Euryalus' mother has always stood out among the rest. She left the other mothers behind to stay with her son while most of the women decided to live in Sicily instead of undertaking this arduous journey. She too was highlighted in the battle in which her son died as she ran among the front line soldiers to find the body of Euryalus as the news reached her. Distinctions were further made between her and others grieving over her son's very recognizable body from the speech she made at his side. This speech speaks volumes about the increased importance of sacrifice and self-sacrifice found in the Aeneid, compared to the Iliad or the Odyssey, through the sacrifices made for Euryalus by his mother and other people in his life and death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The entire presence of Euryalus' mother in the poem, The Aeneid, seemed to be a sacrifice for her son. Again and again, he puts his life above his own, a concept not seen in Homer's epics. The speech she makes at his side when she sees him dead also speaks of his death. “Put your spears into me, Rutuli, if you can be moved,” she says to the men around her, and “send this hateful soul into the abyss,” she says to Zeus, begging them to take her life (Aeneid 9.700-04). Her life was so centered on Euryalus that it means little to her without him. He risked his life to reach his body and deliver this moving speech after hearing by word of mouth that he had been killed, ignoring the fighting and going to the forefront of the battle for him (Aeneid 9.675-79). This only after she selflessly left behind the other mothers, many of whom might have been her friends, when they decided to stop in Sicily and found Aethilla, so she could continue with her son (Aeneid 5.825-8). This was not the case in the Odyssey, as family ties did not constitute much to sacrifice. Telemachus rarely, if at all, defended his mother, thinking more of himself and his missing father. Odysseus rejected the temptation to return home to his family, but this was arguably selfish as he lost the lives of his crew through often stupid, selfish, and narcissistic ways in the process, putting more effort into achieving his own goals than caring about them. a whole crew of men. He caused the loss of many lives simply because his ego drove him to reveal his name to a Cyclops to whom he had previously refused to give it, thus demonstrating that he knew some kind of danger involved in freely giving a name. Instead, Aeneis worked to take care of his crew and truly be a leader. Instead of staying behind to mourn his lost wife, he went forward to share in her destiny. When the women burned the ships, he could have easily left them there to die in revenge, but instead he took the time to help them and the elders build a city in which to thrive. He sacrifices much of his life to help fulfill a prophecy, leaving behind a queen he undoubtedly loved to commit suicide, crying as she departs from him into the underworld. The speech that Euryalus' mother gives to lament her son's death shows the central theme of sacrifice throughout the epic. Her mother's love led her to care so deeply for Euryalus and to sacrifice so much of her own life for his, but she was not the only one. to do it. His father also sacrificed himself for him by teaching him to fight, which he proudly did along with Nisus, another person known for sacrificing himself for him. In the competition represented.