Polynices

Polynices, also spelled Polyneices, is a figure in Greek mythology, a prince of Thebes, and the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. He is the brother of Eteocles. The name is derived from Greek elements meaning “much” or “many” and “quarrel” or “feud,” fitting his role in the Theban saga.

After Oedipus’s downfall and exile, the brothers agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. When Eteocles refused to relinquish the throne after his year, Polynices left Thebes and sought support abroad, notably from Adrastus, king of Argos. With these allies, Polynices led the expedition known as the Seven Against Thebes. The siege ended when Polynices and Eteocles killed one another in the city’s defense, bringing the conflict to a bloody close.

In the aftermath, Thebes emerged victorious but faced the grim consequences of the feud. Polynices was commonly branded a traitor by Thebans for invading the city, and his body was denied burial under Creon’s decree, a scene later central to Sophocles’s Antigone, where Antigone attempts to perform rites for him.

Polynices appears primarily in the Theban cycle of myths and in ancient Greek tragedy. The Seven Against Thebes is commemorated in Aeschylus’s tragedy (now largely lost), while Sophocles’s Antigone and other later works treat the aftermath of the brothers’ deaths and the curse associated with Oedipus’s line.

See also: Oedipus cycle, Theban saga, Antigone, Seven Against Thebes.