Eteocles
mythological figure · 5 works · 7 mentions · 18 anchored passages
brother · good man · he who fell in its defense · the one wishing to rule alone · tyrant at home · younger
in the texts
Orations
Mythological brother of Polynices who cast him out and later they slew each other
Eteocles and Polynices were not only brothers by law, but, being sprung of a son and a mother, of the closest kin.
"Why, my son, art thou set upon Ambition, basest of divinities?
when they had fallen out for the sake of more—the one wishing to rule alone, the other seeking by every means to recover his share of the power—did they not, being brothers, slay one another, and become the cause of great evils to those who joined either side, the assailants perishing on the spot, the defenders defeated a little after, since they would not let the dead be buried?
Phoenissae
King of Thebes, elder son of Oedipus and Jocasta, who refuses to share the throne with his brother Polyneices.
Creon:
Creon:
Creon:
Suppliants
Brother of Polynices who held the Theban throne and was killed by his brother in single combat, precipitating Creon's rule.
To whom must I announce the message of Creon, who rules o’er the land of Cadmus, since Eteocles was slain by the hand of his brother Polynices, at the sevenfold gates of Thebes?
We thought our Argos irresistible, ourselves a young and lusty host, and so when Eteocles was for making terms, in spite of his fair offer we would not accept them, and so we perished.
Antigone
Son of Oedipus who died defending Thebes and is granted full funeral honors by Creon.
Creon:
Has not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honored burial, the other to unburied shame?
Eteocles, who fell fighting in behalf of our city and who excelled all in battle, they shall entomb and heap up every sacred offering that descends to the noblest of the dead below.
Oedipus at Colonus
Younger son of Oedipus who holds Thebes against Polyneices and is destined to die by his brother's hand.
But he is tyrant at home—wretched me!
Before that you will fall, polluted by bloodshed, and so too your brother.
while Capaneus, the fifth, boasts that he will burn Thebes to the ground with fire;