Deipyle

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Deipyle is the wife of Tydeus, one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes, a figure remembered by Dante in Purgatorio alongside Antigone and Argia. The tradition, attested in Statius's Thebaid, presents her together with her sister Argia in an episode of youthful modesty that Dante recalls in the Convivio. Dante places her among the characters of Statius's poems, grouping the legendary names of epic poetry together with the historical names of the ancient poets, in a perspective in which exemplary value prevails over historical documentality. Dante's mention occurs within a survey of figures from Theban mythology, among whom Antigone, Argia, and Ismene are listed by Statius in a context of grief for the calamities of the house of Oedipus.