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Capaneus
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<h2 id="mythology">Mythology</h2> <p>According to the legend, Capaneus had immense strength and body size and was an outstanding warrior. He was also notorious for his arrogance. He stood just at the wall of <a href="/facts/Thebes_(Greece)/PBN0g5la">Thebes</a> during the war of the <a href="/facts/Seven_against_Thebes/Hx4adB69">Seven against Thebes</a> and shouted that <a href="/facts/Zeus/9wTwkEDt">Zeus</a> himself could not stop him from invading it. <a href="/facts/Publius_Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus/hx5QvT52">Vegetius</a> refers to him as the first to use ladders in a siege.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> In <a href="/facts/Aeschylus/nRDPzqG6">Aeschylus</a>, he bears a shield with a man without armour withstanding fire, a torch in hand, which reads 'I will burn the city,' in token of this. While he was mounting the ladder, Zeus struck and killed Capaneus with a thunderbolt, and Evadne threw herself on her husband's funeral pyre and died.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> His story was told by <a href="/facts/Aeschylus/nRDPzqG6">Aeschylus</a> in his play <i><a href="/facts/Seven_Against_Thebes/rNNXG1G7">Seven Against Thebes</a></i>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> by <a href="/facts/Euripides/L2G3RyGY">Euripides</a> in his plays <i><a href="/facts/The_Suppliants_(Euripides)/wgyD6mhP">The Suppliants</a></i> and <i><a href="/facts/The_Phoenician_Women/NrAjGt3J">The Phoenician Women</a></i>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> and by the Roman poet <a href="/facts/Statius/j9oKLrxF">Statius</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="popular-culture">Popular culture</h2> <ul><li>In the fourteenth canto of his <i><a href="/facts/Inferno_(Dante)/RqqJKrrf">Inferno</a></i>, <a href="/facts/Dante/rXX7fIg0">Dante</a> sees Capaneus in the seventh circle (third round) of Hell. Along with the other blasphemers, or those "violent against God", Capaneus is condemned to lie supine on a plain of burning sand while fire rains down on him. He continues to curse the deity (whom, being a pagan, he addresses as "Jove" [Jupiter]) despite the ever harsher pains he thus inflicts upon himself, so that God "thereby should not have glad vengeance."</li> <li>In <a href="/facts/Ezra_Pound/KdtpHKa7">Ezra Pound</a>'s poem <i><a href="/facts/Hugh_Selwyn_Mauberley/Eue79vTw">Hugh Selwyn Mauberley</a></i>, Capaneus is mentioned, with the implication that Mauberly (and by extension Pound himself) shared the ancient hero's daring and over-confidence.</li> <li>In <a href="/facts/Geoffrey_Chaucer/HR7rHQng">Geoffrey Chaucer</a>'s collection <i><a href="/facts/The_Canterbury_Tales/FrrCdDy0">The Canterbury Tales</a></i>, in <i><a href="/facts/The_Knight%2527s_Tale/hjR07uHz">The Knight's Tale</a></i>, Theseus meets a woman who declares herself to be the widow of Capaneus and criticizes her for crying and wailing, accusing her of being envious of his honour.</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_mortals_in_Greek_mythology/qMGkzaBX">List of mortals in Greek mythology</a></li></ul> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Aeschylus/nRDPzqG6">Aeschylus</a>, translated in two volumes. 1. <i>Seven Against Thebes</i> by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0014">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a> <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0015">Greek text available from the same website</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Bibliotheca_(Pseudo-Apollodorus)/MR6V76lu">Apollodorus</a>, <i>The Library</i> 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. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a> <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021">Greek text available from the same website</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Euripides/L2G3RyGY">Euripides</a>, <i>The Complete Greek Drama</i> edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. The Suppliants, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0122">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a></li> <li>Euripides, <i>Euripidis Fabulae.</i> <i>vol. 2</i>. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0121">Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library</a>.</li> <li>Euripides, <i>The Complete Greek Drama</i>, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2. Phoenissae, translated by Robert Potter. New York. Random House. 1938. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0118">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a></li> <li>Euripides, <i>Euripidis Fabulae.</i> <i>vol. 3</i>. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0117">Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Gaius_Julius_Hyginus/HJRTmcfI">Gaius Julius Hyginus</a>, <i>Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus</i> translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. <a href="https://topostext.org/work/206">Online version at the Topos Text Project.</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Philostratus_of_Lemnos/3pNruhjM">Philostratus the Elder</a>. <i>Imagines,</i> translated by Arthur Fairbanks (1864–1944). Loeb Classical Library Volume 256. London: William Heinemann, 1931. <a href="https://topostext.org/work/225">Online version at the Topos Text Project.</a></li> <li>Philostratus the Lemnian (Philostratus Major), <i>Flavii Philostrati Opera. Vol 2</i>. Carl Ludwig Kayser. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1871. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0601">Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Ovid/qw6buQ2V">Publius Ovidius Naso</a>, <i>Metamorphoses</i> translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a></li> <li>Publius Ovidius Naso, <i>Metamorphoses.</i> Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029">Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Statius/j9oKLrxF">Publius Papinius Statius</a><i>, The Thebaid</i> translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. <a href="https://topostext.org/work/149">Online version at the Topos Text Project.</a></li> <li>Publius Papinius Statius, <i>The Thebaid. Vol I-II</i>. John Henry Mozley. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0498">Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Sophocles/5C4zjFU8">Sophocles</a>, <i>The Antigone of Sophocles e</i>dited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0186">Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.</a></li> <li>Sophocles, <i>Sophocles. Vol 1: Oedipus the king. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone</i>. With an English translation by F. Storr. The Loeb classical library, 20. Francis Storr. London; New York. William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company. 1912. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0185">Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library</a>.</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100420082540/http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/C/Capaneus.html">Myth Index – Capaneus</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Hyginus, Fabulae 70 <a href="/wiki/Gaius_Julius_Hyginus" target="_blank">/wiki/Gaius_Julius_Hyginus</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Scholia on Euripides, Phoenissae 189; on Pindar, Nemean Ode 9.30 <a href="/wiki/Scholia" target="_blank">/wiki/Scholia</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Apollodorus, 3.10.8 <a href="/wiki/Bibliotheca_(Pseudo-Apollodorus)" target="_blank">/wiki/Bibliotheca_(Pseudo-Apollodorus)</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Scholia on Pindar, Olympian Ode 6.46 <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Vegetius, De re militari 4.21 <a href="/wiki/Publius_Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus" target="_blank">/wiki/Publius_Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Euripides, The Suppliants 983 ff.; Sophocles, Antigone 133; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 9. 404; Apollodorus, 3.6.6–3.7.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 243; Philostratus of Lemnos, Eikones 2.31; Ars Amatoria 3.21 <a href="/wiki/Euripides" target="_blank">/wiki/Euripides</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 423 ff. <a href="/wiki/Aeschylus" target="_blank">/wiki/Aeschylus</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Euripides, Phoenissae 1172 ff. <a href="/wiki/The_Phoenician_Women" target="_blank">/wiki/The_Phoenician_Women</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Statius, Thebaid 10.927 <a href="/wiki/Statius" target="_blank">/wiki/Statius</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>