Seven Against Thebes: The Quest of the Original Magnificent Seven

by Stephen Dando-Collins

Horst Bucholz’s young character Chico is Seven Against Thebes’s Parthenopaeus, youngest member of the Seven, while Robert Vaughn’s troubled Lee mirrors Amphiaraus, and Hippomedon seems to have become James Coburn’s weapons expert Britt. Steve McQueen’s character Vin, who had a penchant for explosives, resembles fire-bearing Capaneus.

Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares,”

To Polynices, Adrastus said, “You have the heart of your father Oedipus, who, in his saner days, faced the Sphinx, solved her riddle, and did away with her.” To Tydeus, he said, “You have the fortitude of your father Oeneus.” To Amphiaraus, he said, “You, brother, have the guidance of the gods.” To Capaneus, he said, “You have the strength of ten ordinary men.” To Hippomedon, he said, “You have the wit of the Muses.” To Eteoclus, he said, “You, my cousin tells me, have the determination of a bull.” Mecisteus nodded. “Heart, fortitude, strength, determination, wit, and the guidance of the gods,” he said. “They bring all the qualities that a band of champions would need to guarantee success in a dangerous undertaking.”

Jason had taken Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, then the king of Lemnos, to his bed, and the twins Euneus and Thoas had been the result. When the Argonauts had eventually sailed on, Jason had taken the baby boys with him, leaving them at Colchis. Following Jason’s death in Corinth, his fellow Argonaut Orpheus had taken them to his native Thrace, where he had raised them. Later, their elderly grandfather Thoas had found them and taken them back to Lemnos.

From Argos, several other members of the Offspring joined the siege of Troy. Among them were Tydeus’s son Diomedes, and Sthenelus, son of Capaneus.