Menoeceus

The grandson of Menoeceus (1), and a son of Creon.1 He is a descendant of the Spartae. When the Seven against Thebes laid siege to that city, Tiresias foretold that if any of the Spartae should sacrifice himself, Thebes would not be conquered. Menoeceus accordingly threw himself from the walls, and the Thebans were victorious.2

Pausanias3 relates that Menoeceus killed himself in consequence of an oracle of the Delphian god. His tomb was shown at Thebes near the Neitian gate.4

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References

Notes

  1. Euripides. Phoenician Women, 768.
  2. ibid., 913, 930; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 6.7.
  3. Description of Greece ix, 25.1.
  4. Pausanias, l.c.; comp. Statius. Thebaid x, 755 ff., 790.

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.