Antigone, after the battle, trying to burn the
corpse of Polynices on the very place where Eteocles had been cremated. She
cries out in horror as the flames split in two with divided tongues, symbols of
the brothers' eternal hatred.
Of the other heroes, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, and Tydeus fell in bat-
tle. (Tydeus, indeed, could have been made immortal by Athena, whose favorite
he was, but she revoked her gift when she saw him eating the brains of the man
who had fatally wounded him.)
AMPHIARAÙS
Only Amphiaraiis and Adrastus escaped; Adrastus was saved by the speed of
his divine horse Arion and returned to Argos; Amphiaraiis was swallowed up
in the earth, with his chariot and driver, as he fled along the banks of the river
Ismenus, one of the rivers of Thebes. The scene is vividly described by Statius
(Thebaid 7. 816-820):
f
The earth parted with a deep, steep-sided chasm, and the stars above and the
dead below were both struck with fear. The huge abyss swallowed Amphiaraiis
and enveloped the horses as they began to cross. He did not relax his hold on
his arms or the reins: just as he was, he drove the chariot straight into Tartarus.
Amphiaraiis became an important hero, and chthonic cults (i.e., cults whose
ritual was directed toward the earth and the Underworld) were established in
his honor in several places. He was worshiped at the place beside the river
Ismenus where he was said to have descended into the earth. His most famous
cult was at Oropus (a city in northeastern Attica near the border with Boeotia),
where an elaborate shrine, the Amphiaraiim, was developed in the fifth century
B.c. He exemplifies the hero who is associated with the place (or places) where
his life was said to have ended. Like Oedipus at Colonus, he experienced a mys-
terious death and made the place where he disappeared holy.
ANTIGONE
The deaths of Eteocles and Polynices posed difficult religious and political dilem-
mas, which are presented in Sophocles' tragedy Antigone. The four children of
Oedipus and Jocasta were Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polynices. Creon,
Antigone's uncle, became king of Thebes again on the death of Eteocles. He gave
orders that Polynices was not to be buried, on the grounds that he was a traitor