Tragedy's Workshop

Seven Against Thebes is chronologically the sequel to Oedipus at Colonus, in that Polyneices, the exiled son of Oedipus, has raised seven armies and plans to take the throne of Thebes from his younger brother Eteocles. Seven Against Thebes is the story of that battle.

This is the first and only play we’ll read written by Aeschylus. Aeschylus was born in 525 BC and was the oldest of the three great tragic playwrights. Aeschylus was a large, grumpy man with big eyebrows who had fought and been honored in many battles. His brother died in the battle of Marathon against the Persians. Aeschylus was born and raised at Eleusis, his family among the nobility although he seems not to have been initiated into Demeter’s Mysteries. During the presentation of one of his tragedies he was accused of revealing the secret of the Mysteries and was chased from the stage. Aeschylus hid in the temple of Dionysus to escaped being killed. He was tried with the penalty of death hanging over his head but was acquitted on the grounds that he’d never been initiated and therefore could not have know the secret. He died in self-imposed exile in Sicily where the bizarre story was told of him being killed by an eagle that dropped a tortoise on his head.

The more ancient nature of Seven Against Thebes is evident in its presentational, less dramatic form. It is not as plot driven as are the plays by Sophocles and Euripides. The tragedy is set within the walls of Thebes and opens with a call to arms by King Eteocles, followed by the description of an oath taken by the seven generals from Argos whose armies are attacking Thebes. Walter Burkert describes the part oaths played in antiquity in his book Greek Religion. (See pages 250-4.) Not only did the ancients recognize the sacredness of the oath but also the sacredness of the skill in taking it. This “skill at the oath” is presented in Norman O. Brown’s book titled Hermes the Thief:

“Skill at the oath” means guile or cunning in the use of the oath and derives from the primitive idea that an oath was binding only in its literal sense; a cunning person might legitimately manipulate it to deceive, as occurs often enough in Greek mythology. In the Homeric Hymn, when Hermes uses just such an oath to deny that he has stolen Apollo’s cattle, he is said to show “good skill.”

But the generals from Argos, who take the oath before the gates of the walled city, will not try to get out of it. They will fight to the last. Each of the seven sends his army against one of the gates, as selected by lot.

The Archaeology of Thebes

The tragic poets didn’t always give the same names to the seven gates. See Symeonoglou’s The Topography of Thebes. There you’ll find a table listing the different names and sources (page 35). The gates were the beginnings of roads to nearby cities (See the attached map This is a remarkable book for anyone interested in modern Thebes). Still today the roads generally follow the ancient pathways. Many of the temples mentioned in the ancient text have been discovered as well as the palace, the House of Cadmos. Notice in particular the Observatory of Teiresias, which is mentioned several times by the tragedians and is discussed by Symeonoglou on page 131. What I particularly like about his book is that you have an archaeologist talking about the relationship between the myths and the ruins of the ancient sites.

Assignment: Read (1) Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, (2) the excerpt from Walter Burkert’s Greek Religion on the Oath, (3) Hillman’s Oedipus Variations, and (4) as much of Symeonoglou’s The Topography of Thebes as you wish. I realize this is a lot of reading and the only real required reading is Seven Against Thebes. I’ve also included (for your amusement should you care to read it) an article titled Encountering Hermes, which I wrote myself concerning an experience I had while traveling Greece for ten weeks a few years ago. This will also provide a little more information on the nature of Hermes.

Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes

Discussion of Seven Against Thebes.

Aeschylus knew about war. He was honored for his bravery at the battle of Marathon (490 BC) against the Persian invasion and his brother died there. He also fought in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC, described in Aeschylus’ The Persians) ten years later and perhaps the Battle of Plataea in the following year. Aeschylus' treatment of women here is characteristic of that in several of Aeschylus’ tragedies. In his Seven Against Thebes, the Chorus of Theban women plays a central role. Eteocles is constantly berating them for their hysterical outbursts. Take special note of them, and we’ll see how his treatment of women differs with that of Euripides in The Phoenician Women which we’ll read next.

Polyneices is really an interesting character here. If we look at Dionysus and Oedipus, they both were born at Thebes, raised elsewhere and returned to establish themselves. In both cases, this resulted in the death of the king. Now Polyneices, who has also been in exile, returns to attempt to depose the ruling king. In this way, Polyneices is both Dionysus and Oedipus.

Another central metaphor, one present in Seven Against Thebes, The Phoenician Women and Antigone, is the double image. Just as both Dionysus and Oedipus were twice-born and thus had dual natures, Polyneices and Eteocles are presented symbolically as two sides of the same Oedipus personality. Many scholars have noted their central unit, and when the two kill each other it is by a two-fold blow, a single blow that kills both simultaneously. This would lead one to believe they are symbolically but one person, the two versions of Oedipus, the alien one and the domestic, engaged in mortal combat. When one dies, so must the other.

