Antinous- Greek FigureMortal"Son of Eupeithes"

Lord of the Suitors

Antinous, son of Eupeithes, was the ringleader of the suitors who besieged Penelope during Odysseus's twenty-year absence. While over a hundred nobles occupied the palace, consuming Odysseus's herds and stores, Antinous bullied the household servants and treated the palace as his own. When the disguised Odysseus entered his own hall as a beggar, Antinous threw a footstool at him — an act of violence against a suppliant that shocked even the other suitors.

The Plot Against Telemachus

Antinous organized a conspiracy to murder Telemachus when the young prince sailed to Pylos and Sparta seeking news of his father. He stationed men with a ship at the strait between Ithaca and Samos to ambush Telemachus on his return. Only Athena's intervention saved the prince, guiding his ship by a different route. Antinous sought not merely to marry Penelope but to eliminate the heir and seize Odysseus's kingdom.

The Arrow Through the Throat

When Penelope proposed the contest of stringing Odysseus's great bow and shooting through twelve axe heads, none of the suitors could string the weapon. When the disguised beggar asked to try, Antinous objected furiously, threatening violence — but Odysseus strung the bow with ease and shot through the axes. Then he turned.

Antinous sat lifting a golden cup of wine to his lips. No thought of death was in his mind — who among all those feasting men would expect a single man, however brave, to attack them all? The arrow caught him through the throat. He lurched sideways, the cup fell from his hand, and a thick jet of blood gushed from his nostrils. His foot kicked the table, scattering bread and roasted meat across the floor. His death was the first — the slaughter of the suitors had begun.