In the Homeric tradition Euphorbus appears as a young Trojan warrior, son of Panthous (and Phrontis in Homer), who fights on the plain of Troy during the events of the Iliad. In the combat sequence surrounding Patroclus’ death (Iliad Books 16–17 as reported by classical commentators), the god Apollo strikes Patroclus first, Euphorbus wounds him second, and Hector deals the fatal blow; Euphorbus is afterward killed by Menelaus during the struggle over Patroclus' body and armor. From the 4th century BCE onward, later authors and anecdotal traditions incorporated Euphorbus into chains of transmigration narratives: he is reported in multiple versions to have been reborn and to have been identified by recognition of a shield dedicated in a temple (accounts differ about whether that dedication was at Argos or Didyma), and some sources report that Pythagoras was claimed to have asserted a previous life as Euphorbus.
Homeric and later descriptions present Euphorbus as a fair, handsome youth notable for his curly hair adorned with precious bindings. Homeric phrasing (as preserved in translations and summaries of Iliad Book 17) compares his hair to that of the Charites and notes it being bound with gold and silver; John Tzetzes is quoted describing him as 'handsome' with 'the loveliest locks among the curly‑haired', braided with gold and other ornaments. The cumulative picture in the sources is of an attractive, richly accoutred Trojan youth.
In primary epic material Euphorbus possesses no supernatural powers: he is a mortal combatant whose chief recorded action is wounding Patroclus prior to Patroclus’ death and then being slain by Menelaus in the contest over the fallen hero's armour. In later classical anecdote Euphorbus functions as a named past life within transmigration stories (a narrative identity rather than an active supernatural ability); these accounts report recognition of his former shield in a temple as evidence of continuity of identity across lives.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortality (was killed in combat by Menelaus)
Wards
None recorded.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Community Record
- [1]Euphorbus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: 'Euphorbus' article (summary of Homeric and later traditions)wiki
- [2]The Iliad by Homer — Book 17 (online translations and editions). Homer, Iliad Book 17 (translations and online editions referenced in source notes)literary
- [3]The Iliad, Book XVII — Poetry in Translation. Translation of Iliad Book 17 (used for narrative of Euphorbus wounding Patroclus and subsequent death)literary
- [4]John Tzetzes on Euphorbus (as summarized). Summary citing John Tzetzes' description of Euphorbus' appearance (loveliest locks braided with gold)literary
- [5]Succinct summaries and modern commentaries (mythweb, sentential antiquae, archive links). Modern summaries and translations referenced in source notes concerning the Iliad episode and later receptionother
- [6]Classical anecdote summaries (Diogenes Laërtius, Aulus Gellius, Ovid as reported). Wikipedia summary reporting later traditions that link Euphorbus to transmigration anecdotes and the shield‑recognition stories (accounts attributed to Diogenes Laërtius, Aulus Gellius, Ovid, Heraclides, Pausanias variants)literary