Seven Against Thebes

Description

Set during the Argive assault on Thebes, the play follows King Eteocles as he assigns defenders to each of the city’s seven gates against the named Argive champions. A central set-piece catalogs each attacker’s shield device and ethos, answered by a Theban counterpart. Prophecy, the curse of Oedipus, and the obligations of ruler and city frame Eteocles’ fateful choice to face his brother Polynices at the seventh gate. Reports of mutual fratricide lead to a communal lament and divided funerary honors, crystallizing tensions between polis law and kin loyalty. The chorus of Theban women voice dread, prayer, and grief, while the seer-warrior Amphiaraus and the blasphemous Capaneus embody piety and hubris. The drama stands as the surviving piece of Aeschylus’ Theban trilogy and a foundational rendering of the Theban civil war.

Historiography

First produced in 467 BCE with the lost tragedies Laius and Oedipus and a satyr play (likely Sphinx), the play won first prize. Ancient scholia preserve gate-pairings and interpretive notes; the shield catalogue was much discussed in antiquity. The transmitted text includes an ending that forbids Polynices’ burial and introduces Antigone’s defiance; many scholars consider parts of this finale a later addition or reworking. The play influenced later treatments of the Theban saga, notably Euripides’ Phoenician Women and, indirectly, Sophoclean receptions.

Date Notes

Premiered at the City Dionysia, Athens; part of a Theban trilogy now largely lost. The extant closing burial scene may reflect later interpolation in antiquity.

Themes

Archetypes

Symbols

Major Characters

• Eteocles
• Polynices
• Antigone
• Ismene
• Creon
• Tydeus
• Capaneus
• Amphiaraus

Myths

• The Curse of Oedipus
• The Siege by the Seven
• The Duel of Eteocles and Polynices

Facts

• The play was first performed in 467 BCE at the Athenian City Dionysia and won first prize.
• It is the only surviving part of Aeschylus’ Theban trilogy; Laius and Oedipus are lost.
• A satyr play likely titled Sphinx concluded the original tetralogy.
• The shield catalogue pairs each Argive champion’s emblem with a chosen Theban defender.
• Capaneus’ impiety against Zeus is a thematic fulcrum of hubris and divine retribution.
• Amphiaraus is portrayed as a seer who condemns the expedition yet marches to his fated end.
• The fraternal duel fulfills Oedipus’ curse on his sons, central to the play’s fatalism.
• The transmitted finale includes a prohibition on Polynices’ burial and Antigone’s protest, debated as later interpolation.
• The chorus of Theban women provides civic and religious perspective amid martial crisis.
• Seven Against Thebes shaped later Theban narratives, informing Euripides and Roman epic tradition.

Sources

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