Euryganeia

Euryganeia was, in one ancient tradition, the second wife of Oedipus and the mother of his four children, Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone and Ismene. In the version made famous by the tragedians the children are Jocasta’s, so Euryganeia belongs to an older, different account in which Oedipus’ children were not born of his own mother.

Euryganeia’s Family

Pausanias names her as the daughter of Hyperphas (Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.11), and Apollodorus gives the same father (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8). In Pherecydes’ account she is the daughter of Periphas. The ancient commentary on Euripides’ Phoenician Women that preserves Pherecydes’ account adds that some called Euryganeia the sister of Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother (Pherecydes, fragment 48, in the commentary on Euripides, Phoenician Women 53).

The Rival Versions of Oedipus’ Marriage

The best-known version, in the tragedians, makes Oedipus’ children those of his own mother. Homer calls her Epicaste: she married her son without knowing it, and the gods soon made the truth known; she hanged herself, while Oedipus stayed on as lord of the Cadmeans in Thebes (Homer, Odyssey 11.271–280). Apollodorus follows the tradition of Jocasta as the mother of Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene and Antigone, and then adds: “But some say the children were borne to him by Eurygania, daughter of Hyperphas” (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8).

Pausanias argues for this second version. He asks how the gods could have made the marriage known at once, as Homer says, if four children had been born to Oedipus by his mother. He therefore holds that the children were born of Euryganeia, daughter of Hyperphas, and he cites the old epic called the Oedipodia as showing this (Pausanias 9.5.10–11). He adds that Onasias painted Euryganeia grieving over the battle between her sons at Plataea.

Children

By Euryganeia, Oedipus had the sons Eteocles and Polynices and the daughters Antigone and Ismene (Pausanias 9.5.11; Pherecydes, fragment 48). Pherecydes names a third daughter as well, Iocaste. In the same fragment, Pherecydes has Ismene killed by Tydeus at a spring, which took its name from her. Pherecydes also gives Oedipus an earlier marriage to Jocasta, his mother, with two sons, Phrastor and Laonytus, who were killed by the Minyans and Erginus; he marries Euryganeia only after a year had passed. The sons, once grown, are the pair whose quarrel over Thebes leads to the war of the Seven Against Thebes. In Pausanias’ summary, Polynices left Thebes for Argos, married a daughter of Adrastus, and came back after Oedipus died, when the brothers fell out and killed each other in single combat (Pausanias 9.5.11–13).

Astymedusa

In Pherecydes’ account, after Euryganeia died, Oedipus married Astymedusa, daughter of Sthenelus (Pherecydes, fragment 48).

Euryganeia Sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.271–280; Apollodorus, Library 3.5.8; Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.5.10–13 (citing the epic Oedipodia); Pherecydes, fragment 48, preserved in the ancient commentary on Euripides, Phoenician Women 53.

See Also: Oedipus, Jocasta, Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene, Antigone, Adrastus, Seven Against Thebes