LP0060 - The Daughters of Thebes - Semele, Agave, Antiope & Niobe, from The Library of Apollodorus

Legendary Passages #0060 - The Daughters of Thebes - Semele, Agave, Antiope & Niobe, from The Library of Apollodorus. Last time we reviewed many fables of love concerning Thebes. This time we cover the myths of Dionysus, Cadmus & Harmonia, and Zethus & Amphion. Cadmus and Harmonia had a son Polydorus, and four daughters: Agave, Ino, Autonoe, and Semele. Now Zeus loved Semele, and was tricked into killing her while she was pregnant with Dionysus, but Zeus saved him. Dionysus was raised as a girl by his aunt Ino, and her husband Athamas. Hera drove them all mad, and after Ino jumped off a cliff, she became the sea goddess Leucothea. Family tragedy was commonplace, for Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son named Acteon, who was killed by his own hounds. Dionysus wandered near and far, spreading madness in his wake, eventually returning to Thebes. There ruled his cousin Pentheus, who was savagely killed by his mother Agave in a fit of madness. After wreaking havoc on land and sea, Dionysus achieved godhood, and rescued his mother Semele from Hades, and she became the goddess Thyone. Cadmus and Harmonia were transformed into serpents, and their son Polydorus married Nycteis, daughter of Nycteus, and they had a son Labdacus, father of Laius. When Polydorus and Labdacus were dead, and Laius was but an infant, Nycteus ruled as King. Now Nycteus had another daughter named Antiope, whom Zeus had gotten with child, and she ran off and married another without his blessing. Heartbroken, Nycteus died, charging his brother Lycus with the throne, and demanded he punish Antiope. Lycus killed her husband, exposed her twin sons, and threw her in a dungeon. Antiope's sons survived, and Zethus became a cowboy, and Amphion became a bard. They killed Lycus and his wife Dirce, and ruled as kings. Zethus married Thebe, and Amphion married Niobe. Foolishly, Niobe boasted of their dozen children, and all died, save one or two. Overcome with grief, Niobe was changed into a weeping stone. Next time, we return to Laius and Oedipus, and Thebes Mythic History. http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus3.html#4 The Daughters of Thebes, a Legendary Passage, from The Library of Apollodorus, translated by J. G. Frazer. [3.4.2] - [3.5.9] And to Cadmus were born daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and a son Polydorus. Ino was married to Athamas, Autonoe to Aristaeus, and Agave to Echion. But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl. But Hera indignantly drove them mad, and Athamas hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him, and Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling cauldron, then carrying it with the dead child she sprang into the deep. And she herself is called Leucothea, and the boy is called Palaemon, such being the names they get from sailors; for they succour storm-tossed mariners. And the Isthmian games were instituted by Sisyphus in honor of Melicertes. But Zeus eluded the wrath of Hera by turning Dionysus into a kid, and Hermes took him and brought him to the nymphs who dwelt at Nysa in Asia, whom Zeus afterwards changed into stars and named them the Hyades. Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son Actaeon, who was bred by Chiron to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Ci