Alcmaeon

Alcmaeon was the son of the seer Amphiaraus and Eriphyle in Greek mythology, and the leader of the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven who marched against Thebes ten years after their fathers had failed. He is best known for killing his mother Eriphyle, for the madness that followed, and for settling on land newly formed by the river Achelous.

Family

Homer names Alcmaeon and Amphilochus as the two sons of Amphiaraus, whom Zeus and Apollo loved but who perished at Thebes because of a woman’s gifts (Odyssey 15.244–248). The woman was Eriphyle, who in the Underworld Odysseus sees as the hateful wife who accepted precious gold for the life of her husband (Odyssey 11.326–327).

The Necklace and the Command of Amphiaraus

Amphiaraus, a seer, knew that everyone who joined the expedition against Thebes except Adrastus was fated to die, and tried to avoid it. Polynices gave Eriphyle the necklace of Harmonia, and Eriphyle, who had the right to settle disputes between her husband and Adrastus, persuaded him to go. Amphiaraus, forced to march, told his sons that when they grew up they were to kill their mother and march against Thebes (Apollodorus, Library 3.6.2). The necklace had been made by Hephaestus and given by Cadmus to his bride Harmonia, together with a robe (Library 3.4.2).

Leader of the Epigoni

Ten years later the sons of the fallen leaders, called the Epigoni, decided to avenge their fathers. The god at Delphi promised victory under the leadership of Alcmaeon. He was unwilling to lead until he had punished his mother, but Eriphyle had received the robe from Thersander, son of Polynices, and had persuaded her sons to go to the war as she had once persuaded her husband. The Epigoni chose Alcmaeon as leader and attacked Thebes; with him went his brother Amphilochus, Aegialeus, Diomedes, Promachus, Sthenelus, Thersander and Euryalus (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.2).

The Murder of Eriphyle

After Thebes was taken, Alcmaeon learned that his mother had been bribed to cause his own ruin as well, and by an oracle of Apollo he killed her. Apollodorus says that some tell that Amphilochus helped him, others that he acted alone (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.5). The Fury of his mother then drove him mad.

Wanderings and Marriage to Arsinoe

Mad, Alcmaeon went first to his grandfather Oicles in Arcadia and then to Phegeus at Psophis, who purified him. He married Phegeus’ daughter Arsinoe (Pausanias calls her Alphesiboea) and gave her the necklace and the robe. But the land became barren because of him, and an oracle told him to go to the Achelous and stand another trial on the river bank. He visited Oeneus at Calydon, was driven from the country of the Thesprotians, and finally came to the springs of Achelous, who purified him (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.5).

Thucydides explains the oracle: Apollo told Alcmaeon that he would find no release from his terrors until he settled in a land that the sun had not seen, and that had not even been land, when he killed his mother. Pausanias gives the same answer from the Pythian priestess: only the newest land, brought up after the pollution of his mother’s death, was safe from the avenging spirit of Eriphyle. Alcmaeon found the silt deposited by the Achelous and settled on it (Thucydides 2.102; Pausanias 8.24.8–9).

Callirrhoe and Death

On the new land Alcmaeon married Callirrhoe, the daughter of the river Achelous, and had two sons by her, Acarnan and Amphoterus (Pausanias 8.24.9; Apollodorus, Library 3.7.5–6). Callirrhoe then wanted the necklace and robe and said she would not live with him unless she got them. Alcmaeon went back to Psophis and told Phegeus that he would be cured of his madness if he took the necklace and robe to Delphi and dedicated them. Phegeus gave them to him, but a servant revealed that they were meant for Callirrhoe, and Phegeus ordered his sons to ambush and kill Alcmaeon. When Arsinoe reproached them, they shut her in a chest, carried her to Tegea and gave her as a slave to Agapenor, accusing her of the murder (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.5). Pausanias names the sons Temenus and Axion and says that Alcmaeon was sent to Psophis by Callirrhoe against his will (Pausanias 8.24.10).

The Sons of Alcmaeon

Learning of her husband’s death, Callirrhoe asked Zeus that her sons grow up at once so that they could avenge him. They did. The sons of Phegeus, Pronous and Agenor, who were taking the necklace and robe to Delphi, stopped at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Acarnan and Amphoterus, who killed them there; then they went to Psophis and killed Phegeus and his wife. They dedicated the necklace and robe at Delphi, as Achelous had commanded, then collected settlers in Epirus and colonized Acarnania, which took its name from Acarnan (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.6–7). Pausanias gives a different version: the sons of Phegeus themselves dedicated the necklace at Delphi (Pausanias 8.24.10; 9.41.2).

Amphilochus and Tisiphone

Apollodorus adds a version he attributes to Euripides: during his madness Alcmaeon had by Manto, daughter of Tiresias, two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone. He left them in Corinth with Creon, and later recovered his son and unknowingly bought his own daughter as a slave. This Amphilochus founded Amphilochian Argos at the command of Apollo (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.7). Homer, however, makes Amphilochus the brother of Alcmaeon (Odyssey 15.248).

Alcmaeon Sources

The main accounts are Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2, 3.6.2 and 3.7.2–7; Pausanias 8.24.7–10 and 9.41.2; Thucydides 2.102; and Homer, Odyssey 11.326–327 and 15.244–248.

See Also: Amphiaraus, Eriphyle, Seven Against Thebes, Callirrhoe, Achelous, Necklace of Harmonia, Adrastus, Phegeus