[2]
Ten years afterwards the sons of the fallen, called the Epigoni, purposed to march
against Thebes to avenge the death
of their fathers;1 and when they consulted the oracle, the god
predicted victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon. So Alcmaeon joined the expedition,
though he was loath to lead the army till he had punished his mother; for Eriphyle had
received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices, and had persuaded her sons also2 to go to the war. Having chosen
Alcmaeon as their leader, they made war on Thebes. The men who took part in the expedition were these: Alcmaeon and
Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaraus; Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Diomedes, son of Tydeus;
Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Thersander, son of Polynices;
and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus.
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1 The war of the Epigoni against Thebes is narrated very similarly by Diod. 4.66. Compare Paus. 9.5.10ff., Paus. 9.8.6, Paus. 9.9.4ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 70. There was an epic poem on the subject, called Epigoni, which some people ascribed to Homer （Hdt. 4.32; Biographi Graeci, ed. A. Westermann, pp. 42ff.）, but others attributed it to Antimachus （Scholiast on Aristoph. Peace 1270）. Compare Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 13ff. Aeschylus and Sophocles both wrote tragedies on the same subject and with the same title, Epigoni. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 19, 173ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.129ff.
2 The sons of Eriphyle were Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, as we learn immediately. The giddy and treacherous mother persuaded them, as she had formerly persuaded her husband Amphiaraus, to go to the war, the bauble of a necklace and the gewgaw of a robe being more precious in her sight than the lives of her kinsfolk. See above, Apollod. 3.6.2; and as to the necklace and robe, see Apollod. 3.4.2; Apollod. 3.6.1-2; Diod. 4.66.3.
Apollodorus. 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. Includes Frazer's notes.
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