Hippomedon- Greek HeroHero"One of the Seven against Thebes"

Typhon on the Shield

Hippomedon was a nephew of King Adrastus of Argos. He spent his youth in the hunt and the open country, and grew to enormous size. When Adrastus assembled seven champions to march on Thebes, Hippomedon's shield bore the fire-breathing Typhon.

In Aeschylus, the gate he drew was defended by Hyperbius, whose own shield carried Zeus. The match told the story before the fighting started: Typhon facing the god who had buried him under Etna.

The River Ismenus

In Statius's Thebaid, Hippomedon waded waist-deep into the river Ismenus and fought from the water. He cut down Thebans until the stream ran with blood. The river god Ismenus swelled the current to drown the man who had choked his waters with corpses. Hippomedon stumbled onto the banks, covered in blood and mud, and kept fighting until the flood and Theban spears took him together.

Apollodorus names the Theban Ismarus as his killer. When Creon refused the fallen burial, Theseus marched from Athens and forced the return of the bodies.