Hi everyone :DD
So…I was rereading my old stuff to study. And I found my Seven Against Thebes blog.
If you’re looking for a summary of the Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, that blog is still pretty great! However, I do have some things to add to that summary.
As Certamen players move up grades, they move up in levels of Certamen.
In my experience, eighth graders are Novice, freshmen are Intermediate, and above that is Advanced Certamen.
Advanced Certamen involves more details and basically anything ever written down about mythology. So. It’s harder.
Because I’m moving up to Advanced Certamen, and Seven Against Thebes resources are confusing or hard to find, I’m going to list some details I didn’t mention before in my previous blog.
- Shields
The Seven Against Thebes all have special shields attributed to their characters. These shield symbols can be leadups to questions, so here they are:
Tydeus, father of Diomedes, has a shield that has a moon and stars.
Capaneus has a shield with a naked man holding a torch.
Eteoclus has a man climbing a ladder to scale a tower on his shield.
Hippomedon (who I didn’t mention in my previous blog, error on my part) has the titan Typhon (from the Titanomachy),
Parthenopaeus has the Sphinx on his shield (from Oedipus Rex, the prequel [basically] to Seven Against Thebes).
Polyneices has Justice leading him back home, which is actually pretty sweet and poetic. Too bad he gets killed by Eteocles smh.
Adrastus…doesn’t have anything on his shield. But he lives so that might be the secret to survival. Have a boring shield and you live.
Maybe it’s some poetic thing too. But it’s boring. So.
- The Death Of Hippomedon
So I never mentioned this in my last blog. Because my study guide didn’t say.
But now I know.
So Hippomedon gets into a fight to try and recover Tydeus’s body (think the recovery of Patroclus’s body in the Iliad), and when he can’t, he just starts blasting (killing people). Somewhere along the way he ends up in the Ismenus River.
But he had killed some guy named Crenaeus. And this guy was the son of Pan and Ismenis. Like. Pan the God. Pan Pan.
But that’s not his problem.
Because Ismenis is a nymph. And when finds her dead son, she asks her dad, the river Ismenus (so so creative name fr…my live reaction) to drown Hippomedon. Sooo Ismenus raises his waters to drown Hippomedon.
But that’s a dishonorable death in Ancient Greek culture. So Hippomedon prays to not die this way. Hera takes pity on him and asks Zeus to ask Ismenus (THE AMOUNT OF TIMES I’VE TYPED ISMARUS IS INSANEEEE UGHHH) to spare Hippomedon.
Zeus goes “ok,” Ismenus goes, “fine you’re the king of the gods so I guess I have to listen to you,” Hippomedon goes “yay :DD” and steps out of the river. Yay.
However, he forgot to wear his armor and was immediately struck with a storm of enemy missiles. Then he die.
According to the Bibliotheca, Ismarus, son of Astacus, killed him.
Also Hypseus steals his helmet as a trophy (Hippomedon’s helmet).
So. Yeah. F to pay respects.
- The Epigoni (??)
After the Seven Against Thebes and its failure, the Epigoni, or the sons of the Theban champions, wanted to avenge their fathers and marched against Thebes.
I’m not educated in this area, but for good reason. It’s a lost play. We only know about it from Apollodorus’s account. And Pausnias and Hyginus who add/subtract some guys.
In any case, I need to study this myth.
What I CAN tell you is that in some case of irony, Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus, is the only one who DIES. Son of only guy who survived is the only one who dies. Yeah.
So, there are three helpful facts! Hope they help you on your mythology journey and see you next time :DD