Three Theban Plays, The

APOLLO: son of Zeus, he is a prophet (Delphi the most important of his oracular sites), a healer (in this capacity he is sometimes addressed as Paian) and a patron of the arts (especially poetry and music).

ARCTURUS: the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, its reappearance in the autumn sky marked the beginning of the winter season for the Greeks.

ARES: the war god, he is particularly associated with Thrace, the barbarous territory to the north of Greece; he is also a patron deity of Thebes.

ARGOS: a powerful city of the Peloponnese, it sent the Seven Champions against Thebes.

ARTEMIS: daughter of Zeus, virgin goddess and protector of wild animals.

ATHENA (sometimes known as Pallas): virgin daughter of Zeus, she is the patron of the domestic arts and comes to be thought of as the embodiment of wisdom and moderation. She is the protecting divinity of Athens.

BACCHUS: another name of Dionysus.

CADMUS: founder of Thebes, son of Agenor.

CASTALIA: the sacred spring at Delphi.

CEPHISUS: a river of Attica.

CERBERUS: the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.

CITHAERON: the mountain range between Thebes and Corinth on which the baby Oedipus was exposed.

COLONUS : a village to the north of Athens to which the blind Oedipus came in his old age (and where Sophocles was born).

CORINTH: a prosperous seaport on the Gulf of Corinth; home of Polybus and Merope, who brought Oedipus up in ignorance of his real identity.

CREON: brother of Jocasta, he succeeded Oedipus as ruler of Thebes.

DANAË: daughter of Acrisius and mother, by Zeus, of the hero Perseus.

DAULIA: a district north of the road from Thebes to Delphi.

DELOS: a very small island in the center of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. Birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, it was sacred to Apollo.

DELPHI: on the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf, site of the most famous oracle of Apollo.

DEMETER: goddess of the grain crops. Together with her daughter Persephone, she was the presiding deity of the Eleusinian mysteries.

DIONYSUS: son of Zeus by Semele, a Theban princess. Dionysus is the god of ecstatic release, especially associated with wine.

DIRCE: a river of Thebes.

ELEUSIS: a city of Attica, site of the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries.

EROS: son of Aphrodite, the personification of passionate sexual love.

ETEOCLES: son of Oedipus, brother of Antigone.

EUMENIDES: “Kindly Ones,” a title given to the Furies at Athens, where they were protective as well as punishing spirits.

EURYDICE: wife of Creon.

FURIES (Erinyes): avenging spirits whose task it is to exact blood for blood when no human avenger is left alive. They are particularly concerned with injuries done by one member of a family to another.

GREAT GODDESSES: the two presiding deities of the Eleusinian mysteries, Demeter and Persephone.

HADES : brother of Zeus and Poseidon, he is the ruler of the underworld, the land of the dead.

HAEMON: son of Creon, betrothed to Antigone.

HECATE: a goddess associated with ghosts and witchcraft. Since crossroads were thought to be haunted places, offerings to her were often placed there.

HERMES: the messenger of the gods. One of his functions is to escort the souls of the dead to the lower world.

IACCHUS: a deity associated with the ritual of the Eleusinian mysteries but often identified with Dionysus.

ISMENE: daughter of Oedipus, sister of Antigone.

ISMENUS: a river of Thebes.

JOCASTA: wife and mother of Oedipus.

LABDACUS: father of Laius, grandfather of Oedipus.

LAIUS: father of Oedipus.

LYCURGUS: a king of Thrace who tried to repress the worship of Dionysus and was imprisoned as punishment.

MEGAREUS: son of Creon and Eurydice, killed during the siege of Thebes by the Seven.

MEROPE: queen of Corinth, foster mother of Oedipus.

MOUNT OF ARES (Areopagus): a hill at Athens which was the seat of the first court of law.

NIOBE: a queen of Phrygia in Asia Minor, who boasted that her children were more beautiful than Apollo and Artemis. The two gods killed them all and Niobe wasted away in mourning. A rock in Phrygia which had water running down it was supposed to be Niobe, turned to stone.

NYMPHS: female spirits, long-lived but not immortal, who represent the divine powers of mountains, woods and rivers.

NYSA: a mountain on the island of Euboea, which stretches along the Attic and Boeotian coastlines.

OEDIPUS: son of Laius and Jocasta.

OLYMPIA: a major religious center in the Peloponnese, site of an oracle and temple of Zeus.

OLYMPUS: a mountain mass in northern Greece, where the Olympian gods were supposed to live.

PAN: a god of the uncultivated upland country.

PARNASSUS: a mountain on the north side of the Gulf of Corinth; the oracle at Delphi was situated on its southern slope.

PELOPS: a king who gave his name to the Peloponnese.

PERITHOUS: a hero who accompanied Theseus on his descent to the lower world in an attempt to kidnap Persephone.

PERSEPHONE: daughter of Demeter, queen of the lower world and one of the two divinities of the Eleusinian mysteries.

PHOCIS: the district in central Greece in which Delphi is situated.

PLUTO: one of the names of Hades, the king of the world of the dead.

POLYBUS: king of Corinth, foster father of Oedipus.

POLYDURUS: son of Agenor, great-grandfather of Oedipus.

POLYNICES: son of Oedipus and Jocasta, brother of Antigone.

POSEIDON: brother of Zeus, ruling god of the sea.

SARDIS: capital of the Lydian kingdom, on the coast of Asia Minor, famous for its precious metals.

SEMELE: a Theban princess, the mother of Dionysus by Zeus.

THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES: a collective title for the Seven Champions, who, led by Polynices, made the unsuccessful assault on the city. The list sometimes varies from one account to another but in the Theban Plays of Sophocles it remains constant. The six warriors who followed Polynices were: AMPHIARAUS, a prophet who foresaw his own death; TYDEUS, son of Oeneus, from the western district of Aetolia; ETEOCLUS (not to be confused with Eteocles); HIPPOMEDON, son of Talaus; CAPANEUS, the fiercest of the Seven—his storming of the walls and destruction by the thunderbolt of Zeus is alluded to in Antigone 141—52; PARTHENOPEUS, from Arcadia, son of Atalanta.

SPHINX: a winged monster with a human, female face, which devoured young men who failed to answer her riddle.

TANTALUS: king of Phrygia, father of Pelops.

TARTARUS: the lower depths of the house of Hades, the kingdom of the dead.

THEBES: the principal city of the Boeotian plain.

THESEUS: king of Athens, he welcomes Oedipus to Colonus.

THRACE: the area to the north of Greece, inhabited by uncivilized tribes.

TIRESIAS: a blind Theban prophet.

ZEUS: supreme ruler of the gods and father of many of them. He is referred to under many different titles. As Chthonios, he is an underworld divinity; as Herkeios, the protector of the hearth and the family; as Homaimos, the god of blood relationships; as Morios, the protector of the olive trees of Attica; and as Tropaios, the god who presides over the decisive moment in battle when one side turns to flee.