Glorious son of wise Polybus and the smoothest speaker among Penelope's suitors — whom the men of Ithaca looked upon almost as a god, and whom Eumaeus named as the wooer most eager to marry the queen and inherit Odysseus' honor. He flattered Telemachus in public, plotted his murder at sea with Antinous, lay with the disloyal Melantho, and when Odysseus revealed himself offered restitution in vain before he fell among the first slain.1
When Telemachus rebuked the wooers at the assembly, Eurymachus answered with honeyed words: the kingship lay with the gods, he said, but Telemachus might keep his possessions and be lord in his own house — yet he and the rest continued to devour Odysseus' substance. When the old seer Halitherses warned that the gods were bringing the suitors' doom upon them, Eurymachus drove him out with scorn, claiming he himself was the better prophet.2
With Antinous he stood at the head of the company — in valiance far the best of the wooers after the chief himself. Noemon son of Phronius told them Telemachus had sailed; the two leaders learned the ship was theirs and plotted ambush. When Telemachus returned unseen, Eurymachus was first among those who sat outside the gates and urged launching a black ship to cut him off at sea.3
To Penelope he swore a lying oath that no man living would lay hands on Telemachus while he yet breathed — and pressed her again toward marriage. Eumaeus, sending the disguised king toward the palace, told him that Eurymachus son of wise Polybus was now the man to whom Ithaca looked as to a god, most eager of all to win Penelope and Odysseus' house.4
Antinous loved him best among the wooers; Odysseus in beggar's rags sat over against him at the feast. When Irus was beaten, Eurymachus declared himself the beggar's host, with Antinous assenting — then jeered at Odysseus' limbs when Athena drew them forth, and later flattered Penelope that if all Achaea could see her, even more suitors would throng the halls from tomorrow. Fair-cheeked Melantho, reared by Penelope, loved Eurymachus and lay with him; she rated the stranger shamefully while the maids laughed.5
He challenged the beggar to a scything match at spring, then hurled a footstool when Odysseus answered with grim wit; the missile struck a cup-bearer instead. When Theoclymenus prophesied darkness and blood in the hall, Eurymachus was first to call the seer mad and bid the youths thrust him out to the assembly — where, he said, the stranger found it already like night.6
He and Antinous persisted longest at Penelope's bow, warming the weapon at the fire yet unable to string it; he groaned and urged delay until another day, and when the queen rebuked their fear of talk among men and women, answered that they did not think the beggar would lead her home — only dreaded shameful gossip if a base Achaean won her without trial of the bow.7
When Odysseus revealed himself and the slaughter began, Eurymachus alone tried words: Antinous, he said, had led them all astray — Antinous who lay dead — and if the king would spare them, the wooers would repay wine and food consumed, and each add bronze and gold till it contented the victor's heart. Odysseus refused; Eurymachus was cut down among the first.8
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story