Connecting MacBook Pro 2013 to iPhone 17 pro

If your goal is to do manual synchronization, or to back up your iPhone to your Mac, see:

Intro to syncing your Mac and your devices - Apple Support

The Technical Specifications for the Phone 17 Pro claim that you can do manual synchronization with High Sierra. So there shouldn't be a problem doing it with Big Sur on your 13" (Late) 2013 MacBook Pro.

Note that you can also back up your iPhone using iCloud, and do many types of synchronization using iCloud and/or connections to the same email accounts.

Your iPhone 17 Pro has a USB-C port that supports USB 3.* protocol at up to 10 Gbps. Your MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) has two USB-A ports that support USB 3.* protocol at up to 5 Gbps.

One way to make a USB connection would be with a cable like the one which Chattanoogan mentioned - provided that it was one that supported data transfers. That particular cable's description says that it is is "charging cable" and does not appear to mention any support for data transfers – let alone data transfers at USB 3 speeds. So I am not sure if it would work for syncing and backing up.

If you look on other sites, you can find many other USB-C to USB-A cables, some of whose descriptions do claim, explicitly, that they are suitable for data transfers at USB 3 speeds.

If you have an Apple USB-C to USB Adapter and a USB-A cable that supports data transfers on hand, another way to get a suitable cable would be by daisy-chaining the USB-A cable with the adapter.

This cable would make the physical connection:

https://store.apple.com/xc/product/HRHL2ZM/A

As to the “software” connection to perform a backup of an iOS 26 device onto your older MacOS ???

What are you trying to accomplish by attaching the two devices? If we knew a little more background information it would help.