Homer: he gives the essentials of the following story in Il. 24. 602 ff., although the details vary greatly within the subsequent tradition.
Amphion alone survived: presumably the father of the children rather than a Niobid not mentioned above.
Chloris: see P. 2. 21. 10 (where this Chloris is identified with Meliboia below; her name was changed to Chloris, ‘pale’, because she went pale with fear and remained so ever afterwards). Ap. wrongly identifies this Chloris, the daughter of Amphion of Thebes, with the daughter of Amphion of Orchomenos who married Neleus (see Od. 11. 281 ff, P. 10. 29. 2).
transformed into a stone: Homer records that she became a stone ( Il. 24. 614 ff.) without explaining how. The rock, on Mount Sipylos (in Lydia, Asia Minor), bore no resemblance to a woman when viewed close at hand, but if the visitor drew back, he could make out the image of a weeping woman bowed in grief (according to Pausanias, who claims to have seen it, 1. 21. 5, cf. QS 1. 299 ff.).
the death ofAmphion: he is said to have reacted to the death of his children by killing himself (Ov. Met. 6. 271), or by trying to storm the temple of Apollo, provoking the god to shoot him (Hyg. 9). For the death of Zethos, see P. 9. 5. 5.
others Epicaste: as in Od. 11. 271, when Odysseus meets her in Hades; but Iocaste (Jocasta) is general in later writers.
called him Oedipus: the name Oidipous is derived from oidein, to swell, and pous, a foot (a valid etymology); but the familiar Latinized form of his name is used in the translation. For further details on all the following see Ap.’s main sources, Sophocles’ Oedipus the Kingand Oedipus at Colonos.
supposititious child: i.e. as one who was not the child of his supposed parents, but is passed off as being their child.
a certain narrow track: the ‘Cleft Way’, a mountain track leading to Delphi, see P. 10. 5. 1 ff.
Creon, son of Menoiceus: and thus the great-grandson of Pentheus, and a member of the Theban royal line. He was the brother of Iocaste and uncle of Oedipus.
Hera sent the Sphinx: in Theog. 326, the daughter of Orthos and Chimaira. In the absence of a settled tradition, different sources point to various episodes in Theban history that might have caused a deity to send her. Ap. may be referring to the tradition that Hera sent her in anger at Laios’ abduction of Chrysippos, p. 104 (sc. Eur. Phoen. 1760); but it was also said that Ares sent her, still angry at the murder of his dragon, p. 100 (Arg. Eur. Phoen.), or Dionysos (sc. Theog. 326), angry at his rejection by Pentheus, p. 103.
a single voice: an obscure indication that the same being is involved in each case.
by Euryganeia: according to Pherecydes (sc. Eur. Phoen. 53), he first married Iocaste, who bore him two sons, Phrastos and Leonytos, but he put her aside after his descent was revealed and married Euryganeia, who bore him the sons ascribed elsewhere to Iocaste. She was the mother of his children in the Oedipodia, an early epic (P. 9. 5. 5).
cursing his sons: it was also said that he cursed them for setting the silver table and golden goblet of Cadmos before him, so reminding him of his birth (Athenaeus 465e f.), and for serving him meat from the haunch, considered a less honourable portion, rather than the shoulder (sc. Soph. Oed. Col. 1375, both quoting the Thebais, an early epic).
Arriving. . . at Colonos: following Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonos. In early sources, he continued to rule in Thebes (Od. 11. 274 ff., cf. Il. 23. 678 ff., Hes. Cat. fr. 192); this is also implied in the traditions from early epic mentioned in the previous two notes. Colonos (Sophocles’ birthplace) lay a mile north of Athens.
the Eumenides: ‘the gracious ones’, a euphemism for the Erinyes (Furies). On their sanctuary, see Soph. Oed. Col. 36 ff.; they had another by the Areiopagos (P. 1. 28. 6).
Eteocles . . . refused to give up the throne: cf. Eur. Phoenissae67 ff.; this is the dominant tradition in later sources, but the names of the brothers suggest that Polyneices, ‘the man of many quarrels’ (cf. Aesch. Seven against Thebes658), rather than Eteocles (‘true glory’), was originally the guilty party. Pherecydes and Hellanicos offered conflicting accounts (sc. Eur. Phoen. 71), the one saying that Polyneices was expelled by force, and the other that Polyneices was offered a choice between the throne and the Cadmeian treasures and chose the latter, but then tried to seize the throne as well.
Adrastos, son of Talaos: and thus a grandson of Bias, p. 47, while Amphiaraos is a descendant of the seer Melampous (cf. Od. 15. 223 ff).
Tydeus. . . had fled there from Calydon: see p. 42 and note.
a boar. . . a lion: the emblem on Tydeus’ shield refers to the Calydonian boar, and that on Polyneices’ to the lion-faced Sphinx expelled by his father Oedipus (according to sc. Eur. Phoen. 409). On this episode see also Eur. Phoenissae408 ff. and Suppliants132 ff.
went to Iphis: an Argive king descended from Proitos. Polyneices may have wanted the benefit of his local knowledge; or perhaps this is connected with the tradition that Eriphyle was the daughter of Iphis (sc. Il. 11. 326).
conflict. . . between Amphiaraos and Adrastos: they had quarrelled over the kingship, and Adrastos had been expelled for a time (see DS 4. 65. 6, with Pind. Nem. 9. 13 f.); he went to Sicyon, and ruled there after the previous king had died (P. 2. 6. 3).
allow Eriphyle to decide: as the sister of Adrastos and wife of Amphiaraos, she might be expected to be even-handed. Homer alludes to her betrayal of her husband (Od. 11. 326 f.) without telling the story.
seven leaders: corresponding to the seven gates in the walls of Thebes, see below.
Lycourgos: son of Pheres, see p. 48; Nemea was on the northern border of the Argolid.