Euryalus
Euryalus (/jʊˈraɪ.ələs/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρύαλος) refers to the Euryalus fortress, the main citadel of Ancient Syracuse, and to several different characters from Greek mythology and classical literature:
- In the Aeneid by Virgil, Nisus and Euryalus are ideal friends and lovers,[1] who died during a raid on the Rutulians.[2][3]
- Euryalus was the son of Mecisteus. He attacked the city of Thebes as one of the Epigoni, who took the city and avenged the deaths of their fathers, who had also attempted to invade Thebes. In Homer's Iliad, he fought in the Trojan War, where he was brother-in-arms of Diomedes, and one of the Greeks to enter the Trojan Horse. He lost the boxing match to Epeius at the funeral games for Patroclus.[3][4] He is mentioned by Hyginus, who gives his parents as Pallas and Diomede.[5]
- Euryalus was the name of a son of Euippe and Odysseus, who was mistakenly slain by his father.[6][7]
- Euryalus, the name of two of Penelope's suitors, one of whom came from Zacynthus, and the other one from Dulichium.[8]
- Euryalus, a suitor of Hippodamia who, like all the suitors before Pelops, was killed by Oenomaus.[9]
- Euryalus, one of the eight sons of Melas, who plotted against their uncle Oeneus and were slain by Tydeus.[10]
- Euryalus, son of Naubolus, one of the Phaeacians encountered by Odysseus in the Odyssey.[11]
- Euryalus (or Agrolas), brother and fellow builder of Hyperbius the Athenian.[12]
- Euryalus, a surname of Apollo.[13]
- Euryalus, named on sixth and fifth century BC pottery as being one the Giants who fought the Olympian gods in the Gigantomachy.[14]
Euryalus, son of Alcinous
In the Odyssey, Euryalus is a Phaeacian youth. Homer gives him the epithet "the peer of murderous Ares". Next to Laodamas, he is said to be the most handsome of the Phaeacians, and is the best wrestler. He convinces Laodamas to challenge Odysseus, then rebukes him when he refuses to participate, saying "No truly, stranger, nor do I think thee at all like one that is skilled in games, whereof there are many among men, rather art thou such an one as comes and goes in a benched ship, a master of sailors that are merchantmen, one with a memory for his freight, or that hath the charge of a cargo homeward bound, and of greedily gotten gains; thou seemest not a man of thy hands." When King Alcinous orders him to make amends, he gives Odysseus a bronze sword with a silver hilt and an ivory sheath.
References
- ^ Virgil. Aeneid, V.294.
- ^ Virgil. Aeneid, IX.179-431.
- ^ a b Dictionary of Classical Mythology. London: Penguin. 1990. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-14-051235-9.
- ^ Homer; Trans. Stanley Lombardo (1997). Iliad. Hackett. ISBN 978-0-87220-352-5. 23.704-719.
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 97
- ^ Sophocles, Euryalus (survived in fragments)
- ^ Parthenius of Nicaea (1916). Love Romances. S. Gaselee (trans). Loeb, Harvard UP.
- ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Epitome of Book 4, 7. 26 - 30
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6. 21. 10
- ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8. 5
- ^ Butcher, SH and Lang, A: The Odyssey of Homer, Project Gutenberg
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 7. 57
- ^ Hesychius of Alexandria s. v. Euryalos
- ^ Arafat, K. W., Classical Zeus: A Study in Art and Literature, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990. ISBN 0-19-814912-3, pp.16, 183, 184; Akropolis 2.211 (Beazley Archive 200125; LIMC Gigantes 299); British Museum E 47 (Beazley Archive 203256; LIMC Gigantes 301).
