Glorious son of Nisus, son of Aretias, who led the suitors from Dulichium and pleased Penelope above the other wooers — the one prudent suitor whom Odysseus warned in vain, and whom the returned king slew when he reached for his cup.1
When the suitors learned that Telemachus had returned, Amphinomus was first to see the ship in the harbour and broke into a merry laugh. He then addressed the assembly with good counsel: they should not murder the prince, for the gods frown on such deeds — though he himself continued to devour Odysseus' house with the rest.2
When the disguised beggar entered the hall, Amphinomus alone greeted him kindly, setting bread before him and pledging him in a cup of gold. Odysseus answered with a warning: go home while there was still time, for Odysseus would return and blood would flow in the halls — but Amphinomus knew in his heart the gods had marked him for death, and he sat on, doomed to perish with the company.3
At the mnesterophonia he was slain by Odysseus with an arrow as he reached for his cup — the only suitor the hero had tried to save with honest speech.4
Apollodorus records a variant ending wholly opposed to Homer's tale: others say that Penelope was seduced by Amphinomus and that Odysseus himself killed her on that account — a slander that transforms the prudent suitor who pleased her into the cause of her death at her husband's hands.5⚖
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story