Seven Against Thebes

"With impressive and thorough attention to detail, Stephen Dando-Collins's Seven Against Thebes brings the ancient world into fierce action. He shows the all too human emotions, motives, and clashes of these Bronze Age men, who may-or may not—have lived more than three millennia ago, in a thrilling and astonishingly relatable way. By puzzling through the different variations of the myth, corroborating them with geographies, biographies, poems, artwork, archaeological evidence, histories, and more, he manages to expertly stitch together the remains to bring to life the incredibly important and foundational ancient myth of Thebes." —Anya Leonard, founder and director of Classical Wisdom, author of Sappho: The Lost Poetess

“Why only (and this) Seven fighting against the great ancient city of Thebes? Read all about it in Stephen Dando-Collins’s latest mythographic extravaganza, squarely based as it is on the complex multiplicity of enthralling ancient written sources.” —Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture emeritus at Cambridge University and author of Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece

“Yet another scorching and enthralling epic from the pen of Stephen Dando-Collins, the modern age’s foremost dramatizer of ancient Greek and Roman history. Enough turmoil, blood, and tears for six books!” —Robin Hawdon, British playwright and author of Almost Famous and The Land, the Land

“Before The Magnificent Seven rode into film history, there was Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, the classical template it drew on, even if the film's director didn't acknowledge it. In this dramatisation of the ancient Greek tale, Stephen Dando-Collins starts with Oedipus, his eye-piercing moment of truth when he gives up the throne of Thebes to his two sons, and the aftermath: a hotbed of inter-family infamy that led to the formation of the original Seven, their quest being to overthrow the imposter King of Thebes. It's an epic tale, and Dando-Collins, in his 46th book, recreates it with a thriller-like mix of drama, melodrama, and theatrical dialogue. Whether it's true or not, and he's much concerned with this, suggesting that the Sphinx may actually have been a female highway robber, it's a ripping ancient blockbuster.” —Sydney Morning Herald