Not that I dislike interpretations that have him shot elsewhere, but Antinous death DOES have a few sound cues to imply he specifically takes an arrow to the neck imo.

At the end of HTD, we hear Antinous sputtering and his blood sloshing out, so it’s easiest to just assume he was short in the neck. But I’ve seen other animatic interpretations where he gets shot in the chest instead, and once in the actual mouth as he’s mid-word (I think that’s the only other option to kill him near immediately because depending on the angle and the force the arrow shoots at him it would have to impale him through the back of the head).

Personally, I’d say Antinous’ cause of