place
Thebes
The city of the play, founded by Cadmus and home of Hercules, teeming with gods and now under the usurper Lycus.
Reading notes
- On the Happy Life §25.4 Thebes
The chief city of Boeotia in Greece, birthplace of the god Bacchus; the western terminus of his eastern triumph.
- Hercules (Mad) §20 land of Thebes
The city founded by Cadmus, Hercules's home and the play's setting; Juno calls it the land that has made her a stepmother through Jupiter's Theban loves.
- Oedipus §110 Thebe
Thebes, the city, addressed as a person ('pitiable Thebe').
- Oedipus §124 seven gates
The seven gates of Thebes, here too few for the crowd carrying out its dead.
- Oedipus §403 Tyrian turban
The eastern (Tyrian/Phoenician) headdress fitting Bacchus, recalling Thebes's Phoenician founder.
- Oedipus §467 Arcadian constellation
The Great Bear (Arcas/Callisto), the northern stars that look down on the nomads; the 'twin Wain' is the Wagon.
- Oedipus §467 Ophionian slaughter
The Theban dead — Ophion being one of the serpent-sown ancestors — staining Cithaeron with blood.
- Oedipus §530 holm-oaks
The ancient grove black with holm-oak (ilex) by the Dircaean valley, site of the necromancy.
- Oedipus §569 serpent-born race
The Spartoi, armed men sprung from the dragon's teeth Cadmus sowed; the 'brothers' who killed one another.
- The Phoenician Women §271 Thebes
The city founded by Cadmus, ruled by Oedipus' feuding sons and now besieged.