Parthenopeus

Parthenopeus (also Parthenopaeus) was an Arcadian hero, son of the huntress Atalanta, and one of the leaders of the army of the Seven Against Thebes. He is described as a beautiful youth who grew up as a foreigner at Argos; he was killed at the walls of Thebes, by a stone thrown from the battlements according to Euripides (Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 526–549; Euripides, Phoenician Women 1153–1162).

Family

His mother was Atalanta, the huntress of Arcadia, and the poets often call him simply her son or “son of the huntress” (Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1320–1322; Euripides, Phoenician Women 145–150, 1106). In Apollodorus’s account his father was Melanion, the husband who won Atalanta in the race with the golden apples, or in another version Ares (Apollodorus, Library 3.9.2; also 3.6.3). Pausanias likewise calls him a son of Melanion (3.12.9). In the Latin handbook of Hyginus his father is Meleager instead (Hyginus, Fabulae 70).

Another tradition made him an Argive instead, a son of Talaus and Lysimache and a brother of Adrastus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13; Pausanias 2.20.5, 9.18.6). Parthenopeus had a son, Promachus, who marched against Thebes with the Epigoni (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13, 3.7.2).

The Name

The name looks like a maiden’s name (parthenos, “maiden”). Sophocles explains that he was named after his mother, who had long remained unwed (Oedipus at Colonus 1320–1322). Aeschylus plays on the name, saying that his spirit was grim and his glance fierce, “not at all like the maidens he is named for” (Seven Against Thebes 536–537).

Youth at Argos

Euripides describes him as a boy of great beauty who came from Arcadia to the streams of the Inachus and was brought up at Argos. As a resident foreigner he gave no offence, took up his place in the ranks like a native Argive, rejoiced when the city prospered and was grieved when it suffered, and had many admirers (Euripides, Suppliants 888–900). Aeschylus calls him a “metic” at Argos, repaying the city for his upbringing (Seven Against Thebes 547–549).

The Seven Against Thebes

Apollodorus lists Parthenopeus among the Seven who marched with Adrastus and Polynices against Thebes, and says that at the funeral games for the child Opheltes at Nemea he won the archery contest (Library 3.6.3, 3.6.4). When the Seven were assigned to the gates of Thebes he stood at the Electran gate, according to Apollodorus (3.6.6). Aeschylus places him at the fifth, northern gate, beside the tomb of Amphion, and Euripides at the Neitan gate (Seven Against Thebes 526–528; Phoenician Women 1104–1106).

The poets give him different shield devices. In Aeschylus he carries a Sphinx in bronze, holding a Theban man beneath her, a reminder of the city’s old shame, and he boasts that he will sack Thebes (Seven Against Thebes 539–544). In Euripides his shield shows his mother Atalanta shooting the Aetolian boar with her arrows (Phoenician Women 1107–1109). Aeschylus has Eteocles set Actor, brother of Hyperbius, against him (Seven Against Thebes 553–557).

Death

The sources disagree about who killed him. In Euripides, Parthenopeus, the Arcadian son of Atalanta, rushes at the gates like a storm shouting for fire and pickaxes; Periclymenus, son of the sea god Poseidon, hurls a wagon-load of stone from the battlements on his head, shattering his skull (Phoenician Women 1153–1162). Pausanias reports that the epic Thebaid also named Periclymenus, whereas the Thebans said that Asphodicus killed him and showed the grave of Asphodicus beside the Fountain of Oedipus (Pausanias 9.18.6). Apollodorus says that Amphidicus killed him, and then notes that Euripides gives Periclymenus instead (Library 3.6.8). Virgil places him in the Underworld among the warriors who died in war, with Tydeus and Adrastus (Aeneid 6.479–480).

Parthenopeus Sources

Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 526–557; Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1320–1322; Euripides, Phoenician Women 145–153, 1104–1109, 1153–1162; Euripides, Suppliants 888–900; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13, 3.6.3–4, 3.6.6, 3.6.8, 3.7.2, 3.9.2; Pausanias 2.20.5, 3.12.9, 9.18.6; Hyginus, Fabulae 70; Virgil, Aeneid 6.479–480.

See Also: Seven Against Thebes, Atalanta, Ares, Adrastus, Polynices, Amphiaraus, Tydeus, Thebes