Epeius (Ancient Greek: Ἐπειός, also Epeus) was a Greek soldier in the Trojan War, in some accounts one of the Achaean leaders commanding a contingent of thirty ships from the Cyclades. He is best known as the architect of the Wooden Horse by which the Achaeans took Troy, and he was himself among the warriors who hid inside it. Renowned for great physical strength, he also won the boxing contest at the funeral games for Patroclus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Epeius of Phocis" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Overview
Epeius (Ancient Greek: Ἐπειός, Epeiós) or Epeus was a mythological Greek soldier during the Trojan War, and in some accounts one of the Achaean leaders, at the head of a contingent of thirty ships from the islands of the Cyclades.
He was also the architect of the Wooden Horse, by means of which the Achaeans took Troy; he was himself among those warriors who hid inside it.
II.Family
Epeius was the son of Panopeus, who was in turn the son of Phocus and Asterodia.
III.Mythology
Epeius had the reputation of being a giant, possessed of enormous strength. In the Iliad he was victorious in the boxing match against Euryalus at the funeral games held in honour of Patroclus. Later, during the funeral games for Achilles, he fought Acamas, the son of Theseus, to a stalemate.
He built the Trojan Horse, commissioned by Odysseus because Athena had told him in a dream that she would be with him to help build it. The horse was hollow and large enough to hold thirty Greek soldiers equipped with all their armour, but Epeius made it so tall that it could not fit through any of the gates of Troy. The trap door of the horse was fastened with a special catch that only Epeius could undo. After constructing the massive horse, he chose the other twenty-nine soldiers who would accompany him inside it.
He also founded the cities of Pisa and Metapontum.