Kadmos - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Kadmos (Cadmus) of Thebes

The Problems with the House of OedipusSlide2

Oedipus (Oidipous)Slide3

Two Names

Swollen-Foot, One-Foot

Know-FootSlide4

Oidiphallos

Swollen Penis, One-FootSlide5

The House of CadmusSlide6

Cadmus, brother of

E

uropa

Cadmus

or

Kadmos

, Ancient Greek:

Κάδμος

) was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and

Europa

.

He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister

Europa

back to

Tyre

after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus.Slide7

Phoenician Script

Cadmus was credited by the ancient Greeks with introducing the original Alphabet or Phoenician alphabet --

phoinikeia

grammata

, "Phoenician letters" -- to the Greeks, who adapted it to form their Greek alphabet. Herodotus estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BCE.Slide8

Boeotian

ThebesSlide9

Cadmus consults the Delphic Oracle

Cadmus came in the course of his wanderings to Delphi, where he consulted the oracle. He was ordered to give up his quest and follow a special cow, with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she should lie down exhausted.Slide10

Cadmus and the Serpent

Intending to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmus sent some of his companions to the nearby Castalian Spring, for water. They were slain by the spring's guardian water-dragon, which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus.Slide11

Cadmus and the SerpentSlide12

The

Spartoi

, ‘Sown-Men’

By the instructions of Athena, he sowed the dragon's fangs in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called the

Spartoí

("sown"). By throwing a stone among them, Cadmus caused them to fall upon one another until only five survived, who assisted him to build the

Cadmeia

or citadel of Thebes, and became the founders of the noblest families of that city.Slide13

Cadmus sowing the Serpent’s fangsSlide14

SpartoiSlide15

The Sown-Men, sprouted from the fangs of the serpentSlide16

Cadmus, with Athena, River Ismenos

, Spring Nymph

Krenaie

, and ThebeSlide17

Cadmus and Harmonia, metamorphosed into serpents

While the conqueror stares at the vast bulk of his conquered enemy, suddenly a voice is heard. It is not easy to imagine where it comes from, but it is heard. ‘Why gaze, son of Agenor, at the serpent you have killed? You too shall be a serpent to be gazed on.’

Ovid,

Metamorphoses

, book 3.95.Slide18

Son of Cadmus and

Harmonia

Polydoros

succeeded

Pentheus

, marrying

Nykteïs, the daughter of Nykteus

. When their son Labdakos was still young, Polydorus died of unknown causes, leaving Nycteus

as regent for the child

Labdakos

.Slide19

Daughters of Cadmus and

Harmonia

With Harmonia, Cadmus was the father of three daughters:

Ino

,

Autonoë

, Agave and

Semele.Slide20

Agave’s son

Pentheus

Sparagmos

The daughters of Cadmus saw him in a tree and thought him to be a wild animal. They pulled

Pentheus

down and tore him from limb from limb.Slide21

Autonoë’s

son

Actaeon

Sparagmos

When

Actaeon

came into the clearing, he caught a glimpse Artemis bathing. Although the nymphs tried to cover her naked body, it was too late. In a rage, Artemis reached for her bow and arrow. When she was unable to reach it, she instead turned

Actaeon

into a stag.

Actaeon

was not aware of the change until he saw his own reflection in the river; however, by that time, his hounds were closing in on him and despite his best efforts to call out to them, the hounds confused

Actaeon

with prey and tore him to pieces.Slide22

Ino’s

stepson,

Phrixos

Sparagmos

Athamas

ruled in

Orchomenus

in Boeotia. His first wife was

Nephele

, a cloud-goddess, who bore him two children, a son

Phrixus

and a daughter

Helle

.

Nephele

had little interest in her mortal husband, so he eventually found another wife,

Ino

, one of the daughters of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes.

But

Nephele

was angered that he had remarried, so she and Hera arranged to punish

Athamas

, inflicting a madness upon

Ino

which drove her to try to destroy her husband's children. Slide23

Ino

was wet-nurse of Dionysus

Ino

was a primordial Dionysian woman, nurse to the god and a divine maenad.Slide24

Ino’s

son

Melicertes

Melicertes

, later called

Palaemon

Παλαίμων

) is the son of the Boeotian prince Athamas and Ino, daughter of Cadmus.

