In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Tydeus was an Aeolian

Aeolians

The Aeolians were one of the four major ancient Greek tribes comprising Ancient Greeks. Their name derives from Aeolus, the mythical ancestor of the Aeolic branch and son of Hellen, the mythical patriarch of the Greek nation...

 hero of the generation before the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

. He was one of the Seven Against Thebes

Seven Against Thebes

The Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won...

 and was mortally wounded by Melanippus

Melanippus

In Greek mythology, there were nine people named Melanippus :#One of the sons of Agrius, killed by Diomedes.#Son of Perigune and Theseus, the father of Ioxus who, together with Ornytus, led a colony to Caria and became the ancestor of the family Ioxides.#Son of Astacus, defended Thebes in Seven...

 before the walls of the city. The goddess Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...

 had planned to make him immortal but refused after Tydeus in a rage devoured the brains of the defeated Melanippus. He was the father of the Greek warrior Diomedes

Diomedes

Diomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all...

, who is frequently known by the patronymic

Patronymic

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...

 Tydides.

Exile

Tydeus was a son of Oeneus

Oeneus

In Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus was a Calydonian king, son of Porthaon and Euryte, husband of Althaea and father of Deianeira, Meleager, Toxeus, Clymenus, Periphas, Agelaus, Thyreus , Gorge, Eurymede, Mothone, Perimede and Melanippe...

 and either Periboea

Periboea

In Greek mythology, nine people shared the name Periboea .#Periboea was the daughter of either King Cychreus of Salamis or of Alcathous, her mother in the latter case being either Pyrgo or Evaechme, daughter of Megareus. She married Telamon and became and mother of Ajax...

, Oeneus's second wife, or Gorge, Oeneus's daughter. He was the husband of Deipyle

Deipyle

In Greek mythology, Deipyle was the daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea, wife of Tydeus and mother of Diomedes. Her sister Argea married Polynices.-External links:*...

, the mother of Diomedes.

Tydeus was banished from Calydon

Calydon

Calydon was an ancient Greek city in Aetolia, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus. According to Greek mythology, the city took its name from its founder Calydon, son of Aetolus. Close to the city stood Mount Zygos, the slopes of which provided the setting for the hunt of the Calydonian...

 by his uncle Agrius

Agrius

Agrius or Agrios , in Greek mythology, is a name that may refer to:*A son of Parthaon, king of Calydon in Aetolia, and Euryte; he was the brother of Oeneus , Alcathous, Melas, Leucopeus, and Sterope. He was father of six sons, including Melanippus and Thersites, who overthrew Oeneus and gave the...

, because he killed either his brother or a different uncle or six of his cousins. He travelled to Argos

Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

, where he married Deipyle

Deipyle

In Greek mythology, Deipyle was the daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea, wife of Tydeus and mother of Diomedes. Her sister Argea married Polynices.-External links:*...

, daughter of king Adrastus

Adrastus

Adrastus or Adrestus , traditionally translated as "nonparticipant" or "uncooperative", was a legendary king of Argos during the war of the Seven Against Thebes.-Mythological tradition:...

. The king agreed to help Tydeus regain the rule of Calydon, but chose to first help Polynices

Polynices

In Greek mythology, Polynices or Polyneices was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His wife was Argea. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, and was expelled from Thebes, leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule...

 regain kingship of Thebes.

Seven against Thebes

One night Adrastus, the king of Argos, heard strange voices in his palace. He came closer to the source of the noise, and he saw two young men fighting for the guest's room in his palace. It was Tydeus and Polyneices, son of Oedipus, who was co-reigning in Thebes with his brother Eteocles before he was expelled by the latter. A prophecy had told Adrastus to marry his daughters with the lion and the boar, and watching these two princes fighting like wild beasts he decided to keep them in Argos as sons-in-law.
Time passed, Tydeus and Polyneices became princes of Argos, had children and generally lived well, but neither one of them forgot his homeland. So now, having the support of their father-in-law, king Adrastus, they decided to claim what was theirs. They chose to go first to Thebes, and, aided by Adrastus, they raised an army from Argolis (the area around Argos). Many heroes came, like the diviner Alcmeon, the son of Atlanta Parthenopeos and the fearless Capaneus

Capaneus

In Greek mythology, Capaneus was a son of Hipponous and either Astynome or Laodice , and husband of Evadne, with whom he fathered Sthenelus. Some call his wife Ianeira....

, so they begin for Thebes, with the largest army had ever appeared in Greece till that time.

The 7th century poet Mimnermus

Mimnermus

Mimnermus was a Greek elegiac poet from either Colophon or Smyrna in Ionia, who flourished about 630-600 BC. He was strongly influenced by the example of Homer yet he wrote short poems suitable for performance at drinking parties and was remembered by ancient authorities chiefly as a love poet...

 attributes the murder of Ismene

Ismene

Ismene is the name of two women of Greek mythology. The more famous is a daughter and half-sister of Oedipus, daughter and granddaughter of Jocasta, and sister of Antigone, Eteocles, and Polynices. She appears in several plays of Sophocles: at the end of Oedipus the King, in Oedipus at Colonus and...

, the sister of Antigone

Antigone

In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...

, to Tydeus. No other Classical writer mentions the story, but the scene is represented on a 6th century Corinthian black-figure

Black-figure pottery

Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the most modern styles for adorning antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC...

 amphora

Amphora

An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...

 now housed in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

.