The article discusses the mention in the Iliad (Hom. Il. 2.505) of the “well-built” city of Hypothebai (Ὑποθῆβαι), the interpretation of which continues to be the subject of discussion among researchers: historians, philologists, archaeologists, paleotopographers – classicists of the widest profile.The understanding of the beginning of the formation of the Theban polis, the time of the creation of an organized settlement in Thebes in the 8th century BC depends on the interpretation of this literary evidence.Based on an integrated approach, using both literary evidence and linguistic analysis of the text, as well as the latest archaeological data and the paleotopographic situation regarding Thebes, from the 12th to the 8th centuriesBC, the article presents an interpretation according to which the Iliad's Hypothebai is a unique hapax introduced into the poem and reflecting the creation of a new, in relation to the Mycenaean “Kadmeia” (Thebes), organized settlement.These new Thebes included both the acropolis of Thebes - the Kadmeia, and the new sectors of Greater Thebes (beneath the Kadmeia), which was typical for the time of the creation of the early Greek polis in the 8th centuryBC.It is also not excluded that, in addition to this process, the insertion to the text of the Iliad of Hypothebai emphasizes that the population of Potniai, which situated around two kilometers from Kadmeia, also belonged to the territory controlled by the early Theban polis.