Ino

, pursued by her husband, who had been driven mad by Hera because

Ino

had brought up the infant Dionysus, threw herself and

Melicertes

into the sea from a high rock between Megara and Corinth. Both were changed into marine deities:

Ino

as

Leucothea

,

Melicertes

as

Palaemon

.Slide25

The Second Founding of Thebes

Antiope

is the daughter of

Nykteus

, regent for the infant

Labdakos

. Nykteus

was succeeded by his brother Lykos.Lykos and his brother Nycteus were the sons of Chthonios

, one of the

Spartoi

.

Hence

Antiope

is a cousin of

Pentheus

, who was the son of

Echion

, one of the

Spartoi

.Slide26

Herakles and Lykos

Herakles

, the hero whose exploits always celebrate the new Olympian order over the old traditions, came to Thebes, one of the ancient Mycenaean cities of Greece, and found that the Greeks were paying tribute of 100 cattle each year to

Erginos

, king of the

Minyans

. Heracles attacked a group of emissaries from the

Minyans, and cut off their ears, noses and hands. He then tied them around their necks and told them to take those for tribute to Erginos.

Erginos

made war on Thebes, but Heracles defeated the

Minyans

with his fellow Thebans after arming them with weapons that had been dedicated in temples.Slide27

Herakles

and Lake

Copaïs

Heracles, the hero whose exploits always celebrate the new Olympian order over the old traditions, came to Thebes, one of the ancient Mycenaean cities of Greece, and found that the Greeks were paying tribute of 100 cattle each year to

Erginos

, king of the

Minyans

. Heracles attacked a group of emissaries from the

Minyans

, and cut off their ears, noses and hands. He then tied them around their necks and told them to take those for tribute to

Erginos

.

Erginos

made war on Thebes, but Heracles defeated the

Minyans

with his fellow Thebans after arming them with weapons that had been dedicated in temples.Slide28

The

Ogygian

Deluge

Lake

Copa

is

, Boeotia

There was a legend that the lake came into being when the hero

Herakles

flooded the area by digging out a river, the

K

ephissos

, which poured into the basin.

H

e did this because he was fighting the Minyans of

Orchomenos

: they were dangerous horseback fighters, and Heracles dug the lake in order to unhorse them.

Another story has the lake overflow in the mythical time of Ogyges, resulting in the Ogygian deluge.

Ogygia

is the name of

C

irce’s island.Slide29

Zeus as a satyr seduces

Antiope

Antiope’s

beauty attracted Zeus

, who, assuming the form of a satyr, took her by force. This is the sole mythic episode in which Zeus is transformed into a satyr.

After this she was carried off by Epopeus, who was venerated as a hero in Sicyon; he would not give her up till compelled by her uncle

Lykos

.

On the way home she gave birth, in the neighborhood of Eleutherae on Mount Cithaeron, to the twins Amphion and Zethus, of whom

Amphion

was the son of the god, and

Zethus

the son of

Epopeus

. Both were left to be brought up by herdsmen.Slide30

Zeus and

AntiopeSlide31

Zeus as a satyr seduces

Antiope

Slide32

Amphion

and

Zethos

Warring Brothers

Two Fathers

Amphion

(

Ἀμφίων

) and

Zethus

(

Ζῆθος

) (also

Zethos

) were the twin sons of Zeus by

Antiope

. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the city's walls.Slide33

Amphion

and

Zethos

Amphion

became a great singer and musician after Hermes taught him to play and gave him a golden lyre.

Zethos

became a hunter and herdsman, with a great interest in cattle breeding. They built the walls around the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes. While

Zethos

struggled to carry his stones,

Amphion

played his lyre and his stones followed after him and gently glided into place.Slide34

Seven-Gated Thebes

The wall that

Amphion

and

Zethos

built had seven gates. They renamed the city "Thebes", after

Zethos

' wife, for up until that time the city had been called "Cadmea

" after the citadel that Cadmus had built.Slide35

Ruins of the

E

lektra Gate

In the circuit of the ancient wall of Thebes were gates seven in number, and these remain to-day. One got its name, I learned, from Elektra, the sister of Cadmus, and another, the

Proetidian

, from a native of Thebes. He was

Proetus

, but I found it difficult to discover his date and lineage. The

Neistan

gate, they say, got its name for the following reason. The last of the harp's strings they call

nete

, and

Amphion

invented it, they say, at this gate. I have also heard that the son of

Zethus

, the brother of

Amphion

, was named

Neis

, and that after him was this gate called.Slide36

Amphion

and

Zethos

rescue their mother

Antiope

They punished King Lycos and Queen

Dirke

for cruel treatment of Antiope, their mother, whom they had treated as a slave.

