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Eugenides is a deity in the Eddisian pantheon and the patron god of thieves. Many Thieves of Eddis have been named after him, and his name is also used as their title. Though born a mortal, Eugenides became a god after drinking from the wellspring of immortality. He is the half-brother of Hephestia, the Great Goddess.

Mythology[]

Feeling sorry for a mortal woodcutter and his wife who are unable to have children of their own, Earth gifts them with a mortal baby. They name the baby Eugenides, meaning "wellborn", and take him home. As he grows up, Earth visits him occasionally in the guise of an old woman, and grants him many gifts, including the gift of languages. When he is fifteen, she plans to bestow immortality upon him, but she is stopped by the Sky, who is jealous that she has had other children without him. The Sky eventually promises not to harm Eugenides as long as Earth does not bring him any more gifts.

Eugenides eventually tricks the Sky into granting him immortality by stealing the Sky's thunderbolts. However, the Sky laces the water of immortality with a bitter poison, so that Eugenides's life will likewise be filled with bitterness.

Eugenides's mortal brother Lyopidus, who had been jealous of Eugenides his entire life, grows to hate his brother after he becomes immortal. He agrees to help the Sky humiliate Eugenides, and goes to see him in his home across the Middle Sea. There, Lyopidus convinces Eugenides to steal the thunderbolts once again, and then asks him to throw one. When Eugenides does, the entire world begins to burn in a great fire. Lyopidus is killed, but Eugenides survives due to his immortality. He is swept away by a river that Hamiathes convinced to douse the fire, and emerges from the waters with charred black skin.

Trivia[]

  • Although Eugenides is described as black-skinned in the myth, his skin is actually "a deep brownish red, like fired clay", and resembles the portraits found in ancient ruins on nearby islands.[1]
  • Eugenides has a burn scar shaped like a feather on one cheek.

References[]

  1. The Thief, Chapter Nine.
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