The Oath of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes

The Seven Against Thebes

Aeschylus467 BCE
Ancient GreeceHardTragedyAncient GreekQuick · 32 pages
Influence27th pct
Popularity1st pct
Where it ranks
#152of 194Overall#28of 37Ancient Greece

Read this if you…

  • are Looking for more Oedipus family extended universe content
  • like Brothers fighting each other plot
  • want the missing plot piece between oedipus rex and antigone

Skip this if you…

  • haven't already read oresteia to decide if you like aeschylus

Why It Matters

Aeschylus staged a war play about the curse on Oedipus's sons, two brothers who end up killing each other over who gets to rule Thebes. It's the earliest surviving version of the civil-war theme that would run all through Greek tragedy, and its picture of a city tearing itself apart still hits. The play sits between old ritual drama and the fully built tragedies Sophocles would write.

The Groblé Take

Fun to see how first part is just talking about women freaking out and how he can’t focus, then all his champions defend Thebes but he and his brother kill each other, essentially directly preceding the events of Sophocles Antigone. The ismene Antigone dialog kinda cool too

Connections

Where to go next

Built Onwhat came beforeWhat It Shapedwhat it set in motionThe Seven Against T…The IliadAntigoneOedipus RexOedipus at Colo…

  • The Iliad by Homer. The Seven Against Thebes built on it. - The Theban war this play stages was already a memory inside the *Iliad* — Agamemnon recounts Tydeus's exploits at 4.372-400, and ruined Thebes lingers in Homer's Catalogue of Ships - Aeschylus drew his scout's description of Tydeus from those Homeric verses; the *Iliad* behind you shows where this tragedy quarried its heroes
  • Antigone by Sophocles. The Seven Against Thebes shaped it. - Aeschylus ends his play exactly where Sophocles begins his - *The Seven Against Thebes* closes on Eteocles and Polynices dead by each other's hand — the corpses Antigone will fight to bury - Sophocles picks up the Theban story right at this hinge, counting on an audience that still remembered Aeschylus's recent, famous staging
  • Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The Seven Against Thebes shaped it. - Aeschylus got to the Theban material first — *Seven Against Thebes* (467 BCE) stands a generation ahead of *Oedipus Rex* (429 BCE) - Scholarly consensus counts Aeschylus's four Theban plays, this among them, among the sources Sophocles drew on for his own Theban cycle - The elder tragedian's Thebes is the ground Sophocles built his on
  • Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. The Seven Against Thebes shaped it. - Aeschylus dramatized the curse first — Eteocles and Polynices killing each other at Thebes, the doom on Oedipus's line made into theater - Sophocles writes the scene that sets that war in motion: Oedipus cursing his sons, Polynices arriving at Colonus to plead - *Oedipus at Colonus* re-engages the Theban story Aeschylus had already staged a half-century earlier, supplying the cause behind his catastrophe
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

The seven Argive chiefs raise their weapons over a sacrificed black bull, immersing their hands in its blood as they swear to take Thebes; lightning illuminates the night sky.

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, 1800

The blind, white-bearded Oedipus thrusts out his arm to curse the cowering Polynices; Antigone and Ismene try to restrain him.

Henry Fuseli, 1786

Polynices presents the gold necklace of Harmonia to Eriphyle as a bribe so she will compel her husband Amphiaraus to join the doomed expedition.

-445

Antigone bends to sprinkle dust over Polynices's body as guards rush from the background to seize her.

Sébastien Norblin, 1825

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$16.10

David Grene

University of Chicago Press · 2013

Grene from the complete Greek tragedies delivers the shield-by-shield catalogue with real martial pressure. The inevitability that builds toward Eteocles and Polyneices killing each other is the whole point, and Grene lets it build.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

Alan H. Sommerstein

Harvard University Press · 2008

$34.50Buy
#3

Anthony Hecht and Helen H. Bacon

Oxford University Press · 1991

Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“A city is the people; walls and ships are nothing without men living together.”

— Eteocles

“Men of Cadmus' city, he who guards from the stern the concerns of the State and guides its helm with eyes untouched by sleep must speak to the point.”

— Opening line, Eteocles · trans. Smyth

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