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Elpenor
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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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]
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Elpenor

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Elpenor is a minor but symbolically significant character in Homer's , depicted as one of 's companions who meets an ignoble death by falling from the roof of the enchantress Circe's palace on the island of after a night of drunken revelry. His unburied body is left behind as Odysseus and the surviving crew depart, only for Elpenor's shade to appear as the first soul encountered in the underworld during the hero's (descent to ) in Book 11, where he pleads for a proper to avoid becoming a cause for divine wrath (mēnis). As the youngest and least heroic of Odysseus's men, Elpenor embodies the vulnerabilities of ordinary mortals in contrast to the epic's central , serving as a foil that underscores themes of mortality, , and the fragile boundary between the living and the dead. His accidental demise in Book 10—caused by oversleeping on the roof and tumbling down in a daze without his companions noticing—highlights the perils of and amid the crew's trials under Circe's spell, where the men are transformed into before being restored. In the , Elpenor is the first shade encounters and speaks clearly about his unburied state, emphasizing his liminal status as a recently deceased soul without proper rites, in contrast to other shades who require to regain speech. He implores : "there, then, my lord, I order you to remember me. Do not leave me behind unwept and unburied… lest I become a mēnima ['cause for mēnis'] of the gods for you," framing as a reciprocal tied to and social obligation to avert cosmic disorder. Elpenor's narrative arc bridges Books 10, 11, and 12, compelling Odysseus to return to Aeaea after the nekyia to perform the rites—erecting a burial mound, sacrificing a ram and cow, and inscribing his oar as a marker—which Circe oversees, thus reinforcing the epic's exploration of piety and heroic responsibility. Scholarly interpretations often view him as an anti-heroic figure whose unheroic end contrasts with the Iliad's emphasis on glorious death and burial (as in Hector's), illustrating the Odyssey's shift toward themes of homecoming (nostos) and the quiet honoring of the lowly dead. His story has influenced later literature, from Virgil's Aeneid—where similar unburied shades like Palinurus echo his plea—to Christian texts reinterpreting his fall and resurrection-like burial as motifs of redemption and afterlife.

Mythological Background

Etymology

The name Elpenor (Ancient Greek: Ἐλπήνωρ) is derived from the combination of two Greek words: ἐλπίς (elpís), meaning "" or "expectation," and ἀνήρ (anḗr), meaning "man." This composition yields interpretations such as "man of hope" or "hopeful man," reflecting a linguistic pattern common in ancient Greek nomenclature where compound names often convey aspirational or descriptive qualities. This etymology resonates symbolically with Elpenor's plea for , embodying a persistent hope for remembrance beyond death.

Role in the Odyssey

Elpenor was the youngest comrade of , serving as a minor member of the crew that survived the and set out on the perilous journey home. As one of the few remaining sailors after the devastating encounter with the cannibalistic , who destroyed most of the Greek fleet in Book 9 of the , Elpenor reached the island of alongside and the others. His survival through these early ordeals underscores his unassuming presence among the more battle-hardened veterans. Upon the crew's arrival at , Elpenor participated in the ill-fated visit to the palace of the enchantress . Like his companions, he fell victim to her magic when they drank the potion-laced wine, which transformed the entire group into swine as a result of her sorcery. , guided by Hermes and armed with the protective herb moly, compelled to restore the men to their human forms, thereby reintegrating Elpenor into the crew without any notable individual action on his part. Homer characterizes Elpenor as neither particularly valiant in warfare nor steadfast in resolve, depicting him as impulsive and unremarkable in contrast to the resourceful and heroic . This portrayal positions him as a foil to the epic's , embodying the vulnerabilities of the ordinary sailor amid extraordinary trials. His name, derived from the Greek elpis ("hope") and anēr ("man"), evokes a subtle thematic undercurrent of aspiration reflected in his later plea for remembrance.

Narrative in Homer's Odyssey

Death on Aeaea

In Homer's Odyssey, Book 10, Elpenor, identified as the youngest and least valiant member of Odysseus's crew, dies accidentally on the island of following a year of feasting and indulgence under Circe's hospitality. Seeking cool air away from his comrades inside the enchantress's palace, he lay down on the roof, overcome by wine. As Odysseus announced the crew's impending journey to the per Circe's instructions, the sounds of preparations roused Elpenor from sleep. In his intoxicated haze (lines 552–560), he sprang up but forgot the ladder, tumbling headlong to the ground and snapping his neck; his spirit immediately departed to . Unaware of the tragedy, and the remaining men boarded their ship and departed without Elpenor or his body, prioritizing the urgent voyage ahead. This event carries symbolic weight, embodying the folly of drunken excess and human recklessness, which starkly contrasts the crew's prior encounters with Circe's transformative magic—such as their restoration from to men. Elpenor's isolated, self-inflicted end highlights mortal frailty amid the island's otherworldly perils.

