Euryganeia was either a daughter ofHyperphas,[1][2] and thus, sister toEuryanassa.[3] In some sources, she was described asJocasta's sister, which would make her Oedipus' aunt.[4] Euryganeia was occasionally named asOedipus' second wife and the mother of his children,Polynices,Eteocles,Ismene andAntigone.[5] According toPausanias, the statement atOdyssey 11.274—that the godssoon made the incestuous marriage between Oedipus and his mother Jocasta known—is incompatible with her bearing four children to him.[6] The geographer cites theOedipodeia as evidence for the fact that Euryganeia was actually the mother of Oedipus' brood.[7]Pherecydes, on the other hand, attributed two sons (namedPhrastor andLaonytus) to the marriage of Jocasta and Oedipus, but agreed that the more famous foursome were the children of Euryganeia.[8]
There was a painting of Euryganeia atPlataea in which she was depicted as mournful because of the strife between her children.[9] Following Euryganeia's death, Oedipus marriedAstymedusa, who plotted against her stepsons.[10][11]
^The Scholia toIliad 4.376 places the union following Oedipus' discovery that Jocasta was his mother; the marriage took place following Euryganeia's death according to the scholia to Euripides,Phoenissae 53 (citing Pherecydes,FGrHist 3 F 48).
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