Seven against Thebes

In Greek mythology, the attack of seven captains led by Adrastus, king of Argos, on the seven gates of ancient Thebes, prompted by the rivalry between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles, for the kingship of Thebes. In the event, the two brothers died by each other's hands. The subject of tragedies by Aeschylus and Euripides (The Phoenician Women), and of the epic Thebaïd by the Roman poet Statius, it forms the background to other Greek tragedies by Sophocles (Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus) and Euripides (Suppliant Women).