- This article is about the King of Thebes. For the King of Corinth, see Creon (king of Corinth).
- This article is about the King of Thebes. For the son of Heracles, see Creon (son of Heracles).
Creon or Kreon (Ancient Greek: Κρέων, lit. ruler) is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus.
Family[]
Creon had four sons and three daughters with his wife, Eurydice (sometimes known as Eniocha): Henioche, Pyrrha, Megareus (also called Menoeceus), Lycomedes and Haemon. Creon and his sister, Jocasta, were descendants of Cadmus and of the Spartoi, specifically from his grandfather Pentheus. He is sometimes considered to be the same person who purified Amphitryon of the murder of his uncle Electryon and father of Megara, first wife of Heracles.
Mythology[]
First Regency[]
After the death of King Laius of Thebes at the hands of his own son Oedipus, Creon sat on the vacant throne and became the ruler of the kingdom. During this regency, Amphitryon arrived with his fiancée Alcmene and her half-brother Licymnius from Mycenae, seeking exile and purification for the death of his prospective father-in-law King Electryon, whom he accidentally had killed. Creon purified him, and received all three as exiles in Thebes. It was then that Amphitryon gave his sister Perimede as wife to Licymnius. The latter was a bastard son of King Electryon, and the only among the brothers who did not die at the hands of the sons of King Pterelaus of Taphos.
When rancorous Alcmene arrived to Thebes, she declared that she would not marry Amphitryon until he avenged her brothers, who had died during the war between Mycenae and Taphos. Amphitryon then, wishing to marry her but lacking resources for the campaign, asked Creon to assist him.
Cadmean Fox[]
- Main article: [[Teumessian fox and Laelaps]]
And so the rule of Creon, in accordance with the Theban curriculum, began with tribulation. For as soon as he came to power, the wrath of Dionysus was upon the city in the shape of a fox that was fated never to be caught. To this fox (known sometimes as the Cadmean Fox) the Thebans each month exposed one child in an attempt to prevent the beast from carrying off many others.
So, when Amphitryon asked Creon for help, he replied he would join the expedition against Taphos if Amphitryon would rid the country of the plague that was ravaging it. Amphitryon then, not being able to cope with the uncatchable fox, obtained from Cephalus the dog that his wife Procris had received from Minos, which was fated to catch whatever it pursued. And although the dilemma that arose when the two animals confronted each other was of such nature that it required the intervention of Zeus, the problem was nevertheless solved when the god turned both beasts into stone; and so Creon aided Amphitryon and, when the war was over, Alcmene married her fiancé.
Creon's daughters[]
Some time later Alcmene gave birth to Heracles, child of Zeus and not of Amphitryon, and when this son was grown up, he led the Thebans against Erginus, the king of the Minyans who imposed a tribute after his father was killed by Perieres, charioteer of Creon's father Menoceus. It was then that Creon rewarded Heracles by giving him in marriage his own daughter Megara. These two had children: Therimachus, Deicoon, Creontiades, and Ophites, but they were all flung into the fire by their father, when he, in a fit of madness, gave himself to domestic violence. Some say that also Megara died at the hands of her husband, but others say that Heracles gave her in marriage to his own nephew and charioteer Iolaus. It is also said that Creon gave another and younger daughter, Pyrrha to Amphitryon's son Iphicles, who already was father of Iolaus by Automedusa, daughter of Alcathous, son of Pelops.
The Sphinx[]
- Main article: Sphinx
The most serious trial that Thebes had to confront under the first rule of Creon was, however, the calamity of the Sphinx, which appeared laying waste the Theban fields, and declaring that it would not depart unless someone correctly interpreted a certain riddle which she presented. In order to face this adversity, Creon made a proclamation throughout Greece, promising that he would give the kingdom of Thebes and his sister Jocasta in marriage to him who solved the riddle of the Sphinx. And since when it comes to acquiring power, property and women, there are always many willing to take whatever risks they deem necessary, going through no matter which atrocities, many came and many were destroyed by the Sphinx, who gobbled them up one by one — the price of failure to solve her riddle.
But since all calamities must end some day, the Sphinx was finally defeated by Oedipus, who, having heard Creon's proclamation, came to Thebes and, by solving the riddle, caused the beast to destroy itself. And since Creon fulfilled his promise, Oedipus received both the throne of his own father, whom he had murdered for a trifle on a road not knowing who the man was, and Creon's sister Jocasta as wife, unaware that this woman was his own mother. These are the bizarre gifts with which Creon rewarded Oedipus for having destroyed the Sphinx.
End of first rule[]
In this manner ended the first rule of Creon. And whereas some might say his decisions on this important matter were evil, others would absolve him, arguing that Creon had no idea who Oedipus was. Therefore, they would say, Creon could not be blamed, and nor could Oedipus, who didn't know his own identity. And, since these two opinions cannot be reconciled, a third may appear — against all sense — blaming the gods, or Fate, or Fortune, or some other force from above or below. And still others might maintain that Oedipus was, in any case, guilty of murder: for he killed not one man, but two, and for a trivial matter; and Creon could be deemed to have been out of his mind when he offered both throne and queen to a complete unknown on the ground of one single merit. Therefore, they might add, both were guilty, not so much of the offenses that made them famous, but of other faults; and being the one criminal, and the other incompetent, they were both punished and more calamities followed.
Preceded by: Laius |
King of Boeotia (First Rule) Mythic |
Succeeded by Oedipus |
Preceded by: Oedipus |
King of Boeotia (Second Rule) Mythic |
Succeeded by Eteocles and Polynices |
Preceded by: Eteocles and Polynices |
King of Boeotia (Third Rule) Mythic |
Succeeded by Lycus II |