Οἰδίπους Τύραννος (20)

ἀγοραῖσι local dative, like οἰκεῖν οὐρανῷ Pind. N. 10.58 . Thebes was divided from N. to S. into two parts by the torrent called Strophia. The W. part, between the Strophia and the Dirce, was the upper town or Cadmeia: the E. part, between the Strophia and the Ismenus, was ἡ κάτω πόλις. The name Καδμεία was given especially to the S. eminence of the upper town, the acropolis. (1) One of the ἀγοραί meant here was on a hill to the north of the acropolis, and was the ἀγορὰ Καδμείας. See Paus. 9.12.3. (2) The other was in the lower town. Xen. Hell. 5.2.29 refers to this —ἡ βουλὴ ἐκάθητο ἐν τῇ ἐν ἀγορᾷ στοᾷ, διὰ τὸ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐν τῇ Καδμείᾳ θεσμοφοριάζειν: unless Καδμεία has the narrower sense of “acropolis.” Cp. Aristot. Pol. 4.12.2 on the Thessalian custom of having two ἀγοραί— one, ἐλευθέρα, from which everything βάναυσον was excluded. πρός τε Παλλάδος … ναοῖς . Not “both at the two temples,” etc. as if this explained ἀγοραῖσι, but “and,” etc.: for the ἀγοραί would have their own altars of the ἀγοραῖοι θεοί, as of Artemis (161). One of the διπλοῖ ναοί may be that of Παλλὰς Ὄγκα, near the Ὀγκαία πύλη on the W. side of Thebes( πύλας | Ὄγκας Ἀθάνας Aesch. Seven 487 , Ὄγκα Παλλάς Aesch. Seven 501 ), whose statue and altar ἐν ὑπαίθρῳ Paus. mentions (9. 12. 2). The other temple may be that of Athene Καδμεία or of Athena Ἰσμηνία— both mentioned by the schol., but not by Paus. Athena Ζωστηρία, too, had statues at Thebes (Paus. 9.17.3). The schol. mentions also Ἀλαλκομενία, but her shrine was at the village of Alalcomenae near Haliartus (Paus. 9.23.5). It was enough for Soph. that his Athenian hearers would think of the Erechtheum and the Parthenon—the shrines of the Polias and the Parthenos—above them on the acropolis.