LP0061 - Thebes Mythical History - Kings Ogygys to Xanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece

Legendary Passages #0061 - Thebes Mythical History - Kings Ogygys to Xanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece. Last time we covered several daughters of Thebes. This time we examine it's peoples and it's many kings. The first Boeotians were the Ectenes, ruled by king Ogygys, who were driven extinct by a plague. Second were the Hyantes, who fled the Phoenicians; and third were the Aones, who joined with them. King Cadmus invaded Boeotia with his Phoenician army, and constructed Cadmeia, the heart of Thebes. Cadmus' daughter Agave married Echion, the best of the Sparti, born of the dragon's teeth. Their son Pentheus became king, and after running afoul of Dionysus, his son Polydorus took the throne. When Polydorus died, his son Labdacus was still too young, so his grandfather Nycteus ruled as regent, followed by Nycteus' brother Lycus. Nycteus' daughter Antiope had sons Amphion and Zethus, who overthrew Lycus and ruled together. Amphion's power was in his song and his harp, and he imbued the very walls of Thebes with his music. Amphion married Niobe, and Zethus married Thebe, and when both families were destroyed by fate, Labdacus' son Laius became king. An oracle told Laius that his own son would kill him, so when his wife Iocasta or Epicaste gave birth to Oedipus, the babe was exposed. Eventually Oedipus grew up, killed Laius, and married his mother. They had sons Polyneices and Eteocles who dueled for the throne, and slew each-other. Many ruled Thebes thereafter. Creon ruled as regent until Laodamas, son of Eteocles became King. Thebes was conquered by the Argives, and Thersander, son of Polynices, ruled as king until his death in the Trojan War. Peneleos ruled briefly as regent, and then Tisamenus, the son of Thersander, assumed the throne. His son Autesion went to the Dorians, so Damasichthon, grandson of Peneleos, was chosen to be king. After Damasichthon's grandson Xanthus cheated in a duel, the Thebans chose not to be ruled by one man ever again. Next time, our segment on Thebes comes to an end with the tale of Jocasta's Children. http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias9A.html#4 Thebes Mythical History, a Legendary Passage, from Pausanias' Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones. [9.4.4] - [9.5.15] SCOLUS & THE RIVER ASOPUS On the road from Plataea to Thebes is the river Oeroe, said to have been a daughter of the Asopus. Before crossing the Asopus, if you turn aside to lower ground in a direction parallel to the river, after about forty stades you come to the ruins of Scolus. The temple of Demeter and the Maid among the ruins is not finished, and only half-finished are the images of the goddesses. Even to-day the Asopus is the boundary between Thebes and Plataea. THEBES (MYTHICAL HISTORY) The first to occupy the land of Thebes are said to have been the Ectenes, whose king was Ogygus, an aboriginal. From his name is derived Ogygian, which is an epithet of Thebes used by most of the poets. The Ectenes perished, they say, by pestilence, and after them there settled in the land the Hyantes and the Aones, who I think were Boeotian tribes and not foreigners. When the Phoenician army under Cadmus invaded the land these tribes were defeated; the Hyantes fled from the land when night came, but the Aones begged for mercy, and were allowed by Cadmus to remain and unite with the Phoenicians. The Aones still lived in village communities, but Cadmus built the city which even at the present day is called Cadmeia. Afterwards the city grew, and so the Cadmeia became the citadel of the lower city of Thebes. Cadmus made a brilliant marriage, if, as the Greek legend says, he indeed took to wife a daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. His daughters too have made him a name; Semele was famed for having a child by Zeus, Ino for being a divinity of the sea. In the time of Cadmus, the greatest power, next after his, was in the hands of the Sparti, namely, Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udaeus; but it was Echion who, for his great