[6]
Having armed themselves, the Argives approached the walls1; and as there were seven gates, Adrastus was stationed at the Homoloidian
gate, Capaneus at the Ogygian, Amphiaraus at the Proetidian, Hippomedon at the Oncaidian,
Polynices at the Hypsistan,2 Parthenopaeus at the Electran, and Tydeus at the Crenidian.3
Eteocles on his side armed the Thebans, and having appointed leaders to match those of the
enemy in number, he put the battle in array, and resorted to divination to learn how they
might overcome the foe.
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1 The siege of Thebes by the Argive army under the Seven Champions is the subject of two extant Greek tragedies, the Seven against Thebes of Aeschylus, and the Phoenissae of Euripides. In both of them the attack on the seven gates by the Seven Champions is described. See the Aesch. Seven 375ff.; Eur. Ph. 105ff.; Eur. Ph. 1090ff. The siege is also the theme of Statius's long-winded and bombastic epic, the Thebaid . Compare also Diod. 4.65.7-9; Paus. 1.39.2; Paus. 2.20.5; Paus. 8.25.4; Paus. 10.10.3; Hyginus, Fab. 69, 70. The war was also the subject of two lost poems of the same name, the Thebaid of Callinus, an early elegiac poet, and the Thebaid of Antimachus, a contemporary of Plato. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 9ff., 275ff. As to the seven gates of Thebes, see Paus. 9.8.4-7, with Frazer, commentary （vol. iv. pp. 35ff.）. The ancients were not entirely agreed as to the names of the gates.
2 That is, “the Highest Gate.”
3 That is, “the Fountain Gate.”
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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