In Greek mythology, Polynices (also Polyneices; Ancient Greek Πολυνείκης, "much strife") was a Theban prince, son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia, and brother of Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. Exiled when Eteocles refused to share the throne, he led the Seven against Thebes; the brothers killed each other in single combat. Creon's ban on his burial and Antigone's defiance drive Sophocles's Antigone.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Polynices" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Polynices is named son of Oedipus, king of Thebes, and Queen Jocasta (sister of Creon). Some authors alternately name Euryganeia, daughter of Hyperphas, as mother of Polynices and his siblings; Pausanias traces that parentage to the lost Oedipodia. Through Jocasta's father Menoeceus he descends from Cadmus, founder of Thebes.
His full siblings are Eteocles, Ismene, and Antigone. He married Argia, daughter of King Adrastus of Argos; their sons include Thersander (who later rules Thebes after the Epigoni), and in some lists Adrastus and Timeas.
II.Quarrel and the Seven
After Oedipus's fall, accounts diverge on how the brothers shared power. Hellanicus has Eteocles offer rule or property; Pherecydes has him expel Polynices by force. The Bibliotheca and Diodorus say they agreed to alternate the kingship yearly; Eteocles took the first year and refused to yield. Polynices fled to Argos, married Argia, and persuaded Adrastus to raise an army — the Seven against Thebes — one champion for each of the city's seven gates.
The expedition failed: all Argive champions but Adrastus died. Polynices and Eteocles met in single combat and slew each other. Ten years later the Epigoni, sons of the Seven, took Thebes and installed Polynices's son Thersander as king.
III.Curse and burial
Epic and tragic tradition link the brothers' mutual death to a curse from Oedipus — in the Thebaid for disrespect at his table, in Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus when Polynices seeks a blessing to retake the city and is instead doomed to die by his brother's hand.
In Sophocles's Antigone, Creon forbids burial or mourning of Polynices as a traitor. Antigone performs the rites anyway and is condemned; the aftermath destroys Creon's household. Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, Euripides's Phoenissae, and Statius's Thebaid vary the quarrel, combat, and aftermath.