A hero, son of Oikles. He marries Adrastos of Argos' sister Eriphyle, who is bribed by Polyneikes to persuade her husband to join the fated expedition of the Seven against Thebes. His departure, with the guilty Eriphyle holding the necklace bribe and his son Alkmeon who will revenge him by killing his mother, is an important and early scene in art. He is commonly shown in a chariot; at Thebes his chariot is swallowed in the ground, and he emerges at Oropos where there was an oracular healing shrine for him in classical times.
Above: Detail from fragments of Athenian black-figure vase, about 575-525 BC. Athens, National Museum, Acropolis Coll., 2112 © Athens, National Museum