Dirke

was tied to the horns of a bull as revenge.Slide37

Dirke

tied to a Dionysian bull

Sparagmos

Antiope

was badly mistreated by

Lykos

' wife

Dirke

, who treated her as little more than a slave. But when

Antiope

learned that her sons were alive and now fully grown, she fled from Thebes and asked them to avenge her. They captured

Dirke

on Mount

Kithairon

as she was celebrating the revels of Dionysos and tied her to a bull to be torn apart. They then slew King

Lykos

and seized the throne of Thebes.Slide38

Antiope

, with her twin sons

Amphion

and

ZethosSlide39

Dismemberment of

Dirke

Nero martyrs a Christian woman as a theatrical reenactment of the myth of

DirkeSlide40

Royal Line of ThebesSlide41

Laius

(

Laïos

) and

Chrysippos

Chrysippos

, the natural and favorite son of

Pelops

(grandson of Zeus and King of Phrygia) was killed by his step-mother

Hippodamia

, out of jealousy, whilst he was in the arms of

Laios

(King of Thebes and father of Oedipus, who later killed him and married his step-mother

Jocasta

). According to one Greek tradition the love of

Laios

and

Chrysippos

was the first occasion of male same sex relations in Greece.Slide42

Laios

abducts

Chrysippos

from

Pelops

When

Laios

reached manhood,

Pelops

entrusted his son,

Chrysippos

, ‘Golden Horse,' to him so that he would teach the boy the charioteer's art. The king loved

Chrysippos

best of all his sons, and wanted him well trained in the arts of war.

Laios

did as he was asked, but fell hopelessly in love with the beautiful youth. During the

Nemean

games, in which the pair competed in the chariot races,

Laios

kidnapped the boy.Slide43

Laius

and

Jocasta

Laius

married

Jocasta

, the daughter of

Menoikeos

, a descendant of the Spartoi.

Laios

received an oracle from Delphi which told him that he must not have a child with his wife, or the child would kill him and marry her. One night, however,

Laios

was drunk and fathered Oedipus with her. On

Laios's

orders the baby, Oedipus, was exposed on Mount Cithaeron with his feet bound (or perhaps staked to the ground), but he was taken by a shepherd, who did not have the resources to look after him, so he was given to King Polybus and Queen

Merope

of Corinth who raised him to adulthood.Slide44

The Child Conceived in Drunkenness

Compare: Ion and

Xouthos

in the

Corycian

Cave

Theseus

and Aithra at

Troizen

The theme suggests a Dionysian

maenadic

rite

Oedipus as a one-foot phallic source of ecstatic knowledge found on a mountainsideSlide45

Laïos

and

JocastaSlide46

The Herdsman finds the infant OedipusSlide47

Oedipus taken down from the tree

J

ean François MilletSlide48

Phorbas

, the herdsman, with the infant OedipusSlide49

The exposed infant Oedipus, with bolted feet, found by the herdsmanSlide50

Where Three Roads MeetSlide51

Where three roads meetSlide52

Murder of

LaiosSlide53

Riddle of the Sphinx

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?Slide54

The Sphinx as SeductressSlide55

Sphinx raping OedipusSlide56

Sanctuary of the Sphinx, Mount KithaironSlide57

Oedipus and the SphinxSlide58

Oedipus and the Sphinx

Gustave

MoreauSlide59

Oedipus and the SphinxSlide60

Victorious Sphinx

Gustave

MoreauSlide61

Oedipus and the Sphinx

in the marketplaceSlide62

Jocasta (Iokaste

) and OedipusSlide63

Jocasta

as SphinxSlide64

Oedipus Tyrannus

Plague in ThebesSlide65

Oedipus RexPlague

i

n

ThebesSlide66

Plague in ThebesSlide67

Oedipus and

TeiresiasSlide68

TeiresiasSlide69

Oedipus questioning PhorbasSlide70

Oedipus BlindedSlide71

Oedipus and Apollo

When Oedipus learns of the death of

Polybos

, he imagines his father as the child of some mate of Apollo or Hermes or Bacchus.

