Eurymachus

Eurymachus, son of Polybus, represents one of the most ambitious and outwardly respectable suitors in Ithaca. He comes from a family of standing and is considered highly estimable by the people of Ithaca. When Telemachus first encounters the suitors, Eurymachus distinguishes himself by speaking with apparent courtesy and restraint, inquiring about the mysterious stranger Mentes and showing interest in reports of Odysseus (Ulysses)' fate. He participates fully in the suitors' leisure activities—games of discus and spear-throwing—and joins them in feasting on Odysseus (Ulysses)' stores. During the contest of the bow, he demonstrates his confidence by attempting to string it alongside the others, though he too fails. When the seer Theoclymenus speaks of doom and ghosts, Eurymachus dismisses the prophecy with scornful laughter, calling the stranger mad and ordering him cast into the streets, revealing the suitors' willful blindness to approaching danger.