Tydeus

Tydeus was an Aetolian hero, a son of Oeneus of Calydon and the father of Diomedes. Banished for a killing, he found shelter at Argos, married a daughter of King Adrastus, and became one of the Seven Against Thebes. In Homer he is remembered as a small but fierce fighter, and in the later tradition he dies at Thebes in a notorious scene with Athena and the head of Melanippus.

Family

Tydeus was the son of Oeneus, king of Calydon. Apollodorus gives his mother as Periboea, whom Oeneus married after the death of Althaea, and adds that Pisander made her Gorge, a daughter of Oeneus himself (Library 1.8.4–5). Tydeus married Deipyle, a daughter of Adrastus, and their son was Diomedes (Library 1.8.5, 3.6.1). Diomedes himself traces his descent in the Iliad: his grandfather Oeneus was one of three sons who lived at Pleuron and Calydon, and his father Tydeus wandered to Argos and married a daughter of Adrastus (Iliad 14.113–125).

Exile and Argos

The ancient accounts differ over whom Tydeus killed. Apollodorus reports that he killed Alcathous, a brother of Oeneus, according to some; according to the author of the Alcmaeonis he killed the sons of Melas who had plotted against Oeneus; and according to Pherecydes he killed his own brother Olenias. In all versions he was banished and came to Argos, where Adrastus took him in (Library 1.8.5).

There Tydeus met Polynices, who had been driven from Thebes. The two fought one night at the palace gate. Adrastus separated them and, remembering a seer’s word that he should marry his daughters to a boar and a lion, gave Deipyle to Tydeus and Argia to Polynices, because their shields carried the front of a boar and the front of a lion. He also promised to restore both men to their homelands (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1).

The Seven Against Thebes

When Polynices’ brother Eteocles refused to give up the throne of Thebes in turn, Adrastus gathered an army under seven leaders. Apollodorus lists them as Adrastus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Polynices, Tydeus and Parthenopaeus (Library 3.6.3). On the way the Argives held the Nemean games, and Tydeus won the boxing match (Library 3.6.4).

The Embassy to Thebes

At Cithaeron the Argives sent Tydeus ahead to tell Eteocles to cede the kingdom to Polynices. Eteocles ignored the message. Tydeus then challenged the Thebans to contests and beat them all, and when fifty armed men were set to ambush him on his way back, he killed all but Maeon (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.5). Homer tells the same story, with Athena as his helper, and says that Maeon was spared because of omens from the gods (Iliad 4.376–398; compare 5.802–808).

The Attack

In the assault on the seven gates Tydeus was stationed at the Crenidian gate (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.6). Aeschylus places him at the Proetid gate, raging for battle and shouting abuse at the seer Amphiaraus, who has forbidden the army to cross the Ismenus because the sacrifices are unfavourable. His shield bears the moon in the night sky among the stars (Seven Against Thebes 377–394).

Death of Tydeus

Melanippus, a son of Astacus, wounded Tydeus in the belly, and Tydeus, wounded as he was, killed him. As Tydeus lay half dead, Athena brought a drug that she had asked from Zeus, meant to make him immortal. Amphiaraus hated Tydeus for having persuaded the Argives to march, so he cut off the head of Melanippus and gave it to Tydeus; Tydeus split it open and gulped down the brains, and Athena, seeing this, withheld the gift in disgust (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.8). Statius tells the scene with one difference: it is Capaneus who carries the dying Melanippus to Tydeus, and Athena, arriving with the gift of immortality, turns away and flees (Thebaid 8.745–766). At the opening of the next book even the Argives blame Tydeus for his savagery (Thebaid 9.1–4). Pausanias, on the other hand, says only that Melanippus killed Tydeus, and that Melanippus was killed in turn by Amphiaraus; his grave was shown by the Proetid gate (Description of Greece 9.18.1).

Tydeus was buried at Thebes, as Diomedes says in the Iliad (14.114). Homer has Diomedes recall that he lost his father young: he tells Glaucus that he does not remember Tydeus, who left him a small child when the Achaean host perished at Thebes (Iliad 6.222–223). Diomedes later joined the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven, who took Thebes (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.2).

The Fate of the Seven

Tydeus was not the only leader to die, but the Seven did not all die in the same way. Eteocles and Polynices killed each other in single combat, and the Argives fled. Amphiaraus was not killed in battle: as he fled by the river Ismenus, Zeus split the earth with a thunderbolt and he vanished with his chariot. Adrastus alone was saved, by his horse Arion (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.8).

Tydeus Sources

Homer, Iliad 4.372–398, 5.800–813, 6.222–223, 14.113–125; Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 377–394; Apollodorus, Library 1.8.4–5, 3.6.1–8, 3.7.2; Pausanias 9.18.1; Statius, Thebaid 8.745–766 and 9.1–4.

See Also: Oeneus, Adrastus, Polynices, Oedipus, Eteocles, Seven Against Thebes, Diomedes, Amphiaraus, Athena