Two Fathers ThemeSlide72

Oedipus as the ally of ApolloSlide73

Ally of ApolloSlide74

Oedipus with his daughters Antigone

and

IsmeneSlide75

Those who know what Oedipus doesn’t know

Actor Sequence

:

Oedipus

Kreon

,

Teiresias, Jocasta,

KreonMessenger from Corinth, Phorbas, Messenger (Death of Jocasta, blinding of Oedipus)

Antigone

and

Ismene

(mute actors)

Oedipus,

Kreon

,

Teiresias

, and Apollo are all a WANAX, lord, god, priest

-prophetSlide76

Does Oedipus leave Thebes?

A blind Oedipus now exits the palace and begs to be exiled as soon as possible. Creon enters, saying that Oedipus shall be taken into the house until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done. Oedipus's two daughters (and half-sisters), Antigone and Ismene, are sent out, and Oedipus laments that they should be born to such a cursed family. He asks Creon to watch over them and Creon agrees, before sending Oedipus back into the palace.Slide77

Euripides’

Phoenician Women

The play opens with a summary of the story of Oedipus and its aftermath

told by Jocasta, who in this version has not committed suicide.

She explains that after her husband blinded himself upon discovering that he was her son,

his sons Eteocles and Polyneices locked him away in hopes that the people might forget what had happened

. He curses them, proclaiming that neither would rule without killing his brother.Slide78

Warring Brothers, Sisters

Children of Oedipus and

Jocasta

(Io-

kaste

, the ‘good Io’)

Eteokles (‘True-Fame’) and

Polyneikes (‘Quarrelsome’)Antigone and Ismene

Oedipus is their half brother

Jocasta

is a typical Turncoat MotherSlide79

The Death of Oedipus

Oedipus at

Colonus

(also

Oedipus

Coloneus

, Οἰδίπους

ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ, Oidipous

epi

Kolōnō

) is one of the three Theban plays of Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles' death in 406 BCE and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BCE.Slide80

Sanctuary of the Furies,

Kolonos

(

Colonus

)Slide81

Sanctuary of the FuriesSlide82

Grove of the FuriesChorusSlide83

Oedipus cursing his sonsSlide84

Oedipus curses PolyneikesSlide85

Theseus as burierSlide86

The Mystery of the Death of Oedipus

Oedipus was no more, and we saw

Theseus

shielding his eyes, as if seeing something terrible and unbearable to watch. Then he kneeled down in worship to the earth and to the heavens, both together. No one could say what happened, except

Theseus

, whether it was a lightning flash, an abducting whirlwind, some escort from the celestial gods, or a beneficent split in the fundament of the lower world. It was a miracle. But if you can’t understand what I am saying, I’d rather speak to someone who can.

—Sophocles,

Oedipus at Colonus, describing the death of OedipusSlide87

The Seven Against ThebesSlide88

Seven Against Thebes

The

Seven against Thebes

(

Ἑπτὰ

ἐπὶ Θήβας,

Hepta epi Thēbas; Septem

contra

Thebas

) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the

Oedipodea

. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by

Polyneikes

and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia. Its first two plays,

Laius

and

Oedipus

as well as the satyr play

Sphinx

are no longer extant.Slide89

Revised Ending

Due to the popularity of

Sophocles's

Antigone

, the ending of

Seven against Thebes was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus' death. Where the play was meant to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, it instead contains an ending that serves as a lead-in of sorts to Sophocles' play: a messenger appears, announcing a prohibition against burying

Polyniekes; Antigone, however, announces her intention to defy this edict.Slide90

Euripides’ Phoenician Women

The Phoenician Women

(

Φοίνισσαι

,

Phoinissai

) is based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes

. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who are trapped in Thebes by the war. Polynices talks a great deal about his love for the city of Thebes but has brought an army to destroy it; Kreon is also forced to make a choice between saving the city and saving the life of his son.Slide91

The oath of Adrastos

On hearing the noise,

Adrastos

hastened to them and separated the combatants, in whom he immediately recognized 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.

