Adrastus

Adrastus is presented in the Greek tradition as a dynastic ruler of Argos (and in some accounts of Sicyon). Genealogical details vary across sources, a common feature of mythic genealogies, but he appears in the generation contemporary with Polynices and Tydeus. An oracle prompted Adrastus to give his daughters in marriage to two exiled princes (commonly identified as Polynices and Tydeus), and he promised to help restore them, an oath that led him to raise the coalition known as the Seven against Thebes. He reconciled factional rivals in Argos (notably by marriage exchange with Amphiaraus) and later took part in the subsequent expedition of the Epigoni. Later traditions credit him with civic-religious acts such as the founding of the Nemean Games and report local hero cults to his memory at sites including Sicyon, Megara, and Colonus.

Narrative and epic sources do not provide a fixed personal portrait of Adrastus; instead he is represented through his public role, possessions, and depiction in art and drama. He is attested in literary works from Homer and Pindar to Euripides and later mythographers, and is depicted in visual art from as early as the 6th century BC. Characterizations in tragedy and epic present him as an aged, ruling figure and interlocutor (for example in Euripides' The Suppliants) rather than emphasizing distinctive physical features.

Adrastus is human and mortal; his prominence lies in kingship, leadership, political skill, and pious responsiveness to oracles rather than supernatural powers. He is repeatedly portrayed as a capable speaker and reconciler of rival houses, a marshal who can raise and lead an Argive force, and a guarantor of dynastic alliances. In the Theban campaign he survives when the other chief champions of the expedition are killed, an outcome in the tradition attributed to his divine or fabulous horse Arion, which is described in some sources as a wondrous equine associated with divine parentage and which rescues him in battle. Adrastus' agency is thus political and heroic rather than intrinsically magical.