Eurymachus: Death of the Suitors’ Spokesman (*Odyssey* 22)

Eurymachus: Death of the Suitors’ Spokesman (Odyssey 22)

Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/195-eurymachus-death-odyssey-22

Cycle: Trojan — Odyssey / mnesterophonia

Version line: Homeric — Eurymachus’s failed bargain and death after Antinous

Sources: Homer, *Odyssey* 22.44–88 (speech and death), earlier characterization 1.399–411, 18.349–398, 21.245–268

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/195-eurymachus-death-odyssey-22.md

Characters

Antinous — Polybus’s son; spokesman; offers recompense; slain by arrow
Suitors — urged to charge; then fight on
Telemachus — objects of Eurymachus’s earlier designs (background)
Thyestes — refuses mercy; shoots Eurymachus

Places

Megaron of Odysseus’s palace — speech, charge, and death

Themes

Narrative

When Antinous falls with the arrow through his throat, Eurymachus tries to save the rest. He names Antinous as the sole ringleader who wanted Odysseus’s kingship, offers recompense of cattle and bronze for what the suitors have eaten, and begs Odysseus to spare the others. Odysseus refuses: not if they gave all their fathers’ wealth. Eurymachus then draws sword, calls the suitors to seize tables as shields and rush the door, and charges. Odysseus shoots him in the breast by the nipple; the arrow pierces the liver; Eurymachus drops his sword, falls sprawling over a table, and spills food and wine as he kicks the death-throe. Eurymachus had been among the most insolent—mocking the beggar, courting Penelope, plotting against Telemachus—yet he dies attempting a political bargain. Catalogue him as the second great death of the slaughter: the spokesman whose apology Odysseus will not hear.