Polynices’s Family Tree

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Family

• Jocasta(parent),Oedipus(parent),Antigone(sibling),Eteocles(sibling),Ismene(sibling)— Marriage

  Oedipus unknowingly married his mother Jocasta after saving Thebes from the Sphinx. They had four children — Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polynices — before the truth of their incestuous union was revealed.

  ⚠ Pausanias (9.5.11) cites the Oedipodia as attributing the four children to a second wife Euryganeia, not Jocasta. Sophocles and Apollodorus follow the Jocasta tradition.

• Argeia(spouse),Thersander(child)— Marriage

  Polynices married Argeia, daughter of Adrastus, during his exile from Thebes. Their son Thersander later avenged his father as one of the Epigoni and became king of Thebes.

Allied with

• Capaneus

  Capaneus and Polynices fought together as champions of the Seven against Thebes. The expedition was mounted to restore Polynices to the Theban throne.

• Hippomedon

  Hippomedon and Polynices fought together as champions of the Seven against Thebes. The expedition was mounted to restore Polynices to the Theban throne.

Enemy of

• Eteocles,Thebes

  Eteocles and Polynices fought over the throne of Thebes after Oedipus's exile. Their conflict culminated in the war of the Seven against Thebes, where the brothers killed each other in single combat at the city's gates.

• Eteocles,Oedipus

  Oedipus cursed his sons Eteocles and Polynices for their neglect and mistreatment during his exile, prophesying that they would kill each other fighting over the throne of Thebes.

Member of

• Seven against Thebes

  The Seven against Thebes were seven champion warriors — Adrastus, Polynices, Tydeus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, and Amphiaraus — who marched from Argos to restore Polynices to the Theban throne. All but Adrastus perished in the siege.

Associated with

• Adrastus

  When Polynices and Tydeus arrived as exiles at Adrastus's palace in Argos, fighting like a boar and a lion, Adrastus recalled an oracle and gave them his daughters in marriage. He then pledged to restore both to their kingdoms, beginning with Polynices and Thebes.

• Amphiaraus

  Polynices bribed Eriphyle with the Necklace of Harmonia to compel Amphiaraus to join the Seven against Thebes, despite the seer's foreknowledge of the expedition's doom.

• Antigone

  Antigone defied Creon's edict to perform burial rites for her brother Polynices after his death at the seventh gate of Thebes. Her devotion to Polynices was the central act of Sophocles' Antigone.

• Creon

  Creon denied burial to Polynices after the war of the Seven against Thebes, decreeing that the traitor's body be left for dogs and birds. This edict provoked Antigone's defiance and Creon's eventual ruin.

• Eriphyle

  Polynices bribed Eriphyle with the Necklace of Harmonia to use her authority as arbiter and compel her reluctant husband Amphiaraus to join the expedition of the Seven against Thebes.

• Jocasta

  In Euripides' Phoenician Women, Jocasta attempted to mediate between Polynices and Eteocles as they fought for the throne of Thebes. When both sons killed each other in single combat, she took her own life over their bodies.

• Necklace of Harmonia

  Polynices used the Necklace of Harmonia to bribe Eriphyle into betraying her husband Amphiaraus, compelling the seer to join the doomed expedition of the Seven against Thebes.

• Parthenopaeus

  Parthenopaeus marched as one of the Seven to restore Polynices to the throne of Thebes, fighting and dying alongside him in the doomed siege.