Editing Adrastus (section)

====Statius====
Just as the [[Theban Cycle|Cyclic]] ''[[Thebaid (Greek poem)|Thebaid]]'' had been, the Latin poet [[Statius]]'s ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' (c. 92 AD), is devoted entirely to the Seven against Thebes.<ref>So also was the fifth-fourth-century BC ''Thebaid'' of [[Antimachus]].</ref>  An epic poem in 12 books, it gives the most detailed account of Adrastus' story.

In Book 1, the situations at Thebes and Argos are described. In Thebes, Polynices and Eteocles having agreed to rule in alternate years,<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.51.xml 1.138&ndash;139].</ref> Eteocles occupies the throne, while Polynices is in exile for a year.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.53.xml 1.164&ndash;165].</ref> While in Argos:
:There king Adrastus governed his people in tranquillity, verging from life’s midway into old age. Rich was he in ancestry, back to Jove on either side. The better sex he lacked, but flourished in female offspring, supported by twin pledge of daughters. To him Phoebus prophesied (a deadly prodigy to tell, but the truth of it was soon revealed) that husbands for them were on their way by fate’s leading: a bristly pig and a tawny lion. That pondering, neither the father himself nor Amphiaraus skilled in futurity sees light, for Apollo the source forbids. Only in the parental heart anxiety sits and festers.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.69.xml 1.390&ndash;399].</ref>

One night, during a raging storm, Polynices and Tydeus (also an exile) separately arrive at Adrastus' palace in Argos seeking refuge. They quarrel over the same bit of shelter, a fight breaks out, Adrastus is awoken, and separates them. He invites the two inside, and notices that Polynices wears a lion's pelt and that Tydeus a boar's skin and tusks, and by these signs, Adrastus recognizes in Polynices and Tydeus, the husbands that had been prophesied for his two daughters.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.71.xml 1.400&ndash;512].</ref> Adrastus feasts the young princes and introduces them to his daughters.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.79.xml 1.514&ndash;720].</ref>

The next day, in Book 2, Polynices and Tydeus accept Adrastus' offer of his daughters [[Argia of Argos|Argia]] and [[Deipyle]] in marriage, and Adrastus promises to help the two exiles regain their native kingdoms.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.105.xml 2.152&ndash;200].</ref> Adrastus sends Tydeus to Thebes to see if Eteocles will peacefully surrender his crown. At Thebes, Eteocles rejects Tydeus' arguments that, since his year of rule is over, he should give over the kingship to Polynices.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.121.xml 2.363&ndash;451].</ref> On his way back to Argos, Tydeus is ambushed by fifty Thebans, and kills all of these but Maeon.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.131.xml 2.482&ndash;743].</ref>

In Book 3, on returning to Argos, the wounded Tydeus urges an immediate attack of Thebes, an action the angry crowd supports.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.173.xml 3.324&ndash;386].</ref> But addressing Polynices, Adrastus "deep of counsel and no novice in manipulating the weight of command" urges restraint:<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.179.xml 3.386&ndash;388].</ref>
:Leave all this, I pray you, to the High Ones and my care for remedy. Neither shall your brother wield the sceptre and you fail of satisfaction nor yet are we eager to let war loose. But now all welcome Oeneus’ noble son triumphing in so great a bloodshed. Let rest at last relax his courageous spirit. For my part indignation shall not go short of reason<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.179.xml 3.388&ndash;393].</ref>

Adrastus consults the seers Amphiaraus and [[Melampus]] who receive omens too terrifying to divulge. Meanwhile, the Argives eagerly arm themselves, and at "the sad kings door" demand war.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.181.xml 3.440&ndash;597].</ref> Amphiaraus is finally forced to reveal what he has foreseen: death and defeat at Thebes, but the Argives are undeterred.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]''  [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.195.xml 3.618&ndash;677].</ref> Argia, now Polynices' wife, tearfully urges her father Adrastus to make war on Thebes, who begins assembling an army.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.199.xml 3.678&ndash;721].</ref>

In Book 4, the expedition sets out from Argos with Adrastus leading the first of the seven contingents:
:King Adrastus, sad and sick with weight of cares and nearer to departing years, walks scarce of his own accord amid words of good cheer, content with the steel that girds his side; soldiers bear his shield behind him. His driver grooms the swift horses right at the gate and Arion is already fighting the yoke. ... This band, three thousand strong, follows Adrastus exulting. ... He himself joins them, venerable alike in years and sceptre, like a bull moving tall among the pastures he has long possessed; his neck is slack now and his shoulders empty, but still he is the leader; the steers have no stomach to attempt him in battle, for they see his horns broken from many a blow and the massive nodules of breast wounds.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.207.xml 4.38&ndash;73].</ref>
In desperate need of water the expedition is forced to stop at Nemea.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]''  [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.253.xml 4.646&ndash;745].</ref> There they encounter [[Hypsipyle]], the nurse of the infant [[Opheltes]], and Adrastus urgently asks her to lead them to water, which she does.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.253.xml 4.646&ndash;850].</ref>

Meanwhile, in Book 5, the unattended Opheltes is killed by a serpent, and the infant's father the king, holding Hypsipyle responsible, intends to kill her with his sword.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.307.xml 5.499&ndash;661].</ref> The Archive champions rush to defend Hypsipyle&mdash;their army's savior&mdash;and Nemeans rally to their king, but Adrastus and Amphiaraus intercede, preventing an armed clash.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.319.xml 5.662&ndash;671].</ref> A rumor of Hypsipyle's imminent death reaches the Archive army, and they attack the palace, but Adrastus is able to stop them by racing to the palace with Hypsipyle in his chariot to show his army that she is safe.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.321.xml 5.691&ndash;703].</ref>

In Book 6, Adrastus presides over games held in honor of Opheltes.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.345.xml 6.249&ndash;923].</ref> As a final honor, Adrastus is asked to give a display of his prowess with the bow or spear. He gladly complies, choosing a tree a great distance away as a target. Adrastus shoots an arrow, which hits the tree, but bounces all the way back to his feet. An ill omen: "the shaft promised its master a war from which he alone would return, a sad homecoming."<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL207.395.xml 6.924&ndash;946].</ref>

In Book 7, the expedition arrives at Thebes, and the fighting begins and continues through Book 11. One by one each of the Seven champions die, all except Polynices and Adrastus. The brothers Polynices and Eteocles, having agreed to fight in single combat to decide the war, Adrastus drives his chariot between them and tries to stop them:<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL498.227.xml 11.424&ndash;429].</ref>
:Sons of Inachus and Tyrians, shall we then watch this wickedness? Where is right and the gods, where war? Persist not in your passion. I pray you desist, my enemy—though did this anger permit, you too are not far from me in blood; you, my son-in-law, I also command. If you so much desire a sceptre, I put off my royal raiment, go, have Lerna and Argos to yourself.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL498.227.xml 11.429&ndash;435].</ref>
But when Polynices and Eteocles refuse to stop, Adrastus flees:<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL498.227.xml 11.435&ndash;441].</ref>
:leaving it all behind—camp, men, son-in-law, Thebes—and drives Arion on as he turns in the yoke and warns of Fate.<ref>[[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/statius-thebaid/2004/pb_LCL498.227.xml 11.441&ndash;446].</ref>