Thebans

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In Inferno XX, verse 32 recalls that the earth opened before the Thebans: "s'aperse a li occhi d'i Teban la terra." The episode refers to Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings at the siege of Thebes, who, having foreseen his own death through his art of divination, tried to hide himself so as not to depart but, betrayed by his wife Eriphyle, was forced to go to war; before the eyes of the enemy army he was swallowed by a chasm that opened at his feet and thus plunged, fully armed, all the way before Minos. The scene is taken from Statius (Theb. VII 690-893) and Dante uses it as an example of the dramatic power of a verse that encompasses an entire story. The Thebans thus appear as choral witnesses of that prodigious event, cited as the people of the ancient Greek city within the context of the fourth bolgia.