# Polyphontes — Poetry character guide

> Polyphontes in Poetry by Matthew Arnold.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cresphontes, king Polyphontes

**First appearance:** 0144-merope

## Snapshot

The usurper who murdered Cresphontes and took his throne and widow, now ruling Messenia with a usurper's uneasy hospitality.

## Who they are

Polyphontes holds Messenia by force of a crime — the killing of Cresphontes and his sons — and has spent years hunting the one survivor, the infant Aepytus, without success. His reign is defined by that missing heir: he rejoices at any rumor of the boy's death, and his hospitality to strangers is shadowed by the fear of who they might be. He matters because his guilt is the fixed point of the play's moral world, and the sacrifice he celebrates in supposed safety becomes the occasion of his own undoing.

## Relationships

### [Aepytus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/aepytus)

_rivalry_

Aepytus and Polyphontes are locked in a bitter struggle for power, with Polyphontes having usurped the throne and Aepytus seeking revenge or restoration.

### [Hercules](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/hercules)

_rivalry_

Hercules is an enemy of Polyphontes, representing the old royal line that Polyphontes usurped.

### [Laias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/laias)

_rivalry_

Laias is a supporter of Aepytus and thus an enemy of the usurper Polyphontes, opposing his rule.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/polyphontes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters