Hippomedon

Hippomedon was one of the Seven Against Thebes, the Argive leaders who marched against Thebes to restore Polynices to the throne. The name was given to several figures in Greek myth, but this Hippomedon is the best known. The tragedians describe his fearsome shield, and the poet Statius tells how he fought the river Ismenus before he was killed.

Family and Background

The sources disagree about his father. Apollodorus calls him a son of Aristomachus, “but some say of Talaus” (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.3), and in Sophocles Polynices says that his father Talaus sent him to the war (Oedipus at Colonus 1316–1318). Pausanias, describing the offering at Delphi, calls him the son of Adrastus’ sister (Pausanias 10.10.3). He is an Argive: Euripides says he is called a Mycenaean and lives by the streams of Lerna (Phoenician Women 125–126), and Pausanias saw the foundations of his house in the Argive country (Pausanias 2.36.8). The sources do not name his mother. His son Polydorus is among the Epigoni, the next generation who took Thebes, whose statues Pausanias saw at Argos (Pausanias 2.20.5).

In Euripides’ Suppliants, Adrastus remembers him as a man who as a boy refused the soft life of the Muses, lived in the countryside, and trained himself in hardship, hunting and horsemanship, so that he might be useful to his city (Euripides, Suppliants 881–887).

Hippomedon and the Seven Against Thebes

Hippomedon is one of the seven leaders in the lists of Apollodorus, who names Adrastus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Polynices, Tydeus and Parthenopaeus (Library 3.6.3). When the leaders took up their stations at the seven gates of Thebes, Hippomedon was placed at the Oncaean gate, the Gate of Onca Athena (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.6; Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 486–487). Euripides, however, has him come to the Ogygian gates (Phoenician Women 1113).

His Shield

In Aeschylus, the shield of Hippomedon bears Typhon, breathing dark smoke from his fiery mouth, with the rim of the shield circled by snakes. Hippomedon himself shouts and raves for battle like a maenad (Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 488–496). Eteocles answers that Onca Athena will keep him from the gate, and sets against him Hyperbius, son of Oenops; Hermes has brought the two together. On the shield of Hyperbius sits Zeus, and Zeus has never yet been seen conquered (Seven Against Thebes 501–520). The other writers give him a different device. In Euripides, his shield shows Argus, the all-seeing watcher, spotted with eyes, some open at the rising of the stars and some closed at their setting (Phoenician Women 1113–1118). In Statius, his shield shows the Danaids’ night of murder, with the fifty bridal chambers burning by the torches of the Furies and Danaus at the doors, approving the crime (Statius, Thebaid 4.129–137).

The Death of Hippomedon

In the account of Apollodorus, Hippomedon was killed in the fierce battle after the duel of Eteocles and Polynices, when Ismarus, one of the sons of Astacus, struck him down (Library 3.6.8). Statius gives a longer account in Thebaid 9.

Hippomedon and the River Ismenus

In Statius, Hippomedon rages through the Theban ranks. He kills Crenaeus, a young warrior born to Faunus and the nymph Ismenis, a daughter of the river Ismenus; the boy had taunted him from the water, comparing the river to the streams of Lerna. Ismenus, grieving for his grandson, appeals to the gods and rises in flood against Hippomedon, with help from Cithaeron and the river Asopus. Hippomedon stands against the flood, braced on his shield, and rebukes the river. Hera then begs Zeus not to let him be a prey for sea monsters, and Zeus, with a glance toward Thebes, lets the waters sink (Statius, Thebaid 9.315–525).

His Death

Hippomedon climbs out of the river, but he is worn out, and the Theban troops shower him with missiles. He falls like an oak on a mountain, and for a time no one dares touch his sword or helmet. At last Hypseus draws off his helmet and parades it, boasting that this is the fierce Hippomedon. Capaneus, seeing this, kills Hypseus with a spear, and then, standing over the dead Hippomedon, offers him the spoils of Hypseus and promises him funeral rites (Statius, Thebaid 9.526–566). Hera’s plea to Zeus rests on Hippomedon’s Argive descent from Mycenae, the land of her own worship (Thebaid 9.510–520).

Hippomedon Sources

Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 486–520; Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1316–1318; Euripides, Phoenician Women 125–126 and 1113–1118; Euripides, Suppliants 881–887; Apollodorus, Library 3.6.3, 3.6.6 and 3.6.8; Pausanias 2.20.5, 2.36.8 and 10.10.3; Statius, Thebaid 4.129–137 and 9.315–566.

See Also: Typhon, Seven Against Thebes, Adrastus, Capaneus, Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Parthenopaeus