Editing Adrastus (section)

===Pindar===
The 5th-century [[Greek lyric|lyric]] poet [[Pindar]] mentions Adrastus in several of his poems. He devotes twenty lines of his ''Nemian'' 9 to Adrastus, and the expedition of the Seven against Thebes.<ref>Race, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.96.xml pp. 96&ndash;103]; [[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.99.xml 9.8&ndash;27].</ref> He begins by praising Adrastus as the founder of the Sicyonian games, which Pindar says Adrastus did during his reign as king of Sicyon:
:Let us rouse up, then, the resounding lyre and rouse the pipe for the very apex of contests
:for horses, which Adrastus established for Phoebus by the streams of Asopus. Having mentioned them,
:I shall exalt the hero with fame-bringing honors,
:who, reigning there [Sicyon] at that time, made the city famous
:by glorifying it with new festivals and contests for men’s strength and with polished chariots.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.99.xml 9.8&ndash;12].</ref>

He then tells of a dispute between Adrastus and the seer [[Amphiaraus]], which resulted in Adrastus and his brothers being overthrown, and Adrastus fleeing Argos:

:For in time past, to escape bold-counseling Amphiaraus and terrible civil strife, he had fled
:from his ancestral home and Argos. No longer were Talaus’ [Adrastus' father] sons rulers; they had been overpowered by discord.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.101.xml 9.13&ndash;14].</ref>

And how Ardastus and Amphiaraus were reconciled by Adrastus giving his sister Eriphyle to Ampiaraus:
:But the stronger man puts an end to a former dispute.
:After giving man-subduing Eriphyle as a faithful pledge
:to Oecles’ son [Amphiaraus] for a wife, they became the greatest of the fair-haired Danaans . . .<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.101.xml 9.15&ndash;17].</ref>

After which, Adrastus was a leader of the disastrous ill-omened expedition of the Seven against Thebes:
:and later they led an army of men to seven-gated Thebes
:on a journey with no favorable omens, and Cronus’ son brandished his lightning and urged them not to set out
:recklessly from home, but to forgo the expedition.

:But after all, the host was eager to march, with bronze
:weapons and cavalry gear, into obvious disaster, and on the banks of the Ismenus
:they laid down their sweet homecoming and fed the white-flowering smoke with their bodies,
:for seven pyres feasted on the men’s young limbs. But for Amphiaraus’ sake, Zeus split the deep-bosomed
:earth with his almighty thunderbolt and buried him with his team,

:before being struck in the back by Periclymenus' spear
:and suffering disgrace in his warrior spirit.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.101.xml 9.18&ndash;27].</ref>

Pindar attributes the founding of the [[Nemean Games]] to Adrastus.<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Nemean'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.95.xml 8.50&ndash;51], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-nemean_odes/1997/pb_LCL485.115.xml 10.26&ndash;28] with Race's note 13. See also [[Bacchylides]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0199.tlg001.perseus-eng1:9 9.10&ndash;24]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.6.4 3.6.4].</ref> And, after the death of [[Amphiaraus]], Pindar has Adrastus say: "I dearly miss the eye of my army, good both as a seer and at fighting with the spear."<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Olympian'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-olympian_odes/1997/pb_LCL056.105.xml 6.16&ndash;17].</ref>

In ''Pythian'' 8, Pindar mentions Ardastus receiving a prophecy from the dead Amphiaraus during the battle of the [[Epigoni]] at Thebes:<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Phythian'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-pythian_odes/1997/pb_LCL056.343.xml 8.48&ndash;55].</ref>
:... he who suffered in a former defeat,
:the hero Adrastus,
:is now met with news
:of better omen, but in his own household
:he will fare otherwise: for he alone from the Danaan army
:will gather the bones of his dead son and with the favor
:of the gods will come with his host unharmed