2005 Summer Reading
The Burial at Thebes
Geneology

by Prof. Michael Arnush, Classics

Genealogical tables, or "family trees," offer a graphic presentation of the marriages and offspring within a family. To "read" this table, equal signs ("=") signify marriages, vertical lines lead to offspring in the next generation, and horizontal lines indicate siblings. For example, Cadmus and Harmonia produced five children: one son, Polydorus; and four daughters named Agave, Semele, Ino and Autonoe. Polydorus and Nykteis begat Labdacus (later the house of Oedipus), while Agave gave birth to Echion's son Pentheus, and Semele and Zeus produced the god Dionysus (Pentheus and Dionysus both figure prominently in the playwright Euripides' final, majestic tragedy, The Bacchae). Note the twist in the portrayal here of Jocasta: she is, of course, both mother and wife to Oedipus.