Eucharis, who does not appear inGreek mythology, was one of the nymphCalypso's attendants inFénelon's novelLes Aventures de Télémaque (1699), a modern prose epic which incorporatesHomeric themes. In the novel,Telemachus is shipwrecked on Calypso's islandOgygia while searching for his fatherOdysseus, and there falls in love with Eucharis before leaving her to continue the search for his father.
Fénelon, in charge of the education of the prospective heir to the French throne, admonished his readers to see the work "not as a frivolous novel, that is offered here, reader, for your idleness, but a learnedparable". Its theme of the conflict between duty and love is a persistent one, central in French 17th-century classical theater, but peripheral to theOdyssey in spite of its erotic episodes. A sub-theme inLes Aventures de Télémaque, that of spiritual education, is summed up within the novel byMentor, who says, "He who has not felt his weakness and the violence of his passions is not yet wise; for he does not yet understand himself and does not know how to distrust himself."[citation needed] (In the tradition of theOdyssey, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus; Odysseus placed Mentor in charge of his son Telemachus when he himself left for theTrojan War.)
The story is perhaps best known fromJacques-Louis David's paintingThe Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis, painted during David's exile inBrussels (1818), and now at theJ. Paul Getty Museum. She is also depicted inFrederick Leighton'sEucharis – A Girl with a Basket of Fruit (c. 1863). She also appears, somewhat elliptically, inArthur Rimbaud'sAprès le déluge:
Eucharis (Εὔχαρις) is from the Greek compoundεὖ prefixed toχάρις (meaninggrace orcharm, the prefix "eu-" denotinggood orbeautiful). There may also be a connotation of granting sexual favors (from the verb χαρίζειν - charizein).
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