Eurymachoi and Leontiadai: “Unknown” Personalities in the Context of the Politics of the Theban Polis

Abstract

The paper deals with representatives of an influential Theban aristocratic family, whose activities significantly influenced the politics of the Theban policy from the end of the 6th to the 4th centuries BC. The mythological basis of the origin of the significant aristocratic families of Thebes is presented. It is shown that this basis was important for the self-identification of the Theban aristocracy, and it is concluded that the ancestral-mytho-historical ties of the Theban aristocracy with representatives of the aristocracy of other poleis, in particular Sparta, influenced the political decisions of those who were in power in Thebes. On the basis of indirect data of the mytho-historical tradition, a trial hypothesis is put forward that the genus of Eurymachos, according to the ideas of the Thebans, could come from Polyneices.