according to tradition the founder of the city that became thebes was alexander the great.
according to tradition the founder of the city that became thebes was?
alexander the great
zeus saw europa gathering flowers, transformed himself into a white bull, and carried her away to the island of crete. he then revealed his true identity and europa became the first queen of crete. telephassa accompanied her son cadmus on a quest to find europa. the mother and son traveled to the islands of rhodes and thera before arriving in thrace, where telephassa fell ill and died. "on samothrace... the mother was called elektra or elektryone", karl kerenyi notes. after burying his mother, cadmus was told of the oracle of delphi by the thracians. upon consulting the oracle, he was advised to travel until encountering a cow. he was to follow this cow and to found a city where the cow would lie down; this city became thebes. cilix, europa's other brother, also searched for her and settled down in southern asia minor. the land was called cilicia after him.
telephassa
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