Elpenor

Greek mythological figure in the Odyssey

Odysseus cremating the body of Elpenor (Theodoor van Thulden, c. 1630)

In Greek mythology, Elpenor (/ɛlˈpiːnər/; Ancient Greek: Ἐλπήνωρ, gen.: Ἐλπήνορος), also spelled Elpinor /ɛlˈpaɪnər/, was the youngest comrade of Odysseus. While on the island of Circe, he became drunk and decided to spend the night on the roof. In the morning he slipped on the ladder, fell, and broke his neck, dying quickly. [1]

## Mythology

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Elpenor was not especially notable for his intelligence or strength, but he survived the Trojan War, and appears in the Odyssey. He is the youngest man to survive the Laestrygonians. While Odysseus was staying on Aeaea, Circe's island, Elpenor became drunk and climbed onto the roof of Circe's palace to sleep. The next morning, waking upon hearing his comrades making preparations to travel to Hades, he forgot he was on the roof and fell, breaking his neck, and died in the act. Odysseus and his men apparently noticed his absence, but they were too busy to look for him. When Odysseus arrived in Hades, Elpenor was the first shade to meet Odysseus, and pleaded with him to return to Aeaea and give him a proper cremation and burial. After finishing his task in the underworld, Odysseus returned to Aeaea and cremated Elpenor's body, then buried him with his armour and marked the grave with an oar of his ship.

## Later historic uses

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The story of Elpenor can be described as a mirror to the story of Palinurus in Virgil's Aeneid. In the Aeneid, Palinurus, one of Aeneas' men, falls overboard and ends up swimming to an island nearby. He is killed on the island by the natives that live there. Later on in the story, Aeneas travels to the underworld where he sees Palinurus. There, Palinurus pleads with Aeneas to give him a proper burial.

The story of Elpenor might be the basis of the story of Eutychus in the New Testament.[2]

## Modern uses

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The character of Patrick "Paddy" Dignam, whose funeral is the focus of Episode 6 ("Hades") of Ulysses by James Joyce, is a modern counterpart to Elpenor. This chapter of Ulysses is a main inspiration for the film Bye Bye Braverman.

Elpenor is the subject of the short novel Elpénor by Jean Giraudoux, published in 1919, which retells some of the stories of the Odyssey in humorous fashion.

Derek Mahon suggests Elpenor (but does not name him specifically) in his poem "Lives". Mahon talks of a decaying oar, planted in a beach, thinking of Ithaca. Ezra Pound references Elpenor in his poem Hugh Selwyn Mauberley by having the eponymous poet's grave marked by an oar, with an epitaph that recalls Elpenor's. Pound also makes use of Elpenor in the first of his Cantos: "But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor / Unburied, cast on the wide earth, / Limbs that we left in the house of Circe, / Unwept, unwrapped in sepulchre, since toils urged other."

Archibald MacLeish wrote a poem about Elpenor published in 1933. Nobel laureate Giorgos Seferis wrote a poem "Sensual Elpenor".[3] Takis Sinopoulos also wrote a poem called "Elpenor".[4] Helen Dunmore included a poem "Odysseus to Elpenor" in her last published collection "Inside the Wave", 2017 Bloodaxe Books Ltd.

The video game Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break has a story mode where Elpenor is the main protagonist, after Odysseus (the traditional hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey) is flattened by the eponymous Rock of Ages.[5]

## References

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1. ^ Odyssey, Book X
2. ^ Doughty, Darrell J. (1996). MacDonald, Dennis R. (ed.). "Luke's Eutychus and Homer's Elpenor: Acts 20:7-12 and Odyssey 10-12". Institute for Higher Critical Studies. Drew University: 4–24. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
3. ^ George Seferis, Edmund Keely, Philip Sherrard. George Seferis: Collected Poems, 1924-1955. Bilingual Edition, Princeton University Press, 2014, p. 322.
4. ^ Σινόπουλος Tάκης, "Ελπήνωρ" in Συλλογή, I, Eρμής 1976 [Sinopoulos Takis, "Elpenor" in Syllogi, I., Ermes, 1976.]
5. ^ "Introducing the Story and Characters in Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break". Modus Games. Retrieved 2020-04-13.

