Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Polynices.
The gallery
Oedipus Cursing His Son, Polynices
Henry Fuseli, 1786
Fuseli's storm-lit canvas shows the blind Oedipus blasting Polynices, the exile who has come to Colonus seeking a blessing for his war on Thebes. The painting freezes the curse that will send the Argive-backed brother to mutual slaughter with Eteocles.
Oedipus Cursing Polynices
Jacques Augustin Catherine Pajou, 1804
Neoclassical oil by Jacques Augustin Catherine Pajou of Oedipus laying his curse on Polynices while Antigone and the household look on. The canvas makes the Seven against Thebes begin not at the gates but in a father's mouth.
Antigone at the Bedside of Polynices
Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, 1868
Benjamin-Constant paints Antigone watching over the corpse of Polynices — the unburied brother whose denied rites will cost her life. Orientalist light falls on the body Creon has left for the dogs, the quiet centre of Sophocles' play.
Antigone Giving Burial to Polynices
Sébastien Norblin, 1825
Prix de Rome canvas by Sébastien Norblin (École des Beaux-Arts, Paris): Antigone performs the forbidden burial over Polynices' body. The painting fixes the exile's corpse as the stage on which sisterly piety defies the city's law.
Eteocles and Polynices
Frans Francken the Younger, 17th century
Antwerp cabinet picture by Frans Francken the Younger of the Theban brothers locked in their final duel. Polynices and Eteocles kill each other before the walls — the mutual fratricide that empties the house of Oedipus.
On screen
In music & on stage
In play
Antigone
Jean Anouilh
Anouilh's Occupation rewrite still needs Polynices' corpse: the brother left rotting so that Antigone's refusal can mean something under a tyrant's order.
La Thébaïde
Jean Racine
Racine stages Polynices' return against Eteocles — the Argive-backed brother whose claim on Thebes ends in mutual fratricide.