InGreek mythology,Euphorbus (Ancient Greek: ΕὔφορβοςEuphorbos) was aTrojan hero during theTrojan War.

John Tzetzes describes Euphorbus as handsome man with 'the loveliest locks among the curly-haired', into which with gold and other ornaments were braided.^[1]Homer describes his hair as like that of theCharites, and as being bound with gold and silver.^[2]

In theIliad Euphorbus is described as the son ofPanthous andPhrontis, and thus also brother toPolydamas andHyperenor.^[3] In hisChiliades orBook of Histories, Tzetzes relays thatOrpheus gives Euphorbus' parents as thenaiadAbarbarea andBoucolides.^[4]

In theIliad Euphorbus woundedPatroclus before the Achaean hero was killed byHector, and was then killed byMenelaus in the fight for Patroclus' body.^[5]Tzetzes relates that Euphorbus was the second to strike Patroclus with the god Apollo being the first.^[6]

In Homer's account Menelaus is prevented from taking Euphorbus' armour through the actions of Apollo, who, in disguise, drew Hector's attention to Euphorbus' death.^[7] but other sources claim that the shield was taken by Menelaus who dedicated it as an offering in a temple. According toPausanias this was the temple ofHera inArgos,^[8] thoughDiogenes Laërtius claimed it was the temple of Apollo atDidyma.^[9]

Several sources from the 4th Century BCE onwards relate a tradition in which Euphorbus was the subject ofreincarnation. These accounts often includes a story of someone who claimed that they used to be Euphorbus travelling to a temple and identifying an offering within as the shield that Euphorbus had used at Troy. Several versions also assert that the 6th century BCE philosopherPythagoras claimed to be a reincarnation of Euphorbus.

The Roman author and grammarianAulus Gellius states that it was well known that Pythagoras claimed to have been a reincarnation of Euphorbus and adds thatDicaearchus and Clearchus give further details of the chain of reincarnations claimed by Pythagoras.^[10] The Greek sophistPhilostratus also includes the story of Pythagoras' claim in hisLife of Apollonius of Tyana.^[11]

The poetOvid includes both the details of verification via shield and the later reincarnation as Pythagoras in his epic poemMetamorphoses.^[12] The 3rd century CE biographerDiogenes Laërtius reports this story in hisLives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, giving as a source the Greek philosopherHeraclides of Pontus. In this account Pythagoras claimed that Euphorbus was one reincarnation in a string of previous lives which began with theArgonautAethalides. Aethalides' father,Hermes, offered to grant him any wish except for immortality, and Aethalides therefore chose to be able to remember, even in death, everything that had happened to him. In this variant of the story after Aethalides had lived as Euphorbus he becameHermotimus, who, wishing to prove that he had previously been Euphorbus, travelled to the Temple of Apollo atDidyma, and pointed out the shield of Euphorbus which had been dedicated there by Menelaus.^[13]

Although Heraclides is the earliest surviving source for the Pythagorean tradition, Walter Burkert suggests that the fact that the story is also known to Dicaearchus suggests that the tradition predates Heraclides, but nonetheless credits Heraclides with combining different independent traditions of euphorbian reincarnations.^[14]

• 4063 Euforbo, Jovian asteroid
• List of mortals in Greek mythology

• Homer,The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.ISBN 978-0674995796.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer,Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920.ISBN 978-0198145318.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tzetzes, John,Book of Histories, Book I translated by Ana Untila from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826.Online version at theoi.com
• Tzetzes, John,Book of Histories, Book II-IV translated by Gary Berkowitz from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826.Online version at theoi.com
• Burkert, Walter (1972).Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism. Translated by Minar, Edwin L., Jr. Harvard University Press.Bibcode:1972lsap.book.....B.

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