Zethus
Zethus was one of the twin sons of Zeus and the mortal Antiope, and with his brother Amphion he fortified the city of Thebes with walls. Homer names the twins as the first founders of seven-gated Thebes (Odyssey 11.260–265). Zethus is the herdsman and the strong man of the pair, as Amphion is the musician.
Zethus’ Parents and Birth
Homer calls Antiope the daughter of Asopus and says that she boasted of having slept in the arms of Zeus and bore two sons, Amphion and Zethus (Odyssey 11.260–262). Apollodorus makes her instead the daughter of Nycteus. When she was with child and her father threatened her, she ran away to Epopeus at Sicyon and married him. Nycteus killed himself in despair, after charging his brother Lycus to punish Epopeus and Antiope. Lycus marched on Sicyon, killed Epopeus and took Antiope away as a captive; on the way she gave birth to two sons at Eleutherae in Boeotia. The infants were exposed, but a herdsman found and reared them and named them Zethus and Amphion (Apollodorus 3.5.5). Pausanias quotes verses that name Epopeus, shepherd of peoples, as well as Zeus in the parentage of the twins (Pausanias 2.6.4).
Family of Zethus
The Brothers at Thebes
Herdsman and Musician
In Apollodorus, Zethus turned to cattle-breeding while Amphion practised minstrelsy, because Hermes had given him a lyre (Apollodorus 3.5.5).
The Revenge on Lycus and Dirce
Lycus and his wife Dirce had imprisoned Antiope and treated her cruelly. One day her bonds loosened of themselves, and she went unseen by her guards to the cottage of her sons and begged them to take her in. They recognised their mother and killed Lycus, and they tied Dirce to a bull and threw her dead body into the spring that is named Dirce after her (Apollodorus 3.5.5). Pausanias tells the same events from the point of view of the city: while Lycus was regent for the second time, Amphion and Zethus gathered a force and returned to Thebes. Laius, the rightful heir, was secretly removed by men who did not want the line of Cadmus to be forgotten, and the sons of Antiope defeated Lycus in battle (Pausanias 9.5.6).
The Walls of Thebes
When they came to the throne, the brothers added the lower city to the Cadmeia and, because of their kinship with Thebe, named it Thebes (Pausanias 9.5.6). Homer says that they built towers around the city, because with all their strength they could not live in broad Thebes unfenced (Odyssey 11.263–265). Apollonius of Rhodes describes the scene as it was woven on a cloak: the twins laying the foundations of Thebes, Zethus lifting the peak of a steep mountain on his shoulders like a man toiling hard, and Amphion behind him with his golden lyre, a rock twice as large following his steps (Apollonius, Argonautica 1.735–741). Apollodorus says that the stones followed Amphion’s lyre as they fortified the city (Apollodorus 3.5.5). Hyginus says that the brothers girded Thebes with a wall at the command of Apollo and then drove Laius, son of Labdacus, into exile and ruled there themselves (Hyginus, Fabulae 9).
Zethus’ Wife and Son
Apollodorus says that Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes is named, while Amphion married Niobe, daughter of Tantalus (Apollodorus 3.5.6). In the Odyssey, the wife of Zethus is Aedon, daughter of Pandareus, who killed her son Itylus with the sword through folly. Penelope compares herself to the nightingale that mourns him (Odyssey 19.518–523). Pausanias summarises the end of the two houses: the house of Amphion was left desolate by plague, and the son of Zethus was killed through some mistake of his mother (Pausanias 9.5.9). He adds that the son was named Neis, and that the Neistan gate of Thebes is said to have been named for him (Pausanias 9.8.4).
Death and Tomb
Pausanias says that Zethus himself died of a broken heart, and that Laius was then restored to the throne by the Thebans (Pausanias 9.5.9). Zethus and Amphion share a small burial mound at Thebes (Pausanias 9.17.4).
Zethus Sources
Homer, Odyssey 11.260–265 and 19.518–523; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.5–6; Pausanias 2.6.4, 9.5.6–9, 9.8.4, 9.17.4; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.735–741; Hyginus, Fabulae 9.
See Also: Amphion, Antiope, Zeus, Thebes, Niobe, Laius, Dirce, Hermes
What the ancient sources say
Passages that name Zethus, in the original with English translation. The line gives the work and reference as scholars cite it.
- Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.5.1–9Dionysus, Pentheus, Niobe and OedipusDionysus roams Egypt, Syria and Thrace, where Lycurgus is punished, and returns to Thebes, where Agave tears her son Pentheus apart; he also turns the…
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.1–16Thebes: Cadmus, Amphion and Zethus, Oedipus and the early kingsPausanias gives the early history of Thebes: the Ectenians under Ogygus, then Hyantians and Aonians, then Cadmus, who founded the Cadmea, and the Sparti. He…
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.17.1–7Thebes: Artemis of Good Fame, the Girder Athenas and the tomb of Zethus and AmphionPausanias describes the temple of Artemis of Good Fame, where the daughters of Antipoenus died to win victory over the Orchomenians, and the stone lion…
- Plato, Gorgias 483a–486eCallicles: nature against convention, the stronger and the uselessness of philosophyCallicles says that Polus and Gorgias were tricked because convention and nature are at variance, and the many make laws for themselves, calling it shameful…
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.721–909Jason and Hypsipyle on LemnosJason puts on the purple mantle that Athena gave him, woven with scenes such as the Cyclopes at their forge, and goes to the city. Hypsipyle tells him how…
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.6.1–7Sicyon: Epopeus and Antiope, and the later kings of SicyonPausanias relates how Epopeus carried off Antiope, daughter of Nycteus, and how Lycus and Lamedon settled the quarrel, with Antiope giving birth to Zethus…
- Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 40–45Alcestis to the Horn of AmaltheaThe last six chapters explain Alcestis, Amphion’s lyre-built wall, Io, Medea’s steam-baths, Omphale and the horn of Amalthea as ordinary happenings…
- Strabo, Geography 9.2.25–32Helicon, Hesiod and the Muses: Thespiae to PlataeaeStrabo describes Thespiae with Praxiteles's statue of Eros (Cupid), Hesiod's birthplace Ascra, and Helicon with the temple of the Muses, the spring…
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