Eurytion

Eurytion is a centaur whose drunken rampage at the wedding of Peirithous and Hippodamia brought about a war between the Lapiths and the centaurs, and whose story is invoked by Antinous in the Odyssey as a warning that immoderate drinking leads to self-destruction. Though Eurytion never appears directly in the poem, his myth is retold by Antinous to threaten Odysseus, who is disguised as a beggar and has just asked to try the bow. The centaur's fate thus serves as a pointed example of how wine can undo even the strongest, and of the violent consequences that follow the violation of hospitality.

Mythological Background and the Centaur's Crime

Eurytion was one of the centaurs, a race of half-human, half-horse creatures known for their wild and lawless nature. His most famous act occurred at the wedding of Peirithous, king of the Lapiths, where the centaurs were invited as guests. According to the story Antinous tells, Eurytion became inflamed by wine while staying with Peirithous among the Lapiths. "When the wine had got into his head, he went mad and did ill deeds about the house of Peirithous." This drunken madness—an act of hubris and a gross violation of the law of hospitality—enraged the assembled Lapith heroes. They rushed at Eurytion, "cut off his ears and nostrils," then dragged him through the doorway and out of the house. He went away "crazed, and bore the burden of his crime, bereft of understanding." The incident did not end with Eurytion's punishment; it sparked a lasting war between mankind and the centaurs, a conflict that Eurytion himself had brought upon himself through his own drunkenness.

Narrative Function in the Odyssey

Antinous invokes the story of Eurytion in Book XXI, during the contest of the bow, when Odysseus—still disguised as a ragged old beggar—asks to be allowed to try to string the bow. The suitors are already angry and fearful that the stranger might succeed. Antinous rebukes Odysseus fiercely, warning him that if he strings the bow, he will meet a fate like Eurytion's: "It will go hardly with you if you string the bow: you will find no mercy from any one here, for we shall at once ship you off to king Echetus, who kills every one that comes near him: you will never get away alive." The parallel is deliberate: just as wine inflamed Eurytion to commit outrages that led to his mutilation and exile, so, Antinous implies, the wine that has emboldened the beggar to make his request will lead to his destruction. The centaur's story thus functions as a threat and a piece of moralizing, intended to cow Odysseus and to justify the suitors' contempt for him.

Thematic Significance

Eurytion's tale, as told by Antinous, reinforces several of the Odyssey's central themes. It is a stark illustration of the dangers of hubris and the loss of self-control, especially under the influence of wine—a motif that recurs throughout the poem, from the Cyclops Polyphemus being overcome by Maron's wine to the suitors themselves drinking to excess. It also underscores the importance of the law of hospitality (xenia): Eurytion's crime was committed in the house of his host, and his punishment was a direct consequence of that violation. By invoking Eurytion, Antinous unwittingly foreshadows his own doom and that of the other suitors, who are themselves abusing the hospitality of Odysseus's house, drinking his wine and wasting his property. The centaur's story thus serves as an ironic mirror: the suitors, who see themselves as the enforcers of order against the beggar, are in fact repeating Eurytion's transgression on a far larger scale, and their own destruction is imminent.