Adrastus

This article is about Adrastus, son of Talaus, king of Argos. For others with this name, see Adrastus (disambiguation).

Adrastus (Greek: Ἄδραστος, Adrastos) or Adrestus (Ionic Greek: Ἄδρηστος, Adrēstos), traditionally translated as "nonparticipant" or "uncooperative",^[1] was a legendary king of Argos during the war of the Seven Against Thebes.

Mythological tradition

He was a son of Talaus and Lysimache.^[2] Pausanias calls his mother Lysianassa,^[3] and Hyginus calls her Eurynome.^[4][5] He was one of the three kings at Argos, along with Iphis and Amphiaraus, who was married to Adrastus's sister Eriphyle. He was married to either Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, or to Demonassa. His daughters Argea and Deipyle married Polynices and Tydeus, respectively. His other children include Aegiale, Aegialeus, and Cyanippus.

During a feud between the most powerful houses in Argos, Talaus was slain by Amphiaraus, and Adrastus being expelled from his dominions fled to Polybus, then king of Sicyon. When Polybus died with­out heirs, Adrastus succeeded him on the throne of Sicyon, and during his reign he is said to have instituted the Nemean Games.^[6][7][8][3]

According to "Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece" by Edward E. Barthell, he states that Adrastus is the son of Talaus and Lysimache (daughter of Abas). He married Amphitheia, daughter of his brother Pronax, and became the father of a son, Aegialeus, and four daughters: Aegialeia, who became the wife of Diomedes (son of Tydeus); Argeia, who became the wife of Polyneices (son of Oedipus); Deipyle, who became the wife of Tydeus (son of Oeneus); and Eurydice, who became the wife of the Trojan king, Ilus (son of Tros).^[9]

Seven against Thebes

Afterwards, however, Adrastus became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage, and returned to his kingdom of Argos upon the swift immortal horse Arion, a gift of Heracles. During the time he reigned there it hap­pened that Tydeus of Calydon and Polynices of Thebes, both fugitives from their native countries, met at Argos near the palace of Adrastus, and came to words and from words to blows.^[10] On hearing the noise, Adrastus hastened to them and separated the combatants, in whom he immediately recognised the two men that had been promised to him by an oracle as the future husbands of two of his daughters; for one bore on his shield the figure of a boar, and the other that of a lion, and the oracle was that one of his daughters was to marry a boar and the other a lion. Adras­tus therefore gave his daughter Deipyle to Tydeus, and Argeia to Polynices, and at the same time promised to lead each of these princes back to his own country. Adrastus now prepared for war against Thebes, although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in it should perish, with the exception of Adrastus.^[11][12]

Thus arose the celebrated war of the Seven against Thebes, in which Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. Instead of Tydeus and Polynices other legends mention Eteoclos and Mecisteus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted, and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Arion.^[13][14][15]

After the battle, Creon, king of Thebes, ordered that none of the fallen enemies were to be given funeral rites. Against his order, Antigone buried Polynices and was put to death, but Adrastus escaped to Athens to petition Theseus, the city's king, to attack Thebes and force the return of the bodies of the remaining five. Theseus initially refused but was convinced by his mother, Aethra, who had been beseeched by the mothers of the fallen, to put the matter to a vote of the citizens. The Athenians marched on Thebes and conquered the city but inflicted no additional damage, taking only what they came for, the five bodies. They were laid upon a funeral pyre and Adrastus eulogized each.^[16][17]

Second war against Thebes

Ten years after this Adrastus persuaded the seven sons of the heroes who had fallen in the war against Thebes to make a new attack upon that city, and Amphiaraus now declared that the gods approved of the undertaking, and promised success.^[18][19] This war is celebrated in ancient story as the War of the Epigoni. Thebes was taken and razed to the ground, after the greater part of its inhabitants had left the city on the advice of Tiresias.^[20][21][22] The only Argive hero that fell in this war was Aegialeus, the son of Adras­tus. After having built a temple of Nemesis in the neighborhood of Thebes, he set out on his return home. But weighed down by old age and grief at the death of his son he died at Megara and was buried there.^[23] After his death he was worshipped in several parts of Greece, as at Megara,^[24] at Sicyon where his memory was celebrated in tragic cho­ruses,^[8] and in Attica.^[25]

The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes have furnished ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece,^[26] and some works of art relating to the stories about Adrastus are mentioned in Pausanias.^[27]

From Adrastus the female patronymic "Adrastine" was formed.^[28]

References

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).