Between them they built the city of Thebes. Zethus drew up the plans with some help from Athena, and Amphion (taught by Hermes) played a lyre with such resounding swing that the stones all leapt into place without any further aid to complete the building.

Zethus named the city after his wife Thebe and everything was hunky dory until children came into the equation.

Amphion was married to Niobe and his kids were so delightfully cute that Thebe was jealous. She crept into the nursery one night with a knife, and (as is obligatory on these occasions), the kids had swapped places and she cut the throat of her own son.

The Gods were appalled and turned her into a nightingale to sing sad songs forever. Then poor Zethus woke to one of those days when it didn’t seem worthwhile to continue, so he did away with himself.

Amphion and Niobe seemed strangely unaffected by these traumatic events. They carried on grooming their children for stardom until they reached the doting parent point of declaring their lad was more handsome than Apollo and their lass so much more beautiful than Artemis.

That did it. Apollo reached for his bow. Zunk — Zunk! No more cutie-pie kids. Amphion was definitely upset now, and raised an army to go and smash up the God’s shrine in Delphi. Zeus had no option but to confiscate his son’s immortality and banish him to the Underworld.

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Article last revised on September 06, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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