Thoas had been spared: when the Lemnian women killed their menfolk, Hypsipyle, their queen, spared her father, see p. 50.
Archemoros: meaning the beginning of death, or first to die; cf. Bacch. 9. 14, ‘an omen of the coming slaughter’.
sent Tydeus ahead. . . to the camp: cf. Il. 4. 382 ff.; portents from the gods caused him to release Maion (ibid. 398).
advanced towards the walls: the attack on Thebes was recounted in an early epic, the Thehais, and became a favourite theme in tragedy, see Aesch. Seven against Thebes, and Eur. Phoenissae.
seven gates: see P. 9. 8. 4 ff. (who offers some explanation of the names). Hypsistan means ‘highest’; the name of the Crenidian suggests that it was by a spring.
saw the goddess completely naked: preceded by a short gap in the text. For the story, see Callimachus Hymn5. 57 ff. (probably following Pherecydes). While Athene and Chariclo, the mother of Amphiaraos, were bathing at noon in the Hippocrene, a spring on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Teiresias, who was out with his dogs, happened to approach the waters, and caught sight of them.
purified his ears. . , the language of birds: compare the story of Melampous on p. 46 and see notes.
Hesiod says: in the Melampodeia(Hes. fr. 275), see also Appendix, 4 and note. The following story is reported somewhat differently in sc. Od. 10. 494. There he kills the female snake on the first occasion, and becomes a man again when he kills the male snake on the second; this has a certain logic, but we cannot tell whether it is closer to the version in the Melampodeiain the absence of any relevant quotation. It should be noted, however, that in all other versions, he is said to have wounded or killed one snake or both on the second occasion also (e.g. AL 17, Ov. Met. 3. 316 ff, Hyg. 75). Cyllene lay in Arcadia.
one part. . . nine parts: apparently a misinterpretation of the Melampodeia, see Appendix, 5 and note.
to a considerable age: on the same occasion Zeus granted him the privilege of living for seven generations (Phlegon under Hes. fr. 275).
Menoiceus. . . as a sacrifice to Ares: see Eur. Phoenissae930 ff.; to gain the favour of Ares, a descendant of one of the Sown Men must offer his life to atone for the murder of Ares’ dragon (see p. 100).
Zeus struck him down: as retribution for his impious arrogance, for Capaneus boasted that he would sack the town whether Zeus wished it or not, and said that the thunder and lightning of Zeus were no worse than the midday sun (Aesch. Seven against Thebes Allff., cf. Eur. Suppl. 496 ff.). Or he climbed the ladder with two torches, saying that one was thunder and the other lightning (sc. Eur. Phoen. 1173), behaving rather like Salmoneus on p. 45. A descendant of Proitos, Capaneus was a member of the native royal line in Argos.
for Tydeus. . . killed Melanippos: in all other sources, Amphiaraos himself killed him (e.g. sc. Il. 5. 126, referring to Pherecydes). This may well be an interpolation.
Zeus made him immortaclass="underline" he was worshipped as a healer god and had an oracle at Oropos (latterly in Attica, but previously in Boeotia). See P. 1. 34. 2 (and, for the site of his disappearance, 9. 8. 2).
after having intercourse with him in the likeness of a Fury: but see P. 8. 25. 4 ff. Poseidon wanted to have intercourse with her while she was searching for her daughter; she turned herself into a mare, but Poseidon responded by turning himself into a stallion, and so achieved his desire; and she received the title of Fury (Erinys) because of her anger afterwards (hence the cult of Demeter Erinys at Thelpusa). It was this intercourse in horse-form that led Demeter to give birth to Adrastos’ horse, Areion. On Areion see also Il. 23. 346 f.
Creon . . . to the Theban throne: thus in Sophocles’ Antigone, Ap.’s source for the following; but the tradition that he was acting as regent until Eteocles’ son Laodamas came of age (P. 1. 39. 2 and 9. 10. 3) is easier to reconcile with other elements in the mythology of this period. It will be seen that Laodamas was king of the Thebans when the Epigoni invaded (and there was indeed a tradition that it was he who caused the death of Antigone, and her sister Ismene too, Arg. Soph. Ant.).
suppliant’s bough: an olive bough, placed on an altar as a symbolic gesture when claiming divine protection. For the present altar, see p. 92 and note.
captured the city: it may be doubted that Theseus was ever said to have captured the city, in the strict sense. He either forced the Thebans to surrender the bodies by defeating them in a battle, or persuaded them to do so by negotiation (see Plut. Thes. 29, P. 1. 39. 2, and cf. Eur. Suppliants653 ff.).
the Epigoni: ‘the afterborn’, used as a proper name when referring to these sons of the Argive leaders who mounted a second, and now successful, expedition against Thebes.
Eriphyle, . . persuaded her sons also to take part: a reduplication of the story of Eriphyle and Amphiaraos on p. 108; but it should be noted that she does not have the same hold on her sons as she had on her husband, and far from being fated to die, her sons will survive as leading figures in a successful expedition. Amphiaraos had indeed ordered them to mount such an expedition, p. 108. The story of the Second Theban War was told in an early epic, the Alcmaionis;and there (sc. Od. 11. 326) Alcmaion kills his mother before departing, leaving no place for the present story.
killed Aigialeus: just as Adrastos was the only leader to survive on the first expedition, his son Aigialeus is the only leader to be killed on the second (thus giving his life in place of his father, as Hyg. 71 explicitly states).
Hestiaia: in Thessaly; but they are also said to have travelled further north, to Illyria (Hdt. 5. 61; P. 9. 5. 7).
the Fury of his mother’s murder: those who shed blood, especially within their own family, were liable to be pursued by an Erinys, or avenging spirit.
a land. . . by the Sun: since the text is hopelessly corrupt at this point, I follow Carriere’s example and simply give the content of the oracle as reported by Thucydies (2. 102). He must seek a land that did not exist when the position was incurred (cf. P. 8. 24. 8). From Aetolia, he travels to me Thesprotians in Epirus in north-western Greece, and thence to the springs of the River Acheloos (also in Epirus) but founds his city much further south at its mouth, by the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf (at Oiniadai in Acarnania, Thuc. 2. 102). Acheloos functions both as a person and a river. On Acheloos see also p. 88 and note.