Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Eurypylus ( ''Eurypylos'') was a

Thessalian Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia (, ), and appea ...

king.

Family

Eurypylus was the son of Euaemon and Ops. Another source gives his mother's name as either Deipyle or Deityche. Alternate genealogies made him a son of Hyperochus and father of

Ormenus In Greek mythology Ormenus or Ormenos (Ancient Greek: Ὄρμενος) is the name of eight men. * Ormenus, one of the Telchines. *Ormenus, king of Ormenion in Thessaly and son of Cercaphus. He was the father of Amyntor and Euaemon. *Ormenus, o ...

Mythology

Eurypylus led the Thessalians during the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

, being a former suitor of Helen. He led one of the larger contingents of ships, 40. He fought valiantly and is often listed amongst the first rank of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

heroes such as

Idomeneus In Greek mythology, Idomeneus (; ) was a Cretan king and commander who led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War, in eighty black ships. He was also one of the suitors of Helen, as well as a comrade of the Telamonian Ajax. Meriones was his chari ...

Diomedes Diomedes (Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. ''Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary''. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.) or Diomede (; ) is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan ...

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, etc. In the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'', he was one of several to accept

Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; , ) was a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's ''Iliad'', where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing c ...

's challenge to single combat, but was eliminated in the drawing of lots. He went to the aid of Ajax the Great when the latter was wounded and tired from hard fighting and was compelled to withdraw from combat: in defending Ajax, he killed Apisaon but was wounded in the thigh and put out of action by one of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

' arrows. This happened in the same book that all the other major Achaean warriors were wounded and put out of action. When he withdrew from battle, his wounds were tended by

Patroclus In Greek mythology, Patroclus (generally pronounced ; ) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and an important character in Homer's ''Iliad''. Born in Opus, Patroclus was the son of the Argonaut Menoetius. When he was a child, he was exiled from ...

, just after Nestor had convinced Patroclus either to convince Achilles to return to the fight or don his armor himself. Eurypylus slew no less than four opponents, including the aforementioned Apisaon, Hypsenor, Melanthius and

Axion An axion () is a hypothetical elementary particle originally theorized in 1978 independently by Frank Wilczek and Steven Weinberg as the Goldstone boson of Peccei–Quinn theory, which had been proposed in 1977 to solve the strong CP problem ...

: this makes the account of Hyginus wrong in informing that Eurypylus killed only one defender of Troy. He was also one of the Greeks to enter the

Trojan Horse In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...

. Eurypylus survived the Trojan War; his further destiny as described by Pausanias was as follows. After the war, Eurypylus got a chest as part of his victory spoils. The chest was abandoned by

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...

when he fled from Troy, or was intentionally left behind by

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; , , sometimes referred to as Alexandra; ) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecy, prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is e ...

who placed a curse on it to whichever Greek would open the chest. Inside the chest was an image of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

, made by

Hephaestus Hephaestus ( , ; wikt:Hephaestus#Alternative forms, eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2. ...

and given to the Trojans by

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

. When Eurypylus opened the chest, he went mad. During a period of sanity, he went to

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

to seek a cure for his malady. The priestess told him to find a people making an unusual sacrifice and settle there. Eventually he came to Aroe (later

Patrae Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf ...

), where he found people sacrificing a youth and a maiden to

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

, to propitiate the goddess for the crime of

Comaetho In Greek mythology, Comaetho (; Ancient Greek: Κομαιθώ ''Komaithṓ'' means "bright-haired") is a name that may refer to: * Comaetho, a nymph of a spring who incessantly mingles her waters with those of the river god Cydnus, who in one pa ...

and Melanippus, who had polluted her shrine. The people of the town recognised him as a leader an oracle had said would come to them and bring about an image and cult of a foreign deity, at which point the sacrifices were to cease. After this, Eurypylus regained his sanity and the people of Patrae no longer needed to make human sacrifices. His tomb was in the city, and he was honored as a hero at the festival of Dionysus. Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', 7. 19. 6 - 10

Namesake

* 4501 Eurypylos, Jovian asteroid

References

{{Characters in the Iliad Achaean Leaders Mythological kings of Thessaly