In Greek mythology, Eurydice (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη, Eὐrudíkē "wide justice", derived from ευρυς eurys "wide" and δικη dike "justice) sometimes called Henioche, was the wife of Creon, a king of Thebes.

Family

Eurydice was probably the mother of Creon's five children: Menoeceus (Megareus), Lycomedes, Haemon, Megara and Pyrrha.

Mythology

Sophocles' account

She appears briefly in Sophocles' Antigone (as an "archetypal grieving, saddened mother" and an older counterpart to Antigone ), to kill herself after learning, from a messenger, that her son Haemon and his betrothed, Antigone, have both died by suicide. She thrusts a sword into her liver and curses Creon for the death of her two sons: Haemon and Megareus. Haemon killed himself because his father Creon had unjustly locked Antigone in a tomb to eventually perish, to whom he was engaged.

Statius' account

The seer Tiresias predicts that if a son of Creon voluntarily throws himself off the wall, the city will be saved. Then Menoeceus decided to sacrifice himself and jumped off the wall. When his dead body was carried on the shoulders by a few people, Eurydice bursts through town in a wail of: Eventually, she was led away by friendly hands to the palace. The lamentation, however, was getting worse, so her companions and servants were forced to lock Eurydice into her room. There, she ploughed her face with her nails, pulled her hair out of her head and continued to mourn for months. In the end, she lost her voice, no longer looked towards the light, did not listen to supplications and lost her mind.