Friday, January 8, 2010

Myths and Legends: Eriphyle and Harmonia

Eriphyle. To find out more about Eriphyle and the necklace of Harmonia, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Today's story about Eriphyle is connected to the cycle of stories about the "Seven Against Thebes." Eriphyle was married to Amphiaraus, the king of Argos. Polynices wanted to obtain Amipharaus as his ally in his war against Thebes; to win him over he bribed Eriphyle with a necklace, which you can see here in the vase painting. This necklace was the so-called "Necklace of Harmonia," a cursed necklace given to the goddess Harmonia as a wedding gift. This necklace later brought disaster into the life of anyone who possessed it. You can read more about the necklace at Wikipedia.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of January 8-14 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.