Eurycleia
heroEurycleia was Odysseus's old nurse who recognised him by a boar-tusk scar on his thigh when she washed his feet — one of the Odyssey's most famous recognition scenes.
The Myth
Eurycleia had nursed Odysseus from infancy and knew the scar he received as a boy hunting on Mount Parnassus. When the disguised Odysseus let her wash his feet, she felt the scar and gasped. Odysseus seized her throat and silenced her before Penelope noticed. The scene is a masterpiece of suspense — Erich Auerbach's famous essay "Odysseus's Scar" (Mimesis, 1946) uses it to define the difference between Homeric and Biblical narrative styles.
Parents
Ops
Symbols
Fun Fact
Auerbach's analysis of Eurycleia's scene in Mimesis (1946) became one of the most influential essays in literary criticism.
Explore Further
Mount Parnassus
placeMount Parnassus was the mountain above Delphi sacred to Apollo and the Muses — the symbolic home of...
Odysseus
heroThe cleverest of the Greek heroes, whose ten-year journey home from Troy is one of the greatest...
Penelope
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Achilles
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Actaeon
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Adonis
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