Capaneus
A son of Hipponous and Astynome or Laodice, the daughter of Iphis.1 He was married to Evadne or Ianeira, who is also called a daughter of Iphis, and by whom he became the father of Sthenelus.2 He was one of the seven heroes who marched from Argos against Thebes, where he had his station at the Ogygian or Electrian gate.3
During the siege of Thebes, he was presumptuous enough to say, that even the fire of Zeus should not prevent his scaling the walls of the city; but when he was ascending the ladder, Zeus struck him with a flash of lightning.4 While his body was burning, his wife Evadne leaped into the flames and destroyed herself.5 Capaneus is one of those heroes whom Asclepius was believed to have called back into life.6
At Delphi there was a statue of Capaneus dedicated by the Argives.7
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References
Notes
- Hyginus. Fabulae, 70; Scholiast on Euripides' Phoenician Women, 181; on Pindar's Nemean Odes, ix, 30.
- Scholiast on Pindar's Olympian Odes vi, 46; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 10.8.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 6.6; Aeschylus. Septem contra Thebas, 423; Pausanias. Description of Greece ix, 8.3.
- Comp. Euripides. Phoenician Women, 1172 ff.; comp. Sophocles. Antigone, 133; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 6.7; Ovid. Metamorphoses ix, 404.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 7.1; Euripides. Suppliants, 983 ff.; Philostratus. Imagines ii, 31; Ovid. Ars Amatoria iii, 21; Hyginus. Fabulae, 243.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 10.3.
- Pausanias. Description of Greece x, 10.2.
Source
- Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.