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Homer's Odyssey

Characters|

| House of Odysseus|

* Penelope (wife)
* Telemachus (son)
* Ctimene (sister)
* Anticlea (mother)
* Laertes (father)
* Autolycus (grandfather)
* Eurycleia (chief servant)
* Mentor (advisor)
* Phemius (musician)
* Eumaeus (swineherd)
* Philoetius (cowherd)
* Melanthius (goatherd)
* Melantho (maid)
* Medon (herald)
* Argos (pet dog)

|

Other monarchs
and royals

* Alcinous of Phaeacia
* Antiphates, king of the Laestrygones
* Aretus
* Arete of Phaeacia
* Deucalion of Crete
* Echetus
* Nestor of Pylos
* Echephron
* Perseus
* Stratichus
* Peisistratus
* Menelaus of Sparta
* Helen
* Princess Nausicaa of Phaeacia
* Laodamas
* Agamemnon of Mycenae
* Idomeneus
* Mentes
* Thrasymedes

Gods|

* Aeolus
* Athena
* Calypso
* Circe
* Helios
* Hermes
* Leucothea (Ino)
* Poseidon
* Zeus
* Oceanus
* Old Man of the Sea

Suitors|

* Agelaus
* Amphimedon
* Amphinomus
* Antinous
* Ctesippus
* Demoptolemus
* Eurymachus
* Leodes
* Perimedes

Others|

* Achilles
* Ajax
* Anticlus
* Antiphus
* Cyclopes
* Polyphemus
* Demodocus
* Dolius
* Elpenor
* Eupeithes
* Euryalus
* Eurylochus
* Halitherses
* Heracles
* Irus
* Kikonians
* Laestrygones
* Mesaulius
* Polites
* Polydamna
* Scylla
* Charybdis
* Sirens
* Tiresias
* Theoclymenus

Locations|

* Aeaea
* Aeolia
* Ismarus
* Ithaca
* Ogygia
* Scheria
* Telepylos
* Thrinacia

Study|

* Homeric scholarship
* Homeric Laughter
* Homeric Question
* Chorizontes
* Jørgensen's law
* Historicity of the Iliad
* Odysseus Unbound
* Homer's Ithaca
* On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey
* Rediscovering Homer
* Hermoniakos' Iliad
* Hysteron proteron
* Epithets in Homer
* Dactylic hexameter

Translations|

* English translations
* On Translating Homer
* Chapman (1614–1615)
* Pope (1725–1726)
* Lattimore (1967)
* Fagles (1996)
* Wilson (2017)

Phrases|

* In medias res
* Between Scylla and Charybdis

Films|

* L'Odissea (1911)
* Ulysses (1954)
* The Return of Ringo (1965)
* Nostos: The Return (1989)
* Ulysses' Gaze (1995 Greek)
* Sans plomb (2000)
* O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
* Keyhole (2012)
* The Return (2024)
* The Odyssey (2026)

Television|

* The Odyssey (1968)
* Ulysses 31 (1981)
* The Odyssey (1997)
* Mission Odyssey (2002–2003)
* Odysseus and the Isle of the Mists (2007)
* Star Trek: Odyssey (2007)

Prose fiction|

* A True Story (2nd century AD)
* Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699)
* The World's Desire (1890)
* Ulysses (1922)
* The Human Comedy (1943)
* Return to Ithaca (1946)
* Homer's Daughter (1955)
* Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (1998)
* The Penelopiad (2005)
* The Lost Books of the Odyssey (2010)
* Circe (2018)

Poems|

* "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816)
* "Ulysses" (1842)
* "Ithaca" (1911)
* The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
* The Cantos (1962)
* Pagan Operetta (1998)

Stage|

* Current Nobody (play)
* Cyclops (play)
* Ithaka (play)
* Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (opera)
* The Golden Apple (musical)
* Glam Slam Ulysses (musical)
* Home Sweet Homer (musical)
* Odysseus, Verbrecher (play)
* Penelope (play)

Music|

* Epic: The Musical (album series)
* "Tales of Brave Ulysses" (song)
* The Odyssey (album)

Paintings|

* Jar with Odysseus and Elpenor (c. 440 B.C.)
* Odysseus on the Island of the Phaecians (c. 1635)
* Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso (1782)
* The Sorrow of Telemachus (1783)
* Odysseus at the Court of Alcinous (1816)
* The Apotheosis of Homer (1827)
* Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (1829)
* The Sirens and Ulysses (1837)
* Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891)
* Ulysses and the Sirens (1891)
* Odysseus and Polyphemus (1896)
* Ulysses and the Sirens (1909)

Video games|

* Odyssey: The Search for Ulysses
* Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey

Related|

* Apotheosis of Homer
* Iliad
* Nekyia
* Nostos
* Outis
* Returns from Troy
* Telemachy
* Trojan Horse

* Category

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