Capaneus and the sin of hubris

In mythology, Capaneus was a highly skilled warrior of immense strength and body size.  Unfortunately, he was also notorious for his extreme arrogance.  He was a prominent character in the ancient play "Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus in which he stood at the wall of Thebes and shouted that Zeus himself could not stop him from invading it.  While  mounting a siege ladder, Zeus struck and killed Capaneus with a thunderbolt for his blatant hubris.  The flawed hero also appears in the plays "The Suppliants" and "The Phoenician Women" by Euripides and in works by the Roman poet Statius.

In Dante's "Inferno", Capaneus has been condemned to the seventh circle of hell where he lies supine on a plain of burning sand while fire rains down on him.  He continues to curse Jove (Jupiter) even though his pain increases with each outburst.

Etruscan bronze relief of a collapsing armed figure thought to be Capaneus 500-450 BCE courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Capaneus scaling the city wall of Thebes to overthrow King Creon who looks down from the battlements depicted on a Campanian red-figure amphora attributed to the Caivano Painter ca. 340 BCE at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Getty Villa venue) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Wolfgang Sauber.


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