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Greek Mythology >> Bestiary >> Giants >> Gigantes >> Eurymedon

EURYMEDON

Greek Name

Ευρυμεδων

Transliteration

Eurymedon

Latin Spelling

Eurymedon

Translation

Wide-Ruling

EURYMEDON was the king of the Gigantes (Giants) of Pallene who led his people to their doom in a war against the gods.

He was probably the same as Alkyoneus or Porphyrion who are named as the king of the Gigantes by other writers.


PARENTS

See the GIGANTES

OFFSPRING

PERIBOIA, other daughters (Homer Odyssey 7.56)


CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Homer, Odyssey 7. 56 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"First came Nausithoos, son of Poseidaon (Poseidon) and lovely Periboia (Periboea), the youngest daughter of bold Eurymedon, who once was king (basileus) of the overbearing Gigantes (Giants), but then brought doom on his reckless people and on himself. Poseidaon lay with Periboia, and she bore him this son, Nausithoos, who became king of the Phaiekes (Phaeacians)."

Homer, Odyssey 7. 200 ff :
"[King Alkinoos (Alcinous) of the Phaiekes (Phaeacians) describes his people :] ‘In the past they [the gods] have always appeared undisguised among us at our offering of noble hecatombs; they have feasted beside us, they have sat at the same table. And if one of us comes upon them as he travels alone, then too they have never as yet made concealment, because we are close of kin (egguthen) to themselves, just like those of the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) race or the savage people (phyla) of the Gigantes (Giants).’"
[N.B. It is not clear exactly why Homer describes these three races as "close of kin." The most obvious explanation is that the first Phaeacian king was a grandson of Eurymedon, king of the Gigantes. Later classical writers, however, explain this passage by saying that the Gigante, Phaeacian--and presumably Kyklops (Cyclops)--tribes were born of Gaia the Earth when she was impregnated by the blood of the castrated sky-god Ouranos. Cf. Apollonius Rhodius 4.982 on the sickle of Kronos.]

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 29. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Homer does not mention Gigantes (Giants) at all in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey he relates how the Laistrygones (Laestrygones) [were] . . . not in the likeness of men but of Gigantes, and he makes also the king of the Phaiakes (Phaeacians) say that the Phaiakes are near to the gods like the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) and the race of Gigantes. In these places he indicates that the Gigantes are mortal, and not of divine race, and his words in the following passage are plainer still :--‘Who once was king among the haughty Gigantes; but he destroyed the infatuate folk, and was destroyed himself.’ Folk in the poetry of Homer means the common people."


SOURCES

GREEK

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.