Oedipus married Jocasta and began to reign. At first, everything went well. Jocasta gave birth to two sons - Polinik and Eteokles and two daughters - Antigonus and Ismen. But over the royal house hung the curse of the gods. The double crime of Oedipus gave Thebes to the power of evil spirits. An unprecedented disaster struck the country. The earth became hard as stone, and the grain thrown into the arable land did not sprout. Children were born dead. Animals did not breed. Then they called the soothsayer Tiresias.
He was a blind old man with a long white beard. Previously, he was a woman, but by force of enchantment, he turned into a man. He lost his sight from a young age when he saw Athena naked when she was bathing. Zeus gave him life seven times longer than an ordinary human. Not seeing earthly things, he knew the secrets of the future, knew what no one knew, and understood the language of birds. It was a terrible day when Tiresias appeared in the Oedipus Palace. He was silent for a long time, delaying a terrible moment. Finally revealed the truth: King Thebes is to blame for patricide and incest. Hearing this, Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedipus gouged out his eyes, dressed in beggarly rags and, leaning on a stick, sauntered from the city, old and broken. He was accompanied by his daughter. He was looking for land where he could die. He reached the locality of Colon, near Athens, and died there. He was buried in a grove, wherein the spring flocks of nightingales flocked.
There were two brothers in Thebes: Etheocles and Polynic. They decided to reign in turn, one year at a time. Etheocles first took the scepter, but when a year passed, he did not want to give power to his brother but expelled him from the country. The policeman took refuge in Argos, with King Adrast. He was welcomed there hospitably, he married his imperial daughter and persuaded his father-in-law to go on a campaign against Thebes. Adrast gathered an army and surrounded the city. But the Thebans made a sortie and won. All enemy leaders have perished; Eteocles also died on the battlefield.
Power again passed to Creon. He ordered the body of the traitor Polynik to throw the crows to be torn to pieces and, under the threat of the death penalty, forbade him to be buried. However, the sister of Antigonus, the white flower of a lily growing on the bloody Theban land, did not obey the order. She dug up the grave with her own hands and buried her brother's body. She was punished by being walled up alive in a vaulted dungeon.
Ten years later, the sons of the leaders who fell under Thebes went on a new campaign. The city did not have the strength for defense. Tiresias advised the Thebans to send ambassadors to the enemies with a proposal to make peace, and in the meantime, using the armistice, to escape from the besieged fortress. So they did. While discussing the conditions under which they were supposed to make peace, the inhabitants of Thebes loaded their grain on carts, put women and children on them, and left the city. Dear Tiresias died, drinking water from a river. Meanwhile, the enemy army entered Thebes, destroyed them to the ground, and all that was left of the treasures sent a sacrifice of the Delphic oracle.