Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Thersander.
The gallery
Exedra of the Epigoni (Argive votive monument), Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
Unknown (Argive dedication); photograph by Davide Mauro, after 456 BCE (monument); 2018 (photograph)
Thersander, the son of Polynices to whom the conquering Epigoni handed the kingdom of Thebes, is almost never shown in surviving figural art; his most concrete monument is sculptural and votive. This semicircular limestone exedra stands on the south side of the Sacred Way at Delphi, dedicated by the Argives to commemorate the Epigoni, the descendants of the Seven against Thebes who avenged their fathers by taking the city. Pausanias (Description of Greece 10.10.4) records that the bronze statue group it once carried portrayed the victorious Epigoni and named Thersander among them, alongside Sthenelus, Diomedes, Promachus and Polydorus. Only the curved base survives today; the figures are lost, but the structure remains the principal ancient memorial to Thersander's role in the second war on Thebes.
Exedra of the Epigoni at Delphi (curved base, detail view)
Unknown (Argive dedication); photograph by Davide Mauro, after 456 BCE (monument); 2018 (photograph)
A closer view of the Argive exedra of the Epigoni at Delphi, the fourth monument west of the entrance to the Sanctuary of Apollo. The Argives erected it to honour the Epigoni who, ten years after the disastrous campaign of the Seven against Thebes, captured the city and installed Thersander, son of Polynices, on its throne (Pausanias 9.5.14). The lost bronze group that stood on this base is the only ancient sculptural ensemble known to have included a portrait statue of Thersander, set among his fellow avengers; the weathered semicircular foundation is what endures of that dedication, anchoring his memory in the physical landscape of Delphi.