Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Polybus.
On screen
Edipo re
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini's Oedipus still rests on Corinthian fosterage — Polybus and Merope as the gentle parents the hero flees, believing them the parents of the oracle's doom.
Oedipus the King
Philip Saville
Saville's Sophocles adaptation keeps the Corinthian lie at the tragedy's core: Polybus' death-news is the false comfort that drives Oedipus toward recognition.
In music & on stage
In play
Oedipus Rex
Sophocles
Sophocles' tragedy makes Polybus of Corinth the foster-father whose supposed death frees Oedipus from fear — until the Corinthian messenger reveals the adoption that unravels Thebes.
Polybus of Corinth
Childless king who raised the exposed infant as his own — the gentle Corinthian father Oedipus flees so as not to kill, and whose name still marks the foster half of the Theban plot.