Characters
- Euthymus of Locri — Olympic boxer; defeats the Hero; frees Temesa
- Hero of Temesa — daimon of the stoned Odyssean sailor; demands maidens
- Maiden of Temesa — yearly “wife” of the Hero; saved by Euthymus
- People of Temesa — nearly abandon Italy; then pay the tribute
- Pythia — orders sanctuary and annual maiden-tribute
- Stoned sailor — rapist whose ghost becomes the Hero
- Telemachus — left the guilty sailor behind (background)
Places
- Islands of the Blessed — into which Euthymus drives the daimon
- Locri — Euthymus’s home
- Mount Etna — haunted city; sanctuary of the Hero
- Pytho — oracle that institutes the tribute
Themes
Narrative
Pausanias recounts that Odysseus’s ships were cast on Temesa in Italy; one sailor raped a local girl and was stoned by the inhabitants. Odysseus sailed off, but the dead man’s daimon would not leave: he killed until the people prepared to flee Italy. The Pythia told them to stay, build a sanctuary for the Hero, and give him each year the fairest maiden as wife. They obeyed, and the city was free of plague so long as the tribute continued.
Euthymus of Locri, thrice Olympic boxing victor, learned of the rite, entered the temple on the offering-day, defeated the Hero in fight, and drove him into the sea. He freed Temesa from the tribute and— in the tale—married the maiden who had been brought. Pausanias also notes a painter’s version and that Euthymus was said to have reached extreme old age or vanished as a hero himself. Catalogue the Temesa Hero versus Euthymus as a Pausanian colonial ghost-combat atom.