Facts and Figures about the Seven Against Thebes and Epigoni

Seven Against Thebes and Epigoni

		Seven Against Thebes
		Epigoni

Seven Against Thebes

Here is a list of the seven Argive champions who fought against Thebes. It also showed the gate the hero fought at and which Theban champions they were killed by.

Champions	Parentage	Gate	Killed By
Adrastus	son of Talaus & Lysimache	–	–
Amphiarüs	son of Oícles & Hypermnestra	Homoloean Gate	Zeus (or Periclymenus)
Hippomedon	son of Talaus & Lysimache or Lysianassa	Athena Onca	Ismarus
Mecisteus	son of Talaus & Lysimache or Lysianassa	–	Melanippus
Capaneus	son of Hipponous & Astynome	Electran Gate	Zeus
Eteoclus	son of Iphis	Neïstan Gate	Leades or Megareus
Parthenopaeüs	son of Ares, Hippomenes, Melanion or Meleager & Atalanta	Borraean Gate	Periclymenus, Asphodicus or Amphidicus

Tydeus	son of Oeneus & Gorge or Periboea	Proëtid Gate	Melanippus
Polyneices	son of Oedipus & Jocasta	Seventh Gate	Eteocles

Adrastus, king of Argos, was the leader of the Seven champions. He was the only leader of the Seven to survive the war.

Capaneus was killed by the thunderbolt of Zeus. While Zeus did not actually killed Amphiarüs, rather that the god caused the earth to open up in front of Amphiarüs' chariot, swallowing up the seer and his charioteer.

Note that nine people are listed here, instead of seven. The Seven champions were seven Argive chieftains listed above (including Adrastus, king of Argos). Polyneices and Tydeus were foreign princes (and sons-in-law of Adrastus); therefore, they were not counted as member of the Seven, though they both took very active roles in the war. For this reason, I have placed Polyneices and Tydeus in the bottom of the list, anyway.

Some writers, however, do count Polyneices and Tydeus as two of the seven champions. In this case, you could leave out Mecisteus and Adrastus (eg. Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes). The name of the gates attacked by the Seven was also given in Aeschylus' play.

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Epigoni

Leaders	Parents
Aegialeus	son of Adrastus & Amphithea
Cyanippus	son of Adrastus & Amphithea
Alcmeon	son of Amphiarüs & Eriphyle
Amphilochus	son of Amphiarüs & Eriphyle
Sthenelus	son of Capaneus & Evadne
Polydorus	son of Hippomedon
Euryalus	son of Mecisteus
Promachus	son of Parthenopaeüs
Diomedes	son of Tydeus & Deïpyle
Thersander	son of Polyneices & Argeia

Alcmeon was elected leader of the Epigoni. Aegialeus was the only leader to die in Thebes. Adrastus, king of Argos died from grief, when he heard that his son (Aegialeus) was killed in battle.

One writer listed Timeas and Adrastus, the sons of Polyneices & Argeia, also as the members of the Epigoni.

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