First of all, this is just a theory. Not necessarily a correct one. Regardless of this, I'm sure it deserves being shared.

TLDR is at the end of the post. The post itself is an analysis of the lyrics.

Introduction

I've been wondering for a while why Eurylochus would open the bag. Many say "he is just dump", but even dump decisions are motivated by something. And, more importantly, they're justified in the eyes of a character. On the other hand, none of the theories people have come up with sat with me quite well. And I've read a lot of these. To my mind, there is just no way Eurylochus would consider opening the wind bag completely safe. He is supposed to be a character cautious of gods after all. Thus, he needs a really good reason for such choice.

Eurylochus' motivation is not mentioned in the narrative. All we are left with is speculation. And if the answer is somewhere, it is hidden in the musical itself.

Analysis

Firstly, let's look at this snippet of Luck Runs Out:

You could be caught off guard and lose your life

Or piss off this god and infuse us with strife

Don't forget how dangerous the gods are

It drew my attention because here Eurylochus theorises what will happen after Odysseus interacts with the wind god. These are his expectations for the upcoming events.

The second line of the segment sounded a little bit peculiar to me. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but look at the first one:

You could be caught off guard --> and lose your life

One thing leads to another in this case (A --> B).

In the second line, one would also expect the same picture, taking into account the "or" at the beginning. But why would "pissing off the god" lead to "infusing [the crew] with strife"? In any case, I suggest we stick to this idea for a while:

You could (...) piss off this god --> and infuse us with strife

C --> D

Now, let's move to Keep Your Friends Close. In this song, we can actually see the crew infused with strife. And there's a god nearby.

However, Aeolus doesn't seem to be pissed off at all. Quite the contrary.

And then I noticed something in the livestream. Something that is not preserved on lyrics websites.

https://preview.redd.it/eszyhimibcde1.jpg?width=1633&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdfc4ccd10a7ffc00f29cee5f64e17e57881286d

An ensemble is singing.

For those who don't know, there is a difference between various backup vocals in Epic. Jorge explained it in one of his videos. To put it simply, when a mortal sings, backup vocals are also those of mortals (Eurylochus and the crew in Luck Runs Out). When a god sings, however, no actual characters sing along (Calypso and her ensemble in Not Sorry for Loving You). Such vocals are actually an extension of the gods. In official lyrics the difference is highlighted. Backup vocals of human characters are referred to as "crew", "soldiers", etc. And vocals that backup gods are marked as "ensemble".

But what interested me the most in Jorge's explanation is that he claims that gods can kind of "summon" background vocals or "allow" them to be present in a scene. These are his words, not mine. He even says that at the end of Ruthlessness, the lyrics of Just a man are "brought back" by Poseidon specifically to demoralise Odysseus. This information started me thinking about something.

Is there a chance that after nine days of Odysseus successfully guarding the bag Aeolus decided to lull him into sleep?

Think about it. This is Aeolus' game. The goal is to make Odysseus stop trusting the crew and the crew stop trusting him. Aeolus says "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" just to cunningly add that Odysseus never really knows who he can trust. As a result, he refuses to keep his friends close. Odysseus pushes them away. He guards the bag without sleep, while winions spread the rumors about the treasure. Therefore, the crew wants to open the bag. They become his enemies in the game. Odysseus, however, doesn't take measures to regain their trust. He doesn't keep his enemies closer than he would've kept his friends. Remember what Polites said back in Open Arms?

You could show a person that you trust them

When you stop and lower your guard

Polites is mentioned in Keep Your Friends Close for a reason:

Everything's changed since Polites, so

But you know what?

For nine days, I've stayed wide awake

Tryin' to make it home with no storm or tidal wave

I remain unopposed, the bag is still closed

And I'm getting closer to you

After nine days, Odysseus, who has totally fallen for Aeolus' tricks, still manages to keep the bag closed. Nobody has opposed him openly. Can we just presume that Aeolus might be potentially "pissed off" about this fact at this point of the story? Annoyed enough to put Odysseus into sleep themself? Aeolus will lose in their own game if the fleet make it home. And Odysseus will not even need to follow the warning about keeping his friends close!

Despite this, even if we can state that the ensemble is summoned by Aeolus, it will be far-fetched, in my opinion, to say that their anger leads to the conflict among the crew. The god started to mess around with them from the very beginning by sending winions.

C --×--> D

Luckily, I noticed something after I had almost discarded the theory as a rather implausible one.

And now I finally want to talk about Eurylochus.

There's another extremely interesting detail in Keep Your Friends Close regarding the vocals.

Have you noticed that Eurylochus doesn't sing with the crew throughout the song, like, at all?)

Not only when Odysseus returns on the ship. It has been already pointed out by many that only Perimedes and Elpenor are present at the moment. In fact, Eurylochus' voice isn't heard during the second chorus either. It is even highlighted in one of KYFC snippets, that features only Perimedes and Elpenor's voice actors during this part.

And Eurylochus is literally the voice of the soldiers. He is meant to represent their wants, needs, and opinions in the narrative. Thus, the only thing his absence can indicate is that his thoughts on the matter of opening the wind bag contradict with those of the crew. He simply doesn't want to object his captain.

But hear me out now. The gods are dangerous. And pissed off gods are even more dangerous.

All I want to say is that if Eurylochus found out that Aeolus isn't happy with them reaching Ithaca, he would probably open the bag. "Infuse us with strife" may potentially turn out to be "infuse [you and me] with strife". And, mind you, none of the characters understands just yet that the storm in the bag was caused by Poseidon. Yes, it is dangerous and more extreme than usual ones. Nonetheless, if this is not a divine force, the fleet can potentially survive it. In the eyes of Eurylochus, Aeolus would be a greater danger than the storm.

Apart from that, if it was wrong of Odysseus to trust Aeolus, the words:

You can be caught off guard and lose your life

Could also potentially turn out to be a possibility from Eurylochus' point of view. And, by the way, "be caught off guard" might be interpreted as a wordplay in this case.

If it matters, in the early drafts of Epic Jorge wanted Poseidon to persuade Eurylochus to open the bag. Maybe, Jay didn't gave up on this idea completely and it has simply developed into something new?

Such motivation for Eurylochus is convincing for me personally. And although I have a feeling that the theory is a bit wild here and there, some parts of it haven't let me sleep at night. For instance, the ensemble, Eurylochus' absence during most of Keep Your Friends Close, and the fact that he voices his outlook on the future events in Luck Runs Out.

What do you think about all of it?

TLDR: Lyrics of Luck Runs Out and Keep Your Friends Close imply that Eurylochus might have opened the wind bag because he was afraid that not doing it and getting back to Ithaca would anger Aeolus.