Necklace of Harmonia- Greek ArtifactArtifact

Creation

Hephaestus forged the necklace in gold and set it with gems that bestowed beauty on any woman who wore it. The gift was meant for Harmonia on the day she married Cadmus, founder of Thebes. But Harmonia was the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, born from the affair that had made Hephaestus a laughingstock among the gods. He built his revenge into the metalwork.

The Wedding Gift

The gods themselves attended the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia. Hephaestus presented the necklace alongside a robe of equal splendor. Cadmus placed both gifts on his bride. For a time the couple prospered and founded the Theban royal line. But Cadmus had killed a dragon sacred to Ares to found Thebes, and that blood-guilt now mingled with the necklace's curse. Their descendants would pay.

The Bribery of Eriphyle

Generations later, the necklace passed to Polynices, exiled prince of Thebes. He needed the seer Amphiaraus for his war to retake the city, but Amphiaraus had foreseen his own death and hidden himself away. Polynices went to Amphiaraus's wife Eriphyle with the necklace. She took it. She revealed where her husband was hiding and used her authority to force him to march. Amphiaraus knew he would die. He marched anyway, but before he left, he made his sons swear to avenge him.

Alcmaeon and the Final Journey

Amphiaraus's son Alcmaeon killed his mother Eriphyle, as his father had ordered, and took the necklace. He gave it to his wife Arsinoe in Psophis. When he later married Callirhoe, daughter of the river god Achelous, she demanded the necklace for herself. Alcmaeon returned to Psophis and tried to retrieve it by lying to Arsinoe. Her brothers caught him in the lie and cut him down. Callirhoe's sons recovered the necklace and dedicated it at Delphi. No mortal wore it again.