CREON

creon, in greek legend, son of menoeceus, king of thebes after the death of laius, the husband of his sister jocasta. thebes was then suffering from the visitation of the sphinx, and creon offered his crown and the hand of the widowed queen to whoever should solve the fatal riddle. oedipus, the son of laius, ignorant of his parentage, successfully accomplished the task and married jocasta, his mother. by her he had two sons, eteocles and polyneices, who agreed after their father's death to reign in alternative years. eteocles first ascended the throne, being the elder, but at the end of the year refused to resign, whereupon his brother attacked him at the head of an army of argives. the war was to be decided by a single combat between the brothers, but both fell. creon, who had resumed the government during the minority of leodamas, the son of eteocles, commanded that the argives, and above all polyneices, the cause of all the bloodshed, should not receive the rites of sepulture, and that any one who infringed this decree should be buried alive. antigone, the sister of polyneices, refused to obey, and sprinkled dust upon her brother's corpse. the threatened penalty was inflicted; but creon's crime did not escape unpunished. his son, haemon, the lover of antigone, killed himself on her grave; and he himself was slain by theseus. according to another account he was put to death by lycus, the son or descendant of a former ruler of thebes (euripides, _herc. fur._ 31; apollodorus iii. 5, 7; pausanias ix. 5). creophylus of samos, one of the earliest greek epic poets. according to an epigram of callimachus (quoted in strabo xiv. p. 638) he was the author of a poem called [greek: oichalias halosis], which told the story of the conquest of oechalia by heracles. creophylus was said to have been a friend or relative of homer, who, according to another tradition, was himself the author of the [greek: halosis], and presented it to creophylus in return for the latter's hospitality. see f. g. welcker, _der epische cyclus_ (1865-1882).