[1][2] Little is known about the opera's librettist, Tebaldo Fattorini, apart from the fact that he came from a prominent family in Chioggia and was employed as a "house poet" for the Teatro San Salvador in Venice.

[1] The libretto for the premiere performances of Eteocle e Polinice at the Teatro San Salvador in 1674 was dedicated of the "most noble ladies of Venice" ("Consacrato alle nobilissime dame di Venetia").

[4] Its most well known aria, "Che fiero costume" (also known by its English title, "How void of compassion"), has been recorded by several well known opera singers, including Luciano Pavarotti, Ezio Pinza, and Richard Tucker.

[1][2] Richard Strauss made specific reference to this opera in Die schweigsame Frau, recomposing "Dolce Amor" as a duet which is sung in the course of the music lesson scene in act 3, as one of many such re-appropriations of pre-existing music Strauss used to create an "antique" atmosphere.

[citation needed] The immediate source of the libretto was the Latin poem The Thebaid by Statius wherein despite entreaties from their sister Antigone the brothers Eteocles and Polynices went to war with each other over who should rule Thebes.