Encounter in the Underworld

In Homer's Odyssey, Book 11, Elpenor appears as the first shade to approach Odysseus during the nekyia ritual in the Underworld, shortly after the blood sacrifice has drawn the souls of the dead. Having died recently from a fall off Circe's roof due to intoxication, Elpenor's unburied body remains on Aeaea, preventing his full entry into the afterlife and causing his spirit to wander restlessly. He recognizes Odysseus and pleads for a proper burial, requesting that his comrades cremate his body with his armor, erect a mound by the sea, and plant an oar atop it as a memorial to honor his service as a crewman. Odysseus, moved by pity, vows to fulfill these rites upon his return, assuring Elpenor, "All this, unhappy man, will I perform and do," thereby acknowledging the sacred duty to the dead. This underscores the theme of the unburied dead's unrest in Homeric , where improper rites trap souls in , unable to join their kin among the deceased. Elpenor's apparition also serves a narrative function, introducing the as a pivotal that bridges the living and the dead, setting the stage for Odysseus's consultations with other shades like . True to his promise, in Book 12, Odysseus and his men return to after the visit, retrieve Elpenor's corpse from Circe's house, and perform the at dawn. They build a of wood, burn the body with his armor, heap a of earth and stones on the protruding , and top it with a shapely . This fulfillment emphasizes toward the dead as a in Greek epic, ensuring Elpenor's peaceful transition and reinforcing communal obligations in the face of mortality.

Classical and Post-Classical Influences

Adaptation in Virgil's Aeneid

In Virgil's Aeneid, the character of , the trusted helmsman of 's ship, draws significant inspiration from Elpenor in Homer's , particularly in the circumstances of his death and posthumous appearance. In Book V, Palinurus falls overboard into the sea while at the helm, lulled to sleep by the god on orders from to ensure 's safe landing in , leading to his drowning despite his attempts to cling to the ship. This event parallels Elpenor's accidental fall from Circe's roof in Book X, where he too perishes unexpectedly during the crew's stay on . Later, in Book VI, Palinurus appears as a shade to Aeneas in the during the , recounting his death and pleading for proper burial rites to ease his unburied soul's torment, much like Elpenor's encounter with in Book XI, where he requests a marked by an . Despite these structural similarities, adapts the Homeric model to emphasize Roman themes of fate and over individual mishap. 's demise is not the result of personal folly, such as Elpenor's drunken negligence, but a deliberate divine that advances Aeneas's destined foundation of , highlighting the helmsman's loyalty and the inexorability of providential order. Scholars note that this transformation elevates the unheroic, comedic elements of Elpenor's story into a more dignified portrayal suited to 's epic, where embodies stoic endurance and national purpose, with his unfulfilled burial underscoring the costs of imperial destiny. further distributes aspects of Elpenor's narrative across multiple figures, including Misenus and Caieta, to integrate the motif into the broader aetiological landscape of .

Biblical and Early Interpretations

Scholars have proposed a notable parallel between Elpenor's fatal fall in Homer's and the account of in Acts 20:7–12 of the . In the biblical narrative, the young man falls from a third-story in Troas during an extended sermon by Paul, appearing dead but ultimately being revived through divine intervention, symbolizing and the power of Christian preaching. This contrasts sharply with Elpenor's accidental death from a rooftop fall on Circe's island after a night of drunkenness, where no revival occurs, and his body remains unburied until Odysseus fulfills the subsequent plea from the . The similarities include both figures being young men who succumb to sleep before falling from a height at night, the involvement of a (psuchē) motif, and resolution delayed until dawn, with associates handling the aftermath— for Elpenor and revival for . This connection is argued to reflect Luke's intentional emulation of Homeric elements to elevate Christian themes of life over death for an audience familiar with classical . Elpenor's underworld plea for burial rites can be seen briefly as a precursor to biblical motifs of honoring the dead to ensure their peaceful transition, as echoed in Jewish and early Christian practices.

Modern Cultural Depictions

Literature and Poetry

In Jean Giraudoux's 1919 novella Elpénor, the titular character is reimagined as a dull-witted survivor of Odysseus's crew, embarking on aimless wanderings after the Odyssey's events in a humorous, proto-existentialist retelling that subverts Homeric heroism by emphasizing his incompetence and detachment from epic grandeur. This portrayal draws ironically from Elpenor's mythological death by accidental fall, transforming him into a figure of disillusionment who evades the heroic narrative's closure. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) evokes Elpenor in the "" episode through the funeral of Paddy Dignam, whose sudden death and procession parallel the shade's unceremonious plea for burial in , symbolizing the unheroic, overlooked dead amid modern urban routine. Here, Elpenor represents the anti-heroic , stripped of mythic stature and integrated into Joyce's critique of everyday mortality and alienation. Twentieth-century poets frequently recast Elpenor as a symbol of marginality and . In Ezra Pound's (1920), the poet-protagonist's grave, marked by a decaying , obliquely references Elpenor, likening artistic failure to the crewman's forgotten fate and underscoring themes of cultural disconnection. Archibald MacLeish's "Elpenor" (1933), voiced as a against , positions the figure as a lamenting witness to societal decay, evolving from Homeric minor character to emblem of lost vitality. Mahon's "Lives" () alludes to Elpenor through an eroding on a beach, evoking and the futility of return, while poets like in "Sensual Elpenor" (from Thrush, 1946; collected 2014) and Takis Sinopoulos in his 1976 collection Syllogi portray him as a sensual wanderer embodying trauma and refusal of heroic commitment. Helen Dunmore's "Odysseus to Elpenor" (2017), from her final collection Inside the Wave, addresses the shade directly, using the encounter to explore mortality and the everyman's plea for remembrance amid personal illness. These reinterpretations trace Elpenor's thematic evolution from a comedic foil in early modernist to a poignant anti-hero in , embodying the forgotten , anti-heroism, and modern alienation in response to war, exile, and existential fragility.

