Eurylochus appears as a named member of Odysseus' crew within the nostos narrative following the Trojan War. Homeric passages present him as Odysseus' trusted subordinate or lieutenant who leads a twenty-two-man scouting party to Circe's hall (Book 10) and later plays a decisive role in persuading the crew to slaughter the sacred cattle of Helios (Book 12). Later historical and cultural records reuse the name for unrelated figures and vessels, but the Homeric Eurylochus is consistently a mortal seaman in the Odyssey tradition (sources: Homer, Project Gutenberg; Internet Classics Archive; Wikipedia).
Homeric sources supply no sustained physical description of Eurylochus (no measured height, distinct clothing, or facial detail). He is depicted through action and diction — for example, phrased in Book 10 with movements suggestive of troubled or 'pensive' steps — and appears as a seafaring leader moving among the men of Odysseus' crew rather than as a figure defined by bodily traits (sources: Odyssey Books 10 and 12; Internet Classics Archive; Project Gutenberg).
Eurylochus' capacities are social and rhetorical rather than supernatural: he functions as second-in-command and leader of sub-groups of sailors, exercises persuasive authority over ordinary crew morale, and makes tactical decisions (e.g., refusing to enter Circe's hall, leading the exploratory party, and persuading the men to slaughter Helios' cattle). His behavior alternates between prudence (suspecting Circe's treachery and staying outside) and instigation of disobedience (urging the crew to violate Tiresias' and Circe's counsel), outcomes that in the narrative trigger divine punishment (sources: Odyssey Books 10 and 12; Internet Classics Archive; Wikipedia).
Weaknesses
- conditionmortal human vulnerability (subject to death and divine retribution)
- othervulnerability to moral judgment and narrative blame (portrayed as culpable for crew's fate)
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]The Odyssey (Book 10). Homer, The Odyssey, Book 10 (translation available at Internet Classics Archive)literary
- [2]The Odyssey (Book 12). Homer, The Odyssey, Book 12 (translation available at Internet Classics Archive)literary
- [3]The Odyssey, Project Gutenberg eBook. Homer, The Odyssey (Project Gutenberg edition)literary
- [4]Eurylochus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia article 'Eurylochus' summarizing Homeric role and later usageswiki
- [5]The Odyssey, Book X (monadnock.net transcription). Odyssey Book 10 text and commentary (online transcription)literary
- [6]Attalus — Eurylochus in ancient sources. Name-index and ancient-source references for Eurylochusother
- [7]Hong Kong Telegraph shipping consignees (1931) — 'EURYLOCHUS' vessel. 1931 newspaper shipping consignments listing a vessel named 'EURYLOCHUS' (name reuse in modern contexts)other