In Greek mythology, Adrastus or Adrestus (Ancient Greek: Ἄδραστος or Ἄδρηστος), (perhaps meaning "the inescapable"), was a king of Argos, and leader of the Seven against Thebes. He was the son of the Argive king Talaus, but was forced out of Argos by his dynastic rival Amphiaraus. He fled to Sicyon, where he became king. Later he reconciled with Amphiaraus and returned to Argos as its king.
Because of an oracle Adrastus married his daughters to the exiles Polynices and Tydeus and promised to restore them to their homelands. He first assembled an army to place Polynices on the throne of Thebes, led by seven champions, famously called the Seven against Thebes. The expedition failed and all the champions died except Adrastus, saved by his divine horse Arion. He went with the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven, in the successful second war against Thebes, and was said to have died on his way home.
Adrastus is mentioned as early as Homer's Iliad, and his story was (presumably) told in the Cyclic Thebaid. He figures prominently in the poetry of Pindar, and is a main character in Euripides' The Suppliants. His story was told by Diodorus Siculus, Hyginus, Statius, and Apollodorus. He was said to be the founder of the Nemean Games, had hero cults at Sicyon, Megara, and Colonus, and was depicted in works of art from as early as the 6th century BC.
Family
Homer's Illiad mentions Adrastus, but without giving any ancestry. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (without mentioning Adrastus) has Talaus as the son of Bias and Pero, and from the lyric poets Bacchylides and Pindar we first hear that Adrastus was the son of Talaus, who according to Apollonius of Rhodes was an Argonaut. No early sources say who Adrastus' mother was, however, late sources give three different names: Lysimache, the daughter of Abas, Lysianassa, the daughter of Polybus, or Eurynome. The Iliad mentions a daughter of Adrastus, Aegiale, and the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos mentions a son, Aegialeus.
The mythographer Apollodorus gives the following genealogy. Adrastus' father was Talus, who was the son of Bias and Pero. His mother was Lysimache, the daughter of Abas, son of Melampus. He had four younger brothers, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, and Aristomachus, and a sister Eriphyle. Adrastus married Amphithea, the daughter of his brother Pronax, by whom he had three daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Aegiale, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus.
Adrastus' daughters had several notable husbands and sons. Argia married Polynices, the son of the Thebean king Oedipus, and Deipyle married Tydeus, the son of the Calydonian king Oeneus. According to Hyginus, Diomedes, who fought in the Trojan War, was the son of Deipyle and Tydeus, and Thersander (one of the Epigoni) was the son of Argia and Polynices. In the Iliad, another of Adrastus' daughters, Aegiale, is the wife of Diomedes. Hyginus, also says that Hippodamia, the wife of King Pirithous of the Lapiths, was the daughter of an Adrastus, possibly referring to this Adrastus.
Mythology
The Iliad refers to Adrastus as king of Sicyon, but does not explain how a son of the Argive king Talaus, came to rule Sicyon. However, later sources tell of a dispute, of some sort, between the descendants of Bias and his brother Melampus—two of the most powerful families in the Argolid—involving Adrastus, the grandson of Bias, and Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, a grandson of Melampus. According to Pindar, at one time the sons of Talaus ruled Argos but were "overpowered by discord" and Adrastus fled Argos and went to Sicyon to escape Amphiaraus, and that during his reign there, he founded the Sicyonian games.
Pindar does not say what circumstances caused Adrastus to flee from Argos to Sicyon, or how he became its king, but later sources do. According to one version, after Adrastus' brother Pronax, who was king of Argos, died, Adrastus fled to Sicyon, where his mother's father Polybus was king, and eventually inherited the Sicyonian throne. While according to another, Adrastus fled to Sicyon after Amphiaraus killed Talaus, and got the throne by marrying Polybus' daughter.
In any case, Adrastus became king of Sicyon. Then, according to Pindar, Adrastus (and his brothers) were able to effect a reconciliation with Amphiaraus by giving him their sister Eriphyle in marriage, and Adrastus was able to return to Argos and assume the Argive throne.
Adrastus was the owner of the fabulously fast horse Arion, who was the offspring of Posidon and Demeter when they mated in horse form. Adrastus was given Arion by Heracles, and the horse saved Adrastus' life during the war of the Seven against Thebes, when all the other champions of the expedition were killed.