Amphion and Zethus

File:The doctrine of morality - or, A view of human life, according to the stoick philosophy - exemplify'd in one hundred and three copper-plates, done by the celebrated Monsieur Daret, engraver to the (14744818991).jpg

Amphion and Zethus

Amphion (Template:IPAc-en (Template:Langx)) and Zethus (Template:IPAc-en; Ζῆθος Zēthos) were, in ancient Greek mythology, the twin sons of Zeus (or Theobus)Template:Refn by Antiope. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the city's walls. Zethus or Amphion had a daughter who was called Neis (Νηίς), the Neitian gate at Thebes was believed to have derived its name from her.<ref>A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Neis</ref>

Mythology

Childhood

File:Zetoyanfion.jpg

Dirce's punishment - Roman wall painting in House of the Vettii, Pompeii.

Amphion and Zethus were the sons of Antiope, who fled in shame to Sicyon after Zeus raped her, and married King Epopeus there. However, either Nycteus or Lycus attacked Sicyon in order to carry her back to Thebes and punish her. On the way back, she gave birth to the twins and was forced to expose them on Mount Cithaeron. Lycus gave her to his wife, Dirce, who treated her very cruelly for many years.<ref name="Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.5">Apollodorus, 3.5.5</ref>

Antiope eventually escaped and found her sons living near Mount Cithaeron. After they were convinced that she was their mother, they killed Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull, gathered an army, and conquered Thebes, becoming its joint rulers.<ref name="Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.5"/> They also either killed Lycus or forced him to give up his throne.<ref name=":0">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Template:Google books </ref>

Rule of Thebes

Amphion became a great singer and musician after his lover Hermes taught him to play and gave him a golden lyre. Zethus became a hunter and herdsman, with a great interest in cattle breeding. As Zethus was associated with agriculture and the hunt, his attribute was the hunting dog, while Amphion’s - the lyre.<ref name=":0" /> Amphion and Zethus built the fortifications of Thebes.<ref name=":0" /> They built the walls around the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes, at the command of Apollo.<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 9</ref> While Zethus struggled to carry his stones, Amphion played his lyre and his stones followed after him and gently glided into place.<ref name="Tripp">Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1970, p. 44. Original, less elaborate, account in Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 6.20.18</ref>

Amphion married Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, the Lydian king. Because of this, he learned to play his lyre in the Lydian mode and added three strings to it.<ref>Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1970, p. 43</ref> Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes was named.<ref>Apollodorus, 3.5.6</ref> Otherwise, the kingdom was named in honour of their supposed father Theobus.<ref>Tzetzes, Chiliades 1.13 line 322</ref>

File:Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons - Penn Provenance Project.jpg

Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons, printed by Johannes Zainer (ca. 1474)

Later misfortunes

Amphion's wife Niobe had many children, but had become arrogant and because of this she insulted the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Artemis and Apollo. Leto's children killed Niobe's children in retaliation (see Niobe). Niobe’s overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children’s deaths.<ref name=":0" /> In Ovid, Amphion commits suicide out of grief; according to Telesilla, Artemis and Apollo murder him along with his children. Hyginus, however, writes that in his madness he tried to attack the temple of Apollo, and was killed by the god's arrows.<ref>Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, p. 539</ref>

Zethus had only one son, who died through a mistake of his mother Thebe, causing Zethus to kill himself.<ref name="Tripp"/> In the Odyssey, however, Zethus's wife is called Aëdon, a daughter of Pandareus in book 19, who killed her son Itylus in a fit of madness and became a nightingale.<ref>Homer, Odyssey Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New York: Harper Collins, 1967, p. 295</ref> Later authors would clarify that Aëdon tried to kill Niobe and Amphion's firstborn Amaleus out of jealousy that Niobe had borne many children, while she and Zethus only had one.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However in the dark of the night, Aëdon by mistake killed Itylus, and in her mourning she was transformed into a nightingale by her father-in-law Zeus<ref>Eustathius of Thessalonica, On Homer's Odyssey 19.710</ref>Template:Sfn when Zethus began to chase her down in rage for murdering their son.<ref>Scholiast on the Odyssey 19.518</ref> Alternatively, Aëdon was afraid that her husband (here, mistakenly perhaps, spelled Zetes) was having an affair with a nymph, and that Itylus was assisting his father in his infidelity, so she killed him.<ref>Photios I of Constantinople, Myriobiblon Helladius Chrestomathia</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After the deaths of Amphion and Zethus, Laius returned to Thebes and became king.

Compare with Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri) of Greece, and with Romulus and Remus of Rome.

Family tree

Template:Family tree of the Theban royal house

Gallery

Amphion

Amphion, son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin brother of Zethus

Amphion, son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin brother of Zethus
Amphion by NathanJacquin (November 16, 2015)

Amphion by NathanJacquin (November 16, 2015)
Amphion

Amphion
Mercury and Amphion by Jean Vignaud (1819)

Mercury and Amphion by Jean Vignaud (1819)
Amphion by Krauss, Johann Ulrich (ca. 1690)

Amphion by Krauss, Johann Ulrich (ca. 1690)