Eurypylos (Heros of Patrai)
Eurypylos ( Greek Εὐρύπυλος ) is a hero of Patrai in Greek mythology .
The Greek writer Pausanias , who is the only surviving source to report on Eurypylos, identifies him with the Thessaler of the same name , son of Euaimon , and rejects an equation made by some authors with another Eurypylos , son of Dexamenus .
According to the representation of Pausanias, after the conquest of Troy , when the Greeks distributed the booty , Eurypylos received a sacred ark containing the image of Dionysus Aisymnetes made by Hephaestus . This ark had either been left behind by Aineas when he escaped or, according to another version of Cassandra, had been deliberately thrown away, as it would ruin any Greek who found it. Indeed, Eurypylos went mad after opening the lid and seeing the image of the god kept inside. He consulted the oracle of Delphi and received the answer from the Pythia that he would find healing if he settled where he met people performing a strange sacrificial ritual. On the ship's route he reached Aroë , an ancient town of Patrai, and saw that a boy and a girl were about to be sacrificed to Artemis Triklaria . In order to appease the anger of this goddess over a crime committed in her temple by the priestess Komaitho with Melanippos , the most beautiful boy and the most beautiful girl had to be offered as sacrifices to Artemis Triklaria every year. According to a saying by the Delphic oracle, this old obligation will cease when a foreign king comes with a foreign god. When Eurypylos had now arrived in Aroë, he realized that he was observing the sacrificial ritual meant by the Pythia, and the inhabitants of Aroë in turn recognized that Eurypylos had brought a strange god with him in his ark. Two oracles were thus fulfilled: Eurypylos was cured of his madness and the bloody cult of human sacrifice for Artemis Triklaria had come to an end and was replaced by the veneration of Dionysus.
Below the sanctuary of Dionysus Aisymnetes on the road from the market to the port, Eurypylos donated a temple to Artemis Soteria after recovering from his madness. His tomb was shown on the Acropolis of Patrai between the altar and the temple of Artemis Laphria. Venerated as a hero, he received his own sacrifices every year during the Dionysus festival.
literature
- Ludwig von Sybel : Eurypylos 3 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 1428 ( digitized version ).
- Karl Tümpel : Eurypylos 6). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 1, Stuttgart 1907, column 1349 f.