Key Points

- Underworld guardian who eats the flesh of the dead.

Brief Bio

Eurynomos is either a minor figure whose associated literature is lost to time. The sole piece of evidence concerning him comes from Pausanias,in his description of a painting of Hades by Polygnotos at Delphoi, Phocis:

Eurynomos, said by the Delphian guides to be one of the daimones of Hades, who eats off all the flesh of the corpses, leaving only their bones. But Homer's Odyssey, the poem called the Minyad, and the Returns, although they tell of Hades and its horrors, know of no daimon called Eurynomos. However, I will describe what he is like and his attitude in the painting. He is of a colour between blue and black, like that of meat flies; he is showing his teeth and is seated, and under him is spread a vulture's skin.