apollo built the walls of thebes with song.
who builds the walls of thebes with song?
apollo
returning to thebes, on mount cithaeron she gave birth to the twins amphion, son of the god, and zethus, son of the mortal epopeus. the story is mentioned in fragments of the hesiodic "catalogue of women" (frr. 182, 183) and asius of samos (fr. 1). other twins of similar dual parentage are the greek dioscuri who often appear as snakes, protecting the temples. amphion, the founder of thebes, became a great singer and musician with a golden lyre, and huge blocks of stone formed themselves into the walls of "thebes", the city with the seven gates. his brother "zethus" became a hunter and a herdsman and the two brothers represent the contrast between two different lifestyles. in euripides' tragedy "antiope" they contrasted in debate their active and contemplative lives.
antiope of thebes
the poem's theme is the myth of the seven against thebes, the story of the battle between the sons of oedipus for the throne of thebes. the poem opens (book 1) with the disgraced oedipus' curse on his two sons, eteocles and polyneices, who have decided to hold the throne of thebes in alternate years, one ruling, the other in exile. jupiter plans a war between thebes and argos, although juno begs him not to incite it. polyneices in exile fights with tydeus, another exile at adrastus' palace; the two are entertained and marry adrastus' daughters. in book 2, tydeus goes to eteocles to ask him to lay down the throne and yield power, but he refuses and tries to kill tydeus with an ambush. tydeus slaughters the thebans and escapes to argos, causing adrastus and polyneices to declare war on thebes (book 3). in the fourth book the argive forces gather, commanded by the seven champions adrastus, polyneices, amphiaraus, capaneus, parthenopaeus, hippomedon, and tydeus and march to thebes, but at nemea, bacchus causes a drought. the army meets hypsipyle who shows them a spring then tells them the story of the women of lemnos (book 5). while she is speaking, her ward, opheltes, is killed by a snake; in book 6, the argives perform games for the dead child, instituting the nemean games. in 7, jupiter urges the argives to march on thebes where battle breaks out during which amphiaraus is swallowed in the earth. in 8, tydeus, wounded and dying, kills melanippus and eats his head; a battle over his body leads to the death of hippomedon and parthenopaeus (book 9). in 10, juno causes sleep to overcome the thebans and the argives slaughter many in the camp; menoeceus sacrifices himself to save thebes and jupiter kills the wicked capaneus with a thunderbolt. in 11, polyneices and eteocles join in single combat and kill each other; jocasta kills herself and creon assumes power, forbidding burial of the argive dead. in the final book, the argive widows go to athens to ask theseus to force creon to allow their husbands' burial while argia, polyneices' wife, burns him illicitly. theseus musters an army and kills creon. the "thebaid" ends with an epilogue in which the poet prays that his poem will be successful, cautions it not to rival the "aeneid", and hopes that his fame will outlive him.
statius