A further manifestation of this dual theme is that of Kadmos and Harmonia: he a foreign element from the Orient, she a local goddess, the daughter of Ares (to whom Thebes belongs) and Aphrodite.

Additional reading.

First of all let me say that I realize I’ve given you a lot to read, probably too much. If you can’t get through all of it, don’t worry. I’ve provided it so that in the days to come when the class is over you can continue your investigation of ancient Greek myth and its significance.

The extra reading material falls into three categories: (1) ancient myth, (2) psychology, and (3) archaeology. These subjects are closely connected because Hermes was guide of souls in the Underworld and was frequently seen in the present of those going-to or coming-from. If you’ll remember, just before Oedipus died he saw Hermes coming for him along with Persephone.

ANCIENT MYTH

Book XXIV of The Iliad.

This excerpt from Homer’s The Iliad is the last chapter of that work. Achilles, the most fearsome warrior among the Greeks has just killed Hector, the champion of the Trojans. Achilles won’t bury Hector’s body but continues to defile it by dragging it about his friend’s, Patroclus’, grave. (Hector had killed Patroclus a little earlier.) Priam, Hector’s father, finally goes to retrieve his son’s body. The story is about that retrieval, and how Hermes assisted Priam in getting in and out of the enemy’s camp safely.

Pay particular attention to Hermes’ actions because they are discussed in detail in Murray Stein’s In MidLife, part of which I’ve also included in this reading assignment. This will then give you a good idea of not only how Greek mythology is related to our lives today, but also how it is currently being used by psychotherapists to uncover our psychic structure.

Book X of The Odyssey.

Book XI of The Odyssey.

These two excerpts from Homer’s The Odyssey describe part of Odysseus’ attempt to get home following the Trojan War. Odysseus spent ten years fighting Troy and then ten years trying to get home. They also concern Odysseus’ encounter with the sorceress, Circe, and Odysseus’ descent into the Underworld to see the shade of Teiresias who had recently died. Teiresias is the only human being to retain an unclouded mind in the Afterlife. Book X also contains Odysseus’ encounter with Hermes, and it is used extensively by Stein in In MidLife. Also note that Odysseus sees Oedipus’ mother/wife (here called ‘Epicaste’ and Oedipus ‘Oedipodes’) in the Underworld.

There is an interesting connection between Oedipus and Odysseus. They both suffer at the hands of the gods (Oedipus by Apollo and Odysseus by Poseidon) and have difficulty finding their way home. Oedipus’ search is for a final resting place, and he has been searching for his rightful home since he was exposed on Cithaeron when three-days old. The aspect of wandering the countryside has characteristics reminiscent of midlife as described by Murray stein. This should cause us to rethink the metaphorical significance of Oedipus’ wanderings.

Book XXIV of The Odyssey.

This is the final chapter in The Odyssey. I’ve included it because it is used by Murray Stein in In MidLife and also Karl Kerenyi’s Hermes, Guide of Souls, part of which I’ve also included for your reading assignment.

The Republic by Plato.

Of course the writings of Plato aren’t myth, but this particular selection contains a story, supposedly true, describing one man’s near-death experience. I’ve included this Plato dialogue primarily because of its discussion and presentation of the Underworld contained in the last few pages as The Legend of Er. I’ve included the entire dialogue because it contains a discussion of tragedy and a lengthy dissertation on the soul. This will give you another view of the ancient Greek’s philosophical view of the divine.

PSYCHOLOGY

Murray Stein’s In MidLife, Chapters 1-4. This is of interest because of its use of myth to explain elements of the human experience.

ARCHAEOLOGY

In keeping with my plan to provide not only mythology but also a description of the landscape where the events took place, the guidebook (Mycenae-Epidaurus by S. E. Iakovidis) on the ruins of ancient Argos, Mycenae and Epidaurus. This region of the Peloponnese is called the Argolis. When Oedipus’ sons argued over the throne of Thebes, Polyneices went into exile at Argos and raised seven armies to try to regain it. This region is then where he spent his period of exile during which he married and had a child from whom we’ll hear in the last lecture.

Epidaurus is also of interest because of its use of psychotherapy in the treatment of illness. To illustrate this I’ve included a selection from Karl Kerenyi’s Asklepios, Archetypal Image of the Physician’s Existence. ( See the Preface as well as Chapters II and III.) This was accomplished by dream-reading through the worship of the god Asklepios. When we reflect on Hermes being the ‘bringer of dreams’ we can see how closely these two gods were connected. Asklepios was the son of Apollo, and since Apollo and Hermes were brothers we can see that Asklepios and Hermes are indeed related. This one excerpt then combines elements of all three, archaeology, myth and psychology, which I consider to be the full scope of this course.