When Europa disappeared, having been abducted by Zeus, her father, King Agenor, sent his sons to find and recover her, with instructions not to return unless they did. One of them, Cadmus, went to the oracle at Delphi to learn of Europa's whereabouts; but the oracle advised Cadmus to give up the search and, instead, to follow a cow till it fell from weariness and there build a city. Having followed the cow, Cadmus established the site of Thebes. He sent his companions to fetch water from a nearby spring that was guarded by a dragon. When the dragon killed a number of his companions Cadmus slew it. Athena appeared and told him to sow the dragon's teeth. After doing so, armed men sprang up ready to fight, so Cadmus threw a stone among them and they fell upon themselves until only five warriors remained, each of whom offered to serve Cadmus in building Thebes. However, Ares was angered at the killing of the dragon and forced Cadmus to serve him for eight years. Cadmus was then awarded the lovely Harmonia as his wife, and all the Olympians attended the wedding, bringing splendid gifts for the bride.
Cadmus ruled well, making Thebes a prosperous city. He and Harmonia lived to grow old peacefully, but their old age was troubled by terrible events. Having abdicated the throne in favor of his grandson, Pentheus, Cadmus emigrated from Thebes after Pentheus was slain by his mother in Dionysian madness. Cadmus' other daughters had unhappy fates, for Semele was blasted by Zeus; another leapt from a cliff holding her dead son; and a fourth had her son Actaeon torn to bits. Although some of these catastrophes were justifiable, unmerited suffering seemed to plague the House of Cadmus. Its founder was no exception. Sent abroad in their old age, Cadmus and Harmonia were changed into snakes before they died. Yet their death was favorable, for they went to the Blessed Isles.
Eventually Cadmus' great-grandson Laius became king at Thebes. Laius married Jocasta, but learned from the Delphic oracle that he would die by the hands of his own child. However, he got drunk one night and conceived a son. Laius and Jocasta exposed the infant on a mountain, riveting its ankles together. The child was found by a Corinthian peasant who took it to the childless King Polybus. Polybus accepted the boy and raised it as his own, naming it Oedipus.
As a young man Oedipus consulted the Delphic oracle, and it told him he would murder his father and marry his mother. Horrified, Oedipus did not return to Corinth, thinking that Polybus and his queen, Merope, were his true parents. Instead he went to Thebes, where a monster called the Sphinx was waylaying travelers and killing everyone who could not answer her riddle. The Sphinx had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the head and chest of a woman. When Oedipus confronted her she asked him what creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs at evening. Oedipus answered, "Man," realizing the riddle referred to man's progress from infancy to old age. The Sphinx then killed herself, and the Thebans welcomed Oedipus as their king for having delivered them.
He married Queen Jocasta and fathered two sons and two daughters on her. Thebes flourished under King Oedipus. But then a plague struck the city, decimating the inhabitants. Pledged to aid the city, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law Creon to the Delphic oracle to learn how the plague might be stopped. The oracle said that the person who had killed King Laius years before must be caught and punished. Oedipus vowed to find the culprit and summoned the seer Teiresias to name the guilty one. At first Teiresias was silent, but goaded by the king he revealed that Oedipus himself was Laius' killer. Angered and dumbfounded, Oedipus inquired about the whereabouts of Laius' death, which had occurred near Delphi where three roads met. Oedipus recalled killing an arrogant old man and his retinue who had assaulted him in that very place. Of course it was Laius he had slain. Then a messenger arrived to tell Oedipus that King Polybus had died and left Oedipus the kingdom of Corinth. Presently the facts came out that Polybus was not Oedipus' real father and that Oedipus had been found exposed on a mountain. Jocasta grew distraught and pleaded with her husband to abandon his investigation. And at last the truth dawned on Oedipus that he had indeed murdered his father and married his mother. In despair Jocasta hanged herself, while Oedipus blinded himself in an agony of remorse. Wishing to be killed or exiled, he gave Thebes to Creon to rule as regent, and Creon promised to care for Oedipus' daughters.
Oedipus himself remained in Thebes for a few years, a blind and aging misfit cared for only by his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. After cursing his sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, for showing disrespect, Oedipus was exiled from Thebes by King Creon. Homeless and almost friendless, Oedipus was accompanied by Antigone, and at length the pair arrived at Colonus on the outskirts of Athens. There they were welcomed and taken in by Theseus. Just before he died Oedipus was told by the Delphic oracle that he would achieve the status of a demigod and be a blessing to the land where he was buried.
Meanwhile, back in Thebes Oedipus' youngest son, Eteocles, had taken over the throne. His brother Polyneices had gone to the Argive court of King Adrastus to recruit an army against Thebes that would establish him as king. With the aid of Adrastus, Polyneices got five other captains and their troops to assault Thebes in an expedition known as "the Seven Against Thebes." One of these men, Amphiaraus, was a seer and knew that of the Seven only Adrastus would return alive. However, since Amphiaraus' wife settled family quarrels, Polyneices bribed her to send Amphiaraus against Thebes by giving her an ancestral necklace.
Having assembled his army, Polyneices marched on Thebes, sending a captain to attack each of Thebes's seven gates. Inside the city Teiresias told Creon that his son Menoeceus would have to die before Thebes could be saved. Creon, very disheartened, recommended that Menoeceus flee, but his son refused to dishonor himself, went into battle, and was killed. As the war dragged on most of Polyneices' supporters were killed, so Polyneices offered to settle the conflict in single combat with his brother Eteocles. The result was that Polyneices and Eteocles slew each other, thus ending the reason for the war. And as Amphiaraus had foreseen only King Adrastus escaped with his life.
