An Eurynomos depicted on ReadRiordan.
| “ | HADES GAVE ME OLD DEAD! THE MASTER GIVES ME FRESH! | ” |
–The eurynomos encountered at the start of the novel. | ||
A Eurynomos (plural: Eurynomoi) is a spirit of rotting corpses and is a flesh eating monster originating in the Underworld. Usually travelling in pairs, they are a species loved by Hades. Many eurynomoi were in service to Tarquin.
Description[]
The slightest cut from the claws of a euryomos causes a wasting disease in mortals. And when they die, they rise again as vrykolakas, Greek zombies. If a eurynomos manages to devour the flesh from a corpse until only its bones are left, those bones would reanimate into a skeleton warrior. These skeleton warriors usually serve as guards in Hades' Palace. The healers of Camp Jupiter are typically able to cure the infection that they cause due to experience with the creature, however, Apollo required godly healing, possibly due to his own lingering godly nature.
The Trials of Apollo[]
The Tyrant's Tomb[]
Depicted on The Tyrant's Tomb UK cover
On their way to Camp Jupiter, Apollo and Meg McCaffrey are attacked by one and are thrown into a nearby park. The euryomos is about to kill them and eat Jason's corpse when the pair are saved by Lavinia Asimov. A pair of eurynomos then attack the group in Caldecott Tunnel, in which one of them slashes Apollo across the chest, inflicting him with its disease. Before being killed by Hazel, the last euryonomos is possessed by the spirit of Tarquin, taunting the daughter of Pluto before she kills it with a quartz spike.
Several eurynomoi are present in Tarquin's Tomb, where one by the name of Caelius informs him that their forces are ready to launch an assault in time for the blood moon's rising.
Another eurynomos appears in a flashback projected from Harpocrates. Under the possession of Tarquin, it enters the soundless god's chamber and tosses to him the glass jar containing the Oracle of Cumae, before limping away. A eurynomos later attacks Apollo, Meg and Reyna Ramírez-Arellano and causes their truck to swerve off the road.
Appearance[]
The euryomos that Apollo nicknamed "Vulture Diaper" looked like a withered and ghoulish humanoid. Its blue-black hide glistened like the skin of a house fly, its eyes were filmy and milky white orbs, and its bared teeth in its oversize mouth were dripping saliva. Around its torso was a tattered a loincloth of greasy black feathers. Its smell of rancid meat was more putrid than any dumpster.
Eurynomoi mostly communicate via screaming indicated in capital letters, often relating to their hunger. However Caelius, the eurynomos relaying information to Tarquin, was able to communicate properly in a measured British accent in-between its ranting.
Trivia[]
- Rick Riordan calls the Eurynomos a disgusting monster and he loves it.[1]
- Eurynomos is, outside of the Riordanverse, either a minor figure whose associated literature is lost to time - minor god of rotting corpses, or possibly an invention by the painter Polygnotos.