Greek myth and the subject of one of the
seven surviving
plays of
Aeschylus. After the
banishment of
Oedipus from
Thebes, his
twin sons Polynices and
Eteocles shared the crown, each serving every other year. But Eteocles decided he didn't want to share and banished his brother. So Polynices enlisted the help of his
father-in-law,
King Adrastus of
Argos, and five other
asskickers to take back the city and the crown. The brothers killed each other in single combat and the Seven failed to take the city, so the crown fell to their
uncle Creon. The events in the play
Antigone by
Sophocles immediately follow this.
The
Seven Against Thebes were a
failure, but proved to be an inspiration for lots of groups of
future asskickers to gather in groups of seven, like
the Magnificent Seven,
the Seven Samurai, and their sons, the
Epigonoi, who actually succeeded in sacking the city of Thebes ten years later.
The
Seven Against Thebes were:
Polynices
Adrastus
Capaneus
Tydeus
Parthenopaeus
Hippomedon
Amphiaraus