Princes allied with Polynices

The Princes allied with Polynices are seven foreign princes who support his claim in the conflict over Thebes. Their defeat before the city’s seven gates marks the failure of Polynices’ campaign and forms part of the background to Creon’s decree distinguishing between the two dead brothers.

Alliance and Conflict

Polynices had won the princes over to his cause after his elder brother, Eteocles, refused to yield the throne at the end of the first year of their agreed rotation. Eteocles and Polynices were meant to rule Thebes for a year at a time; instead, their dispute brought the allied princes into a conflict against the city.

Defeat and Aftermath

The seven princes were defeated before the seven gates of Thebes. The city was saved, and both brothers died in the fighting. The account establishes the princes’ defeat but gives no individual identities or further actions for them.

Their defeat helps frame the political and funerary order imposed afterward. Creon commands a grand funeral for Eteocles, whom he designates the good brother, while Polynices is declared a traitor and denied mourning and burial. The princes’ failed alliance thus belongs to the chain of events that ends with the city’s survival and the brothers’ unequal treatment in death.