Necklace of Harmonia

The Necklace of Harmonia was a golden ornament made by Hephaestus and given to Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, when she married Cadmus of Thebes. In the Roman poet Statius, and in the story of its last owner, it brings disaster on the women who wear it. In the ancient accounts it passes from Harmonia to Eriphyle, whom it tempted into betraying her husband Amphiaraus, and then to the sanctuary of Delphi.

Who Made the Necklace

Apollodorus says that Cadmus gave Harmonia a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus. Some say Hephaestus gave it to Cadmus; Pherecydes says it was given by Europa, who had received it from Zeus (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2). Other versions credit the gods with the gift: Diodorus names Aphrodite as the giver of both necklace and robe (Diodorus 4.65.5, 4.66.3), and in another passage says that Athena gave the necklace and a robe at the wedding (Diodorus 5.49.1). Harmonia herself is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite and the wife of Cadmus (Hesiod, Theogony 933–937, 975–978).

The curse comes from Statius, a Roman poet. In his Thebaid the Lemnian god Vulcan, still grieving over the secret love of Mars and Venus (the story told in Odyssey 8.266–366), forges the necklace as a wedding gift for Harmonia and fills it with grief, wrath and discord. He sets emeralds and diamonds in it, with the eyes of the Gorgons, the golden apples of the Hesperides and the golden fleece, and anoints it with poison (Statius, Thebaid 2.265–290). The Greek authors name no such curse. In them the necklace simply brings ruin through the greed it inspires.

Harmonia, Semele and Jocasta

Statius traces the necklace through the house of Cadmus. After Cadmus and Harmonia become serpents and leave for Illyria, Semele puts it on, and the deceiving Juno comes into her house; Jocasta, too, is said to have worn it (Statius, Thebaid 2.289–296). Statius does not say that Semele inherited it from her mother or that Jocasta kept her youth by it. The death of Semele and the transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia are told in the standard sources without the necklace. Deceived by Hera, Semele asks Zeus to come to her as he came when he wooed Hera; he comes with thunder and lightning, and she dies of fright (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3). Cadmus and Harmonia go to the Encheleans in Illyria, where they are turned into serpents and sent by Zeus to the Elysian Fields (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.4).

Polynices and Eriphyle

In Apollodorus, Polynices is banished from Thebes and goes to Argos, taking the necklace and the robe with him (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1). When he needs Amphiaraus to march against Thebes, he learns that the seer can be made to go if his wife Eriphyle gets the necklace. Amphiaraus had sworn to let Eriphyle decide any quarrel between himself and her brother Adrastus. Eriphyle took the necklace and persuaded him to go to war, though he foresaw that he would die there (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.2). The Odyssey already names her as the woman who took precious gold for her husband (Odyssey 11.326–327), and Pausanias saw her on the Chest of Cypselus standing before her house with the necklace (Pausanias 5.17.7). In Statius, Polynices gives the necklace to his wife Argia, and Eriphyle envies her for it (Statius, Thebaid 2.265–302); later Argia hands it back to Polynices so that he can win Eriphyle over (Thebaid 4.192–213).

Alcmaeon and Phegeus

When the sons of the fallen, the Epigoni, prepared a second war on Thebes, Eriphyle was bribed again, this time with the robe, by Polynices’ son Thersander. Her son Alcmaeon killed her on Apollo’s orders (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.2, 3.7.5). Pursued by madness, he came to Phegeus at Psophis, married Phegeus’ daughter Arsinoe (Pausanias calls her Alphesiboea) and gave her the necklace and the robe. Later he went to the river Achelous, married Callirrhoe, and when she demanded the necklace he took it back from Phegeus by saying that he needed to dedicate it at Delphi to be cured. When Phegeus learned the truth, his sons ambushed and killed Alcmaeon (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.5; Pausanias 8.24.8–10).

The Necklace at Delphi

Apollodorus says that Alcmaeon’s sons Amphoterus and Acarnan took the necklace and robe to Delphi and dedicated them (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.6–7). Pausanias says that it was the sons of Phegeus who sent it to the god (Pausanias 8.24.10, 9.41.2). Pausanias adds that the tyrants of Phocis later carried it off from Delphi (Pausanias 9.41.2). Phylarchus tells what happened to it then: Phayllus, a Phocian commander, took it from the temple of Athena Pronaia and gave it to the wife of Ariston, the ruler of the Oetaeans, whom he loved. She wore it for a time, but her younger son went mad, set fire to the house and burned his mother together with most of their possessions (Phylarchus, fragment 60). Nothing is told about the necklace after that.

Necklace of Harmonia Sources

Homer, Odyssey 8.266–366, 11.326–327; Hesiod, Theogony 933–937, 975–978; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2–3.4.3, 3.5.4, 3.6.1–2, 3.7.2, 3.7.5–7; Diodorus Siculus 4.65.5, 4.66.3, 5.49.1; Statius, Thebaid 2.265–302, 4.192–213; Pausanias 5.17.7, 8.24.8–10, 9.41.2; Phylarchus, fragment 60 (Mueller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum I).

See Also: Harmonia, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares, Cadmus, Semele, Jocasta, Polynices, Eriphyle, Amphiaraus, Alcmaeon