Thebe (Greek myth) explained

Thebe (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Θήβη) is a feminine name mentioned several times in Greek mythology, in accounts that imply multiple female characters, four of whom are said to have had three cities named Thebes after them:

• Thebe, eponym of Thebes, Egypt.^[1] She was the daughter of either Nilus, Proteus,^[2] or Libys, son of Epirus. In another account, Thebe was called the daughter of Zeus and Iodame and was given in marriage to Ogygus by her father after Deucalion’s flood.^[3] She was the sister of another Deucalion.^[4] One rare version of the myth makes Thebe a consort of Zeus and mother of Aegyptus^[5] and/or Heracles.^[6]
• Thebe, daughter of Asopus and Metope,^[7] who was said to have consorted with Zeus.^[8] Amphion and Zethus named Boeotian Thebes^[9] after her because of their kinship, the twins being sons of her sister Antiope by Zeus. Egyptian Thebes was also named after her.
• Thebe, daughter of Zeus and Megacleite^[10] and sister of Locrus, the man who assisted Amphion and Zethus in the building of Thebes.^[11] She later on married Zethus.
• Thebe, daughter of Prometheus, and also a possible eponym of the Boeotian Thebes.^[12]
• Thebe, daughter of Cilix and thus, sister of Thasus.^[13] By Corybas,^[14] son of Cybele, she was the possible mother of Ida who begat Minos II by King Lycastus of Crete.^[15] This Thebe is possibly the eponym of Cilician Thebe.
• Thebe, daughter of the Pelasgian Adramys, the eponym of Adramyttium or of the river god Granicus. She married Heracles, who named Hypoplacian Thebes after her.^[16]
• Thebe, an Amazon.
• Thebe, alternate name for the Titaness Phoebe.

See also

• Thebe (disambiguation)

References

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions from Ante-Nicene Library Volume 8, translated by Smith, Rev. Thomas. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 1867. Online version at theio.com

Notes and References

1. [Nonnus]
2. [Scholia]
3. [Tzetzes]
4. Book: Murray, John . A Classical Manual, being a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil with a Copious Index . 1833 . Albemarle Street, London . 8.
5. Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 1206 (Gk text)
6. [John Lydus]
7. [Diodorus Siculus]
8. Pausanias, 5.22.6
9. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
10. [Clementine literature|Pseudo-Clement]
11. Eustathius ad Homer, p. 1688
12. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
13. Apollodorus, 3.1.1 with Pherecydes as the authority
14. Diodorus Siculus, 5.49.3
15. Diodorus Siculus, 4.60.3.
16. Scholia on Homer, Iliad 6.397