Menoeceus
Also known as: MENŒCEUS / Menaeceus / Menæceus / Menœceus · Family: Thebes · Role: father of Creon · First appears: Sophocles, Antigone — Scene 1
Menoeceus belongs to the Theban royal house and is identified as the father of Creon and Jocasta. In Sophocles’s Antigone, he is recalled through Creon as “Son of Menoeceus,” while in Euripides’s The Phœnician Virgins, Jocasta names herself the daughter of Menoeceus and Polynices names Jocasta as his mother. Jocasta is also described as Menoeceus’s sister, whom he goes to greet before leaving to save his life.
At Thebes, Tiresias prophesied victory for the Thebans if Menoeceus, the son of Creon, were sacrificed to Mars. Creon refused to offer him and ordered him to flee, but Menoeceus deceived his father, rejecting escape and choosing death for the city. He resolved to stab himself above the dragon’s lair, declaring, “will give liberty to the country.” His sacrifice is presented as necessary to preserve Thebes; Hæmon is spared because of his contracted marriage, while Menoeceus’s death brings bitter return to Adrastus and the Argives.
Relationship record
Life events
- Tiresias prophesied Theban victory if Menoeceus sacrificed himself.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 1 · 📍 Thebes)
- With: Tiresias
- “Now Tiresias prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menœceus the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars.”
- Menoeceus rejected escape and killed himself for the city.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 1 · 📍 Thebes)
- With: Creon
- “Creon refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put himself to death.”
- Tiresias reveals that sacrificing Menoeceus is necessary to preserve the country.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 5)
- Creon refuses to sacrifice Menoeceus and orders him to flee the country.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 5)
- With: Creon
- “For never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son a victim for the state. For all men live with an affection toward their children, nor would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise me for the deed, and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at a mature period of life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But haste, my son, before the whole city hears it, disregarding the intemperate oracles of prophets, fly as quickly as possible, having quitted this land.”
- Menoeceus deceives Creon, secretly choosing death rather than abandoning his country.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 5)
- With: Creon
- “Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived him with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way, depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice.”
- Menoeceus resolves to stab himself above the dragon's lair and save the country.(Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 5)
- “But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been spoken.”
Sophocles, Antigone — Scene 1
- child: Creon “CH. Son of Menoeceus, we have heard thy mind Toward him who loves, and him who hates our city.”
Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 1
- child: Jocasta “But I am the daughter of Menœceus”
- parent: Creon “if Menœceus the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars.”
- mentor: Tiresias “Now Tiresias prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menœceus the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars.”
Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 2
- younger kin: Polynices (Menoeceus is Polynices's maternal grandfather through Jocasta.) “My father is Œdipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menœceus brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.”
Euripides, The Phœnician Virgins — Scene 5
- siblings with Jocasta “Go then, for having proceeded to salute thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean, deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save my life.”
- engaged with Haemon “Hæmon's marriage however precludes his being slain, for he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he has yet contracted the marriage.]”
- enemies with Adrastus “And he will cause a bitter return to Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes, and Thebes will he make illustrious.”
- elder kin: Jocasta (Jocasta is identified as Creon's sister, making her Menoeceus's aunt.) “Go then, for having proceeded to salute thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean, deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save my life.”
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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.