Argia (daughter of Adrastus)

"Argea" redirects here. For other uses of the name "Argea" or "Argeia", see Argia (disambiguation). For the doll-like figures used in ancient Roman ceremonies, see Argei.

In Greek mythology, Argia /ɑːrˈdʒaɪə/ or Argea /ɑːrˈdʒiːə/ (Ancient Greek: Ἀργεία Argeia) was a daughter of King Adrastus of Argos, and of Amphithea, daughter of Pronax. She was married to Polynices, the exiled king of Thebes, and bore him three sons: Thersander, Adrastus, and Timeas.^[1][2][3][4]

"Argia" in the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Mythology

Woodcut illustration of Argia and Polynices (1473)

When Oedipus had died at Thebes, Argia came with others to the funeral of Oedipus, her father-in-law.^[5]

Middle Age tradition

She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.^[6]

In Dante's Inferno, she is found in Limbo.

See also

• Ancient Greece portal
• Myths portal

• Phoenician Women
• Hyginus, who in his Fabulae (Latin) calls her Argia.
• Robert Graves in his popular The Greek Myths (106c) prefers the spelling Aegeia.
• Euripides in The Phoenician Women and Suppliants, who mentions the wedding without giving her name.