Thebes (Thēbai). 1. The principal city of Boeotia in Greece and the most important in Greek history after Athens and Sparta. Its fame in myth and legend was unequalled; Sophocles (in a surviving fragment) described it as ‘the only city where mortal women are the mothers of gods’ (i.e. Dionysus and Heracles). For its early legendary history see CADMUS, ANTIOPE, HERACLES, and OEDIPUS. According to the usual legend (but see ANTIOPE) the city was founded by the leader of a Phoenician colony, Cadmus, whose daughter gave birth to the god Dionysus. It was probably the centre of a large kingdom in the Mycenaean age, but it was destroyed by the Epigonoi in the generation before the Trojan War; hence the absence of the name from the catalogue (in Iliad 2) of the Greek cities which fought against Troy. After its eclipse in the Dark Age, Thebes recovered by the sixth century BC to take the lead in a loose confederation of Boeotian cities (see BOEOTIA), but was never strong enough to unite them into a single state with itself at the head. In the fifth century Thebes was hostile to Athens and supported Persia in the Persian Wars and Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. After the Peloponnesian War came a period of rivalry between Thebes and Sparta for supremacy in Greece, and, under the leadership of Pelopidas and Epaminondas, Thebes attained its zenith. Not only did the city defeat and humiliate Sparta (in the years following the Spartan defeat at Leuctra in 371), it extended its power in the north, bringing parts of Thessaly under its protection and establishing its authority at the court of Macedon. However, under Philip II, Macedon swiftly rose to be the strongest state in Greece, posing such a threat that Thebes allied itself with the Athenians. Together they were defeated by Philip at Chaeronea (338); Philip then dissolved the Boeotian confederacy and established a Macedonian garrison in the citadel of Thebes. Shortly after the accession of Philip's son Alexander the Great the Thebans revolted (335) and Alexander destroyed the city. The punishment shocked Greece, and when it was rebuilt by Cassander in 317 many Greek cities helped with contributions. The new Thebes continued to exist throughout Roman times.
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2. Greek name of a city of Upper Egypt, on the site of which Luxor now stands. It became the capital of Egypt at the time of the twelfth dynasty (c.2000 BC), supplanting Memphis, the earlier capital, and attained great splendour under the kings of the eighteenth to twentieth dynasties (c.1400–1100 BC). Homer calls it ‘hundred-gated’ and speaks of 200 warriors with horses and chariots issuing from each gate. It is now famous for the remains of its great temples and royal tombs.
