Listen, I Understand Why People Are Upset With Eurylochus (Epic). I Get It! He Makes Choices That Damn

Listen, I understand why people are upset with Eurylochus (Epic). I get it! He makes choices that damn the entire crew, questions Odysseus when he shouldn't, etc. He's easy to blame.

But can you blame him? For opening the bag a god had given them when all the last god did was drown hundreds of their men? For being afraid on Circe's island and wanting so desperately to just go home? For being angry when the man who is known for his intelligence, who REFUSED to leave behind a single man, who SAID THAT NO ONE ELSE WOULD DIE, then sacrificed 6 men? Six people you've fought beside for a decade in a ruthless war and survived every battle, problem, and smite the gods had sent?

Can you blame him for his hunger?

SIX HUNDRED LIFES AT STAKE IT'S JUST ONE LIFE TO TAKE

Together they shine ✨

I know people really like disheveled Odysseus but like, wouldn't it be worse if during his stay at calypso's island he's the most cleaned up and groomed he's ever been during his voyage. His hair is long and silky smooth, his beard is trimmed, his clothes are pristine and hang nicely from his body. Calypso treats him like a prized possession, and how could she possibly let it (her pet? her toy?) get unkempt and scruffy? Idk something about him having a complete lack of agency and no choice in even the way he looks and his stay in a supposed paradise reflecting on his person

part of what makes tragedies tragic is the story being preventable from the outside but unpreventable from the inside

NO-ONE AND I MEAN NO-ONE UNDERSTANDS EURYLOCHUS LIKE I DO

HIS FATAL FLAW IS HUNGER. HE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO BRING UP HOW LITTLE FOOD THEY HAD IN THE TROY SAGA. HE OPENED THE BAG BECAUSE OF HIS HUNGER FOR A MYSTERIOUS TREASURE. HE KILLS THE COW BECAUSE OF HIS UNYIELDING HUNGER.

HE TRIED TO TALK ABOUT THE WIND BAG AT THE START OF THE CIRCE SAGA BUT ODYSSEUS WOULDN’T HEAR HIM. HE HAS LIVED WITH THAT GUILT FOR THE ENTIRE TIME.

HE WAS NOT HYPOCRITICAL FOR BEING MAD AT ODYSSEUS FOR SACRIFICING 6 MEN BECAUSE EVEN THO HE WANTED TO SACRIFICE THE MEN TO CIRCE, ODYSSEUS TEACHES HIM THAT THEY MUST FIGHT. SURE NOT ALL OF THEM WILL SURVIVE BUT THEY MUST TRY NONETHELESS. SO ODYSSEUS CHOOSING NOT TO SAVE THEM WAS THE PROBLEM. THEY PROBABLY WOULD HAVE DIED REGARDLESS BUT IT WAS THE FACT THAT THEIR DEATHS WERE PLANNED AND THEY WERE PURPOSELY SACRIFICED THAT EURYLOCHUS WAS ANNOYED AT. HE WAS PISSED THAT ODY HAD TAUGHT HIM TO BE BETTER AND THEN ODY CHOSE TO BE WORSE.