Seven against Thebes

American  

noun

1. (used with a plural verb) seven heroes, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polynices, and Tydeus, who led an expedition against Thebes to depose Eteocles in favor of his brother Polynices: the expedition failed, but the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven against Thebes, conquered the city ten years later.

2. (used with a singular verb) a tragedy (468? b.c.) by Aeschylus.

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Seven against Thebes British  

plural noun

1. Greek myth the seven members of an expedition undertaken to regain for Polynices, a son of Oedipus, his share in the throne of Thebes from his usurping brother Eteocles. The seven are usually listed as Polynices, Adrastus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Tydeus, and Parthenopaeus. The campaign failed and the warring brothers killed each other in single combat before the Theban walls See also Adrastus

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Example Sentences

But before that Atalanta had borne a son, Parthenopaeus, who was one of the Seven against Thebes.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

The Seven against Thebes was directed by Aeschylus against the Themistoclean, and in support of the Aristidean, policy.

From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth

These characters play only subsidiary parts in the story of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, round which the Theban epic turns.

From Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal by Butler, Harold Edgeworth

The "Seven against Thebes" includes in its cast of characters Eteocles, King of Thebes, Antigone and Ismene, Sisters of the King, a Messenger and a Herald.

From Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes by Buckley, Theodore Alois

When he was seventeen he pretty certainly saw the Seven against Thebes and was much influenced by it; but the Choregus this time was a new statesman, Pericles.

From Euripedes and His Age by Murray, Gilbert