Video Games and Other Media

In video games, Elpenor appears as a quest-giver in (2018), where he is depicted as a and member of the Cult of Kosmos involved in the "Blood Fever" questline, including the "Snake in the Grass" mission set in Phokis. This portrayal loosely echoes his mythological role as a flawed companion of , emphasizing themes of betrayal and moral ambiguity rather than outright . Elpenor takes center stage as the in Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break (2020), a and arcade with a satirical twist on . After Odysseus's demise at the hands of , Elpenor leads a cursed crew on a time-traveling adventure, rolling massive boulders through historical and mythical levels in a Monty Python-esque style. The game reimagines his character as a hapless yet resilient adventurer, drawing on Homeric folly for humorous mechanics like accidental mishaps and chaotic defenses. Beyond video games, Elpenor features in graphic novel adaptations of the Odyssey, particularly in countercultural comics that subvert traditional heroic narratives. In Milo Manara's The Odyssey of Giuseppe Bergman (serialized from 1978), Elpenor serves as a key interlocutor, highlighting his ignominious death to critique societal hypocrisy and demythologize the epic. These underground works, analyzed in 2019 studies on threshold graphic narratives, use Elpenor to blend eroticism and satire for dual adult-youth readerships. In music, Elpenor is referenced in Epic: The Musical (2023–2025), a and stage production retelling , where he appears in the "The Underworld" from the Underworld Saga and has a cut dedicated to his character, emphasizing his unnoticed and plea for . This adaptation has gained popularity through platforms like and as of 2025. Elpenor has limited presence in other media forms, with no major film or television depictions as of 2025 despite numerous Odyssey adaptations, such as Christopher Nolan's upcoming 2026 film. In gaming, his portrayals often expand his literary irony into comedic sidekick roles, underscoring themes of misfortune and resilience in modern pop culture.

References

  1. https://dcc.dickinson.edu/homer-odyssey/intro/essays-book-11
  2. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=cgu_etd
  3. https://chs.harvard.edu/anita-nikkanen-a-note-on-memory-and-reciprocity-in-homers-odyssey/
  4. https://www.behindthename.com/name/elpenor/submitted
  5. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerOdyssey9.html
  6. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerOdyssey10.html
  7. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10%3Acard%3D550
  8. https://www.academia.edu/44012135/Taking_Elpenor_Seriously
  9. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerOdyssey11.html
  10. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/blood-honour-and-status-in-odyssey-11/B5E8672E80F517E865EF8F4C5B3A0F3D
  11. https://academic.oup.com/book/5738/chapter/148878618
  12. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerOdyssey12.html
  13. https://www.academia.edu/43645672/Patroclus_and_Elpenor_Dead_and_Unburied_in_The_Upper_and_the_Under_World_in_Homeric_and_Archaic_Epic
  14. https://ia600501.us.archive.org/17/items/omnibus19/02SwainUnderworld.pdf
  15. https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11901/4049
  16. https://depts.drew.edu/jhc/mcdonald.html
  17. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-guide-to-homer/reception-of-homer-since-1900/651F09AEE51DBA3279A7759FEF9F2E81
  18. https://www.nytimes.com/1959/03/15/archives/dullwitted-companion-of-ulysses-elpenor-by-jean-giraudoux.html
  19. https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/hades/
  20. https://www.michaelgroden.com/notes/homer06.html
  21. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/mod.2017.0171
  22. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/archibald-macleish
  23. https://university.open.ac.uk/arts/research/greek-plays/poetry/derek-mahon/derek-mahon-poems-classical-referents/lives
  24. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51358/thrush
  25. https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2975166/file.pdf
  26. https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/inside-the-wave-1149
  27. https://thehighwindowpress.com/2019/04/18/a-review-by-david-cooke-of-helen-dunmores-counting-backwards-poems-1975-2017/
  28. https://www.vg247.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-snake-in-the-grass-quest-find-elpenor
  29. https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Elpenor
  30. https://maximument.com/news/rock-of-ages-3-story-characters/
  31. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1101360/Rock_of_Ages_3_Make__Break/
  32. https://epicthemusical.fandom.com/wiki/Elpenor
  33. https://www.tiktok.com/@jorgeherrans/video/7363749505251970346
  34. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258/
  35. https://cogconnected.com/review/rock-of-ages-3-make-break-review/
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