In Greek mythology, Adrastus or Adrestus (Ancient Greek: Ἄδραστος or Ἄδρηστος,Grimal, s.v. Adrastus 1; Parada, s.v. Adrastus 1. For Ἄδρηστος, see Herodotus, 5.67 . perhaps meaning "the inescapable")Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Adrastus. was a king of Argos, and leader of the Seven against Thebes. He was the son of the Argive king Talaus, but was forced out of Argos by his dynastic rival Amphiaraus. He fled to Sicyon, where he became king. Later, he reconciled with Amphiaraus and returned to Argos as its king.
Because of an oracle, Adrastus married his daughters to the exiles Polynices and Tydeus and promised to restore them to their homelands. He first assembled an army to place Polynices on the throne of Thebes, led by seven champions, famously called the Seven against Thebes. The expedition failed, and all the champions died except Adrastus, saved by his divine horse Arion. He went with the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven, in the successful second war against Thebes, and was said to have died on his way home.
Adrastus is mentioned as early as Homer's Iliad, and his story was (presumably) told in the Cyclic Thebaid. He figures prominently in the poetry of Pindar, and is a main character in Euripides' The Suppliants. His story was told by Diodorus Siculus, Hyginus, Statius, and Apollodorus. He was said to be the founder of the Nemean Games, had hero cults at Sicyon, Megara, and Colonus, and was depicted in works of art from as early as the 6th century BC.Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Adrastus; Grimal, s.v. Asrastus; Tripp, s.v. Adrastus (1); Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Adrastus; Parada, s.v. Adrastus 1; Smith, s.v. Adrastus 1.
Family Homer's Iliad mentions Adrastus, but without giving any ancestry.For a discussion of the early sources for Adrastus' genealogy see Gantz, pp. 506–507. For genealogical tables containing Adrastus, see Hard, p. 707, Table 14; and Grimal, p. 525, Table I. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (without mentioning Adrastus) has Talaus as the son of Bias and Pero,Hesiod fr. 35 Most [= fr. 37 MW]. and from the lyric poets Bacchylides and Pindar we first hear that Adrastus was the son of Talaus, who according to Apollonius of Rhodes was an Argonaut.Bacchylides, 9.19; Pindar, Nemean 9.14, Olympian 6.15; see also Euripides, The Phoenician Women 422. For Talaus as an Argonaut see Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.110–111. No early sources say who Adrastus' mother was; however, late sources give three different names:Parada, s.v. Adrastus 1. Lysimache, the daughter of Abas,Apollodorus, 1.9.13. Lysianassa, the daughter of Polybus,Pausanias, 2.6.6. Compare with Herodotus, 5.67, and a scholion to Pindar Nemean 9.30 (see Gantz, p. 507), where Adrastus' maternal grandfather is said to be Polybus. or Eurynome.Hyginus, Fabulae 69, 70. The Iliad mentions a daughter of Adrastus, Aegiale,Homer, Iliad 5.410–415; compare with Apollodorus, 1.8.6. and the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos mentions a son, Aegialeus.Fowler 2013, p. 414; Gantz, p. 524; Fowler 2000, p. 191 (Hellanicus fr. 100 = FGrHist 4 F 100).
The mythographer Apollodorus gives the following genealogy. Adrastus' father was Talus, who was the son of Bias and Pero. His mother was Lysimache, the daughter of Abas, son of Melampus. He had four younger brothers, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, and Aristomachus, and a sister Eriphyle. Adrastus married Amphithea, the daughter of his brother Pronax, by whom he had three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegiale, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.Apollodorus, 1.9.13. According to Hyginus Fabulae 71 his wife was Demonassa, and according to Fabulae 242 he had a son named Hipponous. According to other accounts Adrastus married a daughter of Polybus the king of Sicyon, see Gantz, pp. 507–508. For his daughters Argia and Deipyle, see also: Diodorus Siculus, 4.65.3; Hyginus Fabulae 69; Statius, Thebaid 2.203–204. Herodotus, 5.68, also has Aegialeus as Adrastus' son. According to Apollodorus, 1.8.6 some said that Aegiale was the daughter of Aegialeus, while according to Pausanias, 2.18.4, 2.30.10 Cyanippus was the son of Aegialeus, see Parada, s.vv. Aegialeus 1, Cyanippus.
