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Theban Kings In Greek Mythology
The dynastic history of Thebes in Greek mythology is crowded with a bewildering number of kings between the city's new foundation (by Cadmus) and the Trojan War (see Ogyges). This suggests several competing traditions, which mythographers were forced to reconcile.Hard, Robin; Rose, Herbert Jennings (2004). The mythical history of Thebes. In. ''The Routledge handbook of Greek mythology'', pp. 294 ff. Psychology Press, Overview The first kings of the Boeotia region (before Cadmus and the flood of Deucalion) were Calydnus and Ogyges (Ogygos). The first king of the settlement that would become Thebes was Cadmus, after whom the city was originally called Cadmeia. It only became known as Thebes during the reign of Amphion and Zethus, after the latter's wife Thebe. When Cadmus died, his son Polydorus was still a minor and hence Pentheus, a son of Cadmus' daughter Agave and one of the Spartoi, became king. He met a tragic end after falling foul of the young god Dionysus. Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)
Thebes ( ; , ''Thíva'' ; , ''Thêbai'' .) is a city in Boeotia, Central Greece, and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the largest city in Boeotia and a major center for the area along with Livadeia and Tanagra. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. One myth had the city founded by Agenor, which gave rise to the (now somewhat obscure) name "Agenorids" to denote Thebans. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, indicating the importance of the site in the Bronze Age. Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a major rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes I. Theban forces under the command of Epaminondas ended Spartan hegemony a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicyon
Sicyon (; ; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyōn was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. The ruins lie just west of the modern village of Sikyona (previously Vasiliko). An ancient monarchy at the times of the Trojan War, the city was ruled by a number of tyrants during the Archaic and Classical period and became a democracy in the 3rd century BC. Sicyon was celebrated for its contributions to ancient Greek art, producing many famous painters and sculptors. In Hellenistic times it was also the home of Aratus of Sicyon, the leader of the Achaean League. Ancient history Sicyon was built on a low triangular plateau about 3 kilometres (two miles) from the Corinthian Gulf. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with olive groves and orchards. In Mycenean times, according to Eusebius, Sicyon had been ruled by a line of twenty-six mythical king ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynices
In Greek mythology, Polynices (also Polyneices) (; ) was the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia and the older brother of Eteocles. When Oedipus was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, leaving Eteocles and Polynices to rule. Because of a curse put on them by their father, the two sons did not share the rule peacefully. During a battle for control over Thebes, the brothers killed each other. Mythology Oedipus's curse In the ''Thebaid'', the brothers were cursed by their father for their disrespect towards him on two occasions. The first of these occurred when they served him using the silver table of Cadmus and a golden cup, which he had forbidden. The brothers then sent him the haunch of a sacrificed animal, rather than the shoulder, which he deserved. Enraged, Oedipus prayed to Zeus that the brothers would die by each other's hand. However, in Sophocles' '' Oedipus at Colonus'', Oedipus desired to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jocasta
In Greek mythology, Jocasta (), also rendered as Iocaste ( ) and EpicasteHomer, ''Odyssey'', Vol. XI11.271/ref> (; ), was Queen of Thebes through her marriages to Laius and her son, Oedipus. She is best known for her role in the myths surrounding Oedipus and her eventual suicide upon the discovery of his identity. Family Jocasta was the daughter of an unknown woman and Menoeceus, a descendant of Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, and the Spartoi Echion. She had two siblings: Creon and Hipponome. She was a member of the ruling class of Thebes, but her exact role before her marriage to Laius, the king of Thebes, is unknown. With Laius, she became Queen of Thebes and gave birth to a son, Oedipus. Later, not knowing of Oedipus's identity, she married him and gave birth to Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene. She was therefore both the mother and the grandmother of her children. Mythology After Laius married Jocasta, he received an oracle from the Pythia at Delp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelops
In Greek mythology, Pelops (; ) was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region (, lit. "Pelops' Island"). He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus. He was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic Games, the most important expression of unity, not only for the people of Peloponnesus, but for all Hellenes. At the sanctuary at Olympia, chthonic night-time libations were offered each time to "dark-faced" Pelops in his sacrificial pit ('' bothros'') before they were offered in the following daylight to the sky-god Zeus (Burkert 1983:96). Family Pelops was a son of Tantalus and either Dione, Euryanassa, Eurythemista,Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'11/ref> or Clytia. In some accounts, he was called a bastard son of Tantalus while others named his parents as Atlas and the nymph Linos. Others would make Pelops the son of Hermes and Calyce while another says that he was an Achaean from Olenus. Of Phrygian or Lydian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artemis
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later times, she was identified with Selene, the Lunar deity, personification of the Moon.Smiths.v. Artemis/ref> She was often said to roam the forests and mountains, attended by her entourage of nymphs. The goddess Diana (mythology), Diana is her Religion in ancient Rome, Roman equivalent. In Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister of Apollo. In most accounts, the twins are the products of an extramarital liaison. For this, Zeus' wife Hera forbade Leto from giving birth anywhere on solid land. Only the island of Delos gave refuge to Leto, allowing her to give birth to her children. In one account, Artemis is born first and then proceeds to assist Leto in the birth of the second twin, Apollo. Artemis was a kouro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tantalus
Tantalus ( ), also called Atys, was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his punishment in Tartarus: for either revealing many secrets of the gods, for stealing ambrosia from them, or for trying to trick them into eating his son, he was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink. This punishment, although the most well-known today, was a more unusual detail in surviving early Greek sources, where variants including a stone suspended above his head are more commonly recorded. The ancient Greeks used the proverb "Tantalean punishment" (: ) in reference to those who have good things but are not permitted to enjoy them. His name and punishment are also the source of the English word ''tantalize'', meaning to torment with the sight of something desired but out of reach; tease by arousing expectations that are repeatedly disappointed. 'The rock of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niobe
Niobe (; : Nióbē) was in Greek mythology a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. She was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Niobe is mentioned by Achilles in Homer's ''Iliad'', which relates her ''hubris'', for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food. Once the gods had interred the slain, Niobe retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and though turned to stone, she broods over the sorrows sent by the Gods". Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the twin founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but no shrine to Niobe. Mythology Family Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis" or "the city ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirce
Dirce (; , , modern Greek , meaning "double" or "cleft") was a queen of Thebes as the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology. Family Dirce was a daughter of the river-gods Achelous or Ismenus, or of Helios. Mythology After Zeus impregnated Dirce's niece Antiope, the latter fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way. Lycus gave Antiope to Dirce. Dirce hated Antiope and treated her cruelly, until Antiope, in time, escaped. In Euripides's lost play ''Antiope'', Antiope flees back to the cave where she gave birth to Amphion and Zethus; they are now living there as young men. They disbelieve her claim to be their mother and refuse her pleas for sanctuary, but when Dirce comes to find Antiope and orders her to be killed, the twins are convinced by the shepherd who raised them that Antiope is their mother. They kill Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull. Dirce was devoted to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tereus
In Greek mythology, Tereus (; Ancient Greek: Τηρεύς) was a Thracian king,Thucydides: ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' 2:29 the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the husband of the Athenian princess Procne and the father of Itys. Mythology When Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela, he came to Athens to his father-in-law Pandion to ask for his other daughter in marriage, stating that Procne had died. Pandion granted him the favour, and sent Philomela and guards along with her. But Tereus threw the guards into the sea, and finding Philomela on a mountain, forced himself upon her. He then cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. After he returned to Thrace, Tereus gave Philomela to King Lynceus and told his wife that her sister had died. Philomela wove letters in a tapestry depicting Tereus's crime and sent it secretly to Procne. Lynceus' wife Lathusa who was a friend of Procne, at once ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thracians
The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between Thrace, north-eastern Greece, Romania, and north-western Turkey. They shared the same language and culture. There may have been as many as a million Thracians, divided among up to 40 tribes." Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in Present (time), modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, northern Greece and European Turkey, but also in north-western Anatolia, Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey. The exact origin of the Thracians is uncertain, but it is believed that Thracians like other Indo-European speaking groups in Europe descended from a mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers. Around the 5th millennium BC, the inhabitants of the eastern region of the Balkans became organized in different groups of Indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pandion I
In Greek mythology, Pandion I (; Ancient Greek: Πανδίων) was a legendary King of Athens, the son and heir to Erichthonius of Athens and his wife, the naiad Praxithea. Through his father, he was the grandson of the god Hephaestus. Family Pandion married a naiad, Zeuxippe, and they had two sons Erechtheus and Butes, and two daughters Procne and Philomela. In some accounts, he was also called the father of Teuthras, father of Thespius, and of Cephalus, lover of Eos (Dawn). Mythology Pandion I was the fifth king of Athens in the traditional line of succession as given by the third century BC Parian Chronicle, the chronographer Castor of Rhodes (probably from the late third-century Eratosthenes) and the '' Bibliotheca''. He was preceded by Cecrops I, Cranaus, Amphictyon, and Erichthonius, and succeeded by Erechtheus, Cecrops II, and Pandion II. Castor makes Pandion I the son of Erichthonius (the earliest source for this) and says he ruled for 40 years (1437/6&nda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