Adrastos

, therefore, gave his daughter

Deipyle

to

Tydeus

, and

Argeia

to

Polyneikes

, and at the same time promised to lead each of these princes back to his own country.

Adrastos

now prepared for war against Thebes, although

Amphiaraos

foretold that all who should engage in it should perish, with the exception of

Adrastos

.Slide92

Necklace of

Harmonia

Hephaistos

, blacksmith of the Olympian gods, discovered his wife, Aphrodite, having a sexual affair with Ares. He became enraged and vowed to avenge himself for Aphrodite's infidelity by cursing any lineage of children resulting from the affair. Aphrodite bore a daughter, Harmonia, from Ares' seed.

Harmonia

grew up and was later betrothed to Cadmus of Thebes. Upon hearing of the royal engagement,

Hephaistos

presented

Harmonia

with an exquisite necklace and robe as a wedding gift. In some versions of the myth, only the necklace is given. In either case, the necklace was wrought by

Hephaistos

' own hand and was cursed to bring disaster to any who wore it.Slide93

Polyneikes

bribing

Eripyle

, wife of

Amphiaraos

The necklace was worn by

Semele

on the day she asked Zeus to appear in his true form. It passed on to

Jocasta

and was the reason that she didn’t age so that she could marry Oedipus.

Polynieikes

then inherited the Necklace. He gave it to Eriphyle, so that she might use it to persuade her husband,

Amphiaraos

, to undertake the expedition against Thebes, even though, as a prophet, he knew it would cause his death.Slide94

The Necklace of

HarmoniaSlide95

Shrine of Amphiaraos

Amphiaraos

in his attempt to escape his persecutor

Periklymenos

, son of Poseidon, flees at the banks of

Ismenos

river. There, Zeus opened the earth in two by a struck of his lighting bolt. He was worshiped at his shrine Amphiareion

near modern Oropos in Attica.Slide96

Polyneikes allies against his brother

Eteokles

Seven Against Thebes, preparing for battle

:

an expedition to determine control of Thebes, after Oedipus' curse on his sons

Eteokles

and Polyneikes

. The attack is fought out at Thebes' seven gates, and repulsed. The attackers are Polyneikes, Adrastos, Tydeus

,

Kapaneus

,

Parthenopaios

(the youngest, son of

Atalanta

),

Mekisteus

,

Amphiaraos

. None survive, and a common scene is of their fateful arming for battle and departure. Their sons, the

Epigonoi

, have a return match and are successful.Slide97

Attack on Thebes

Capaneos

scales the city walls of ThebesSlide98

Eteokles and

Polyneikes

kill each other

Warring BrothersSlide99

Warring BrothersSlide100

Eteokles and PolyneikesSlide101

Antigone

Antigone

(

Ἀντιγόνη

) by Sophocles written in or before 441 BCE. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus'

Seven Against Thebes

ends.Slide102

AntigoneSlide103

Kreon

f

orbidding the burial of

PolyneikesSlide104

AntigoneSlide105

Ismene and AntigoneSlide106

The burial of

PolyneikesSlide107

Corpse of PolyneikesSlide108

Antigone, burying PolyneikesSlide109

Kreon

condemns

AntigoneSlide110

Haimon, son of KreonSlide111

Kreon with the corpses of his son

Haimon

and

AntigoneSlide112

Kreon with the corpses of his son

Haimon

and

AntigoneSlide113

It took two generations of heroes to settle the Theban problem

Epigoni

(

Ἐπίγονοι

, meaning "offspring") are the sons of the Argive heroes who had fought and been killed in the first Theban war, the subject of the

Thebaid

, in which

Polyneikes and six allies (the Seven Against Thebes) attacked Thebes because Polyneikes' brother, Eteokles

, refused to give up the throne as promised. The second Theban war, also called the war of the

Epigonoi

, occurred ten years later, when the

Epigonoi

, wishing to avenge the death of their fathers, attacked Thebes.