Adrastus' daughters had several notable husbands and sons. Argia married Polynices, the son of the Thebean king Oedipus, and Deipyle married Tydeus, the son of the Calydonian king Oeneus.Hard, p. 316; Gantz, pp. 508–509. Homer, Iliad 14.121, has Tydeus married to an unnamed daughter of Adrastus, while Stesichorus, fr. 222A Campbell [= P. Lille 76 + 73] lines 270-280, has the seer Tiresias tell Polynices that Adrastus will give him his daughter, also unnamed. Pherecydes, fr. 122a Fowler (Fowler 2008, p. 340) [= FGrHist 3 F 122 = Apollodorus 1.8.5] and fr. 122b Fowler (Fowler 2008, pp. 340–341) [= FGrHist 3 F 122 = Schol. (A, *B (4.45.3 Dindorf), D codd. CHVLa, Ge I (1.170.23 Nicole) +) Il. 14.119] name Deipyle as the daughter who married Tydeus. Euripides (see Hypsipyle fr. 753c, Oeneus fr. 558, The Phoenician Women 419–423, The Suppliants 133–136) has unnamed daughters married to Polynices and Tydeus. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1302 has Polynices say that Adrastus was his father-in-law. Diodorus Siculus, 4.65.3; Hyginus Fabulae 69; Statius, Thebaid 2.203–204Apollodorus, 3.6.1, all have Argia marry Polynices and Deipyle marry Tydeus. According to Hyginus, Diomedes, who fought in the Trojan War, was the son of Deipyle and Tydeus, and Thersander (one of the Epigoni) was the son of Argia and Polynices.Hyginus, Fabulae 69, 71; compare with Homer, Iliad 5.410, which has Diomedes as Tydeus' son, and 14.121, which says that Tydeus married a daughter of Adrastus; Pindar, Olympian 2.43–45, which has Polynices' son Thersander descending from Adrastus. In the Iliad, another of Adrastus' daughters, Aegiale, is the wife of Diomedes.Homer, Iliad 5.410–415; compare with Apollodorus, 1.8.6. Hyginus, also says that Hippodamia, the wife of King Pirithous of the Lapiths, was the daughter of an Adrastus, possibly referring to this Adrastus.Hyginus, Fabulae 33. Grimal, s.v. Adrastus, has Hippodamia being Adrastus' daughter, however according Diodorus Siculus, 4.70.3, Hippodamia was the daughter of Butes (the only father of Hippodamia noted by Parada, s.v. Hippodamia 4), while according to Ovid, Heroides 17.247–248, her father was one "Atrax".
Mythology The Iliad refers to Adrastus as king of Sicyon,Homer, Iliad 2.572, see also Pindar, Nemean, 9.11; Herodotus, 5.67; Statius, Thebaid 2.179, 4.49; Pausanias, 2.6.6. but does not explain how a son of the Argive king Talaus, came to rule Sicyon. However, later sources tell of a dispute, of some sort, between the descendants of Bias and his brother Melampus— two of the most powerful families in the Argolid— involving Adrastus, the grandson of Bias, and Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, a grandson of Melampus.For a discussion of the sources for Adrastus' dispute with Amphiaraus, see Gantz, pp. 506–508. For a discussion of the dynastic history of the Argolid, see also Hard, pp. 332–335. According to Pindar, at one time the sons of Talaus ruled Argos but were "overpowered by discord," and Adrastus fled Argos and went to Sicyon to escape Amphiaraus, and during his reign there, he founded the Sicyonian games.Gantz, p. 507; Race 1997a, pp. 96–97; Tripp, s.v. Adrastus (1); Pindar, Nemean, 9.8–14. According to Herodotus, 5.67, the Sicyonian games were founded by Cleisthenes of Sicyon. See also Pausanias, 2.6.6, which has Adrastus fleeing to Polybus at Sicyon, and becoming king when Polybus died.
Pindar does not say what circumstances caused Adrastus to flee from Argos to Sicyon, or how he became its king, but later sources do.Gantz, pp. 507–508. According to one version, after Adrastus' brother Pronax, who was king of Argos, died, Adrastus fled to Sicyon, where his mother's father Polybus was king, and eventually inherited the Sicyonian throne.Gantz, p. 507; Schol. Pindar Nemean 9.30 [= Menaichmos of Sikyon FGrHist 131 F 10]. Compare Herodotus, 5.67, which says that Adrastus' maternal grandfather Polybus, died without an heir and bequeathed the kingship to Adrastus. While according to another, Adrastus fled to Sicyon after Amphiaraus killed Talaus, and got the throne by marrying Polybus' daughter.Gantz, pp. 507–508; Thebaid fr. 7* West, pp. 48, 49 [= Schol. Pindar Nemean 9.30b].
In any case, Adrastus became king of Sicyon. Then, according to Pindar, Adrastus (and his brothers) were able to effect a reconciliation with Amphiaraus by giving him their sister Eriphyle in marriage, and Adrastus was able to return to Argos and assume the Argive throne.Pindar, Nemean, 9.13–17.
Adrastus was the owner of the fabulously fast horse Arion,Homer, Iliad 23.346–7; Antimachus (apud Pausanias, 8.25.9); Statius, Thebaid 6.314; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 4.569–573. who was the offspring of Posidon and Demeter when they mated in horse form.Hard, p. 101; Apollodorus, 3.6.8; Pausanias, 8.25.5, 8.25.7. Adrastus was given Arion by Heracles,Schol. (D) Iliad 23.346 (see Thebaid fr. 11 West, pp. 52–55); Pausanias 8.25.10. Compare with Statius, Thebaid 6.311–314 and Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 4.569–573, which say that Arion was given to Adrastus by the gods. and the horse saved Adrastus' life during the war of the Seven against Thebes, when all the other champions of the expedition were killed.Hard, p. 102, p. 321; Gantz, p. 517; Thebaid fr. 11 West, pp. 52–55; Apollodorus, 3.6.8; Strabo, 9.2.11; Pausanias, 8.25.8; Pancrates of Alexandria (Page, pp. 518, 519); compare with Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 757.116–118; Greek Anthology 7.431.
Adrastus seems to have had a reputation as a skillful speaker.Grimal, s.v. Adrastus; Tyrtaeus, fr. 12.8; Plato, Phaedrus 269a [= Thebaid fr. 4* West, pp. 46, 47].
Seven against Thebes
The war of the Seven against Thebes resulted from a quarrel between Oedipus' sons Polynices and Eteocles over the kingship of Thebes, which left Eteocles on the throne, and Polynices in exile.For discussions of the quarrel between Polynices and Eteocles, see Gantz, pp. 502–506; Hard, pp. 315–317. One night, Polynices arrived at Adrastus' palace seeking shelter. He found a place to sleep, but soon after Tydeus, the exiled son of the Calydonian king Oeneus, also arrived seeking shelter, and the two began to fight over the same space. When Adrastus discovered Polynices and Tydeus fighting like wild beasts (or in later accounts when he saw that Polynices wore the hyde of a lion and that Tydeus wore the Hyde of a Boar, or that they had those animals on their shields), he remembered an oracle of Apollo that said he should marry his daughters to a lion and a boar. So Adrastus gave his daughters, Argia to Polynices, and Deipyle to Tydeus, and promised to restore them to their kingdoms, beginning with Polynices.Hard, pp. 315–317; Gantz, pp. 508–510; Tripp, s.v. Seven against Thebes A; Euripides, The Suppliants 131–154, The Phoenician Women 408–429; Hypsipyle, fr. 753c; Diodorus Siculus, 4.65.1–3; Hyginus, Fabulae 69; Statius, Thebaid 1.390–512, 2.152–205; Apollodorus, 3.6.1, with Polynices and Tydeus wearing the pelts of a lion and boar in Hyginus and Statius, and with a lion and a boar on their shields in Apollodorus. The daughters, unnamed in Euripides, are named in Diodorus, Hyginus, Statius, and Apollodorus.