Eurypylus of Mysia at Troy: Slain by Neoptolemus

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/098-eurypylus-mysia-neoptolemus

Cycle: Trojan — Little Iliad / Posthomeric endgame

Version line: Cyclic (*Little Iliad*) / Apollodorean / Posthomeric (Quintus); Pausanian for Machaon link

Sources: Proclus, summary of the *Little Iliad*; Apollodorus, *Epitome* 5.12; Quintus of Smyrna, *Posthomerica* 6–8; Pausanias 3.26.9–10 (Machaon killed by Eurypylus); Homer, *Odyssey* 11.519–522 (Odysseus recalls Neoptolemus’s slaying of Eurypylus)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/098-eurypylus-mysia-neoptolemus.md

Characters

Eurypylus — son of Telephus; Mysian ally of Troy; slain by Neoptolemus
Hecuba — summoner of the Mysian aid
Machaon — Achaean healer slain by Eurypylus (Pausanian strand)
Odysseus — Homeric witness of the deed’s fame (*Od.* 11)
Priam’s daughter — mother; sends her son (golden vine bribe in cyclic color)
Pyrrhus — killer; son of Achilles
Telephus — father; earlier spear-guest-friend of Achilles
Trojan assembly — background of the Telephus wound and Neoptolemus’s arms

Places

Assembly — scene of his aristeia and death
Mysia — Eurypylus’s homeland
Scyros — Neoptolemus’s origin before the duel (background)
Trojan shore — sufferers of Eurypylus’s onslaught

Themes

Underworld

Narrative

After Hector, Penthesilea, and Memnon have fallen, Priam seeks still another ally. He sends to Mysia for Eurypylus, son of Telephus (whom Achilles wounded and then healed) and Astyoche. In the cyclic and handbook account Astyoche is bribed or persuaded with a golden vine—gift of Zeus to Tros’s line—to send her son. Eurypylus comes in splendid armor, works havoc among the Achaeans, and in Pausanian and related tradition kills Machaon the healer among others. Neoptolemus, newly brought from Scyros and bearing Achilles’ arms, meets him. The duel ends Eurypylus’s aristeia: Achilles’ son kills Telephus’s son, closing a Mysian arc that began at the Achaeans’ first mistaken landing in Mysia. Odysseus in the *Odyssey* names the deed among Neoptolemus’s glories in the underworld. Catalogue Eurypylus here as the last great Asiatic champion before the Horse—Mysian heir whose death clears the way for Troy’s final stratagems.