Ten years have passed since the campaign of the seven against Thebes. During this time, the sons of the heroes who fell at Thebes matured. They decided to take revenge on the Thebans for the defeat of their fathers and undertook a new campaign. Taking part in this campaign were: Aigialeus, son of Adrastus, Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, Thersander, son of Polynices, Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus, Sthenelus, son of Capaneus, Polydorus, son of Hippomedon, and Euryalus, son of Menestheus. This campaign was carried out under different conditions. The gods patronized the epigones (this was the name given to the leaders who undertook a new campaign against Thebes).
The Delphic oracle predicted victory for the epigones if Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, took part in this campaign.
Thersander, the son of Polyneices, volunteered to persuade Alcmaeon not to refuse to participate in the campaign. Alcmaeon hesitated for a long time. He did not dare to go against Thebes until he fulfilled the last will of his father and took revenge on his mother for sending her husband to certain death. Like his father Polyneices, Thersander decided to seek the assistance of Eriphyle, Alcmaeon’s mother. He bribed her by giving her the precious clothing of Cadmus's wife, Harmonia, which Pallas Athena herself had woven for her. Eriphyle was seduced by her clothes, as she had once been seduced by the necklace of Harmony, and insisted that Alcmaeon and his brother Amphilochus take part in the campaign.
An army of epigones set out from Argos. This army was small, but victory should have accompanied it. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus, equal to his father in strength and courage, was chosen as the leader of the army. Joyful heroes went on a campaign, burning with the desire to avenge their fathers.
In Potnia, they asked the oracle of Amphiaraus at Thebes about the outcome of the campaign. The oracle answered them that he saw Alcmaeon, the heir to the glory of Amphiaraus, entering the gates of Thebes in victory. The epigones will win. Only Aigialei, the son of Adrast who escaped during the first campaign, must fall.
Finally, the army of the epigones reached the seven-gate Thebes. Having devastated all the surrounding areas, the epigones began a siege. The Thebans went out into the field under the leadership of their king Laodamant, the frantic son of Eteocles, to repel the besiegers from the walls. A bloody battle ensued. In this battle, Aigialei fell, struck by the spear of Laodamant, but Laodamant was also killed by Alcmaeon. The Thebans were defeated and took refuge behind the indestructible walls of Thebes.
The defeated Thebans began negotiations with the besiegers, and at night, on the advice of Tiresias, secretly from the besiegers, they moved out of Thebes with all their wives and children. They moved north to Thessaly. On the way there, the prophetic Tiresias, who had helped the Thebans for so long and saved them more than once from death, died at the source of the nymph Telpuza.
After a long journey, the Thebans reached Hestiotis in Thessaly and settled there.
Thebes, taken by the epigones, were destroyed. The rich booty that they got was divided among themselves by the epigones. They presented the best part of the spoils, and among them the daughter of Tiresias, the soothsayer Manto, to the Delphic oracle.
The epigones returned happily to their homeland. Thersander, the son of Polynices, began to rule in Thebes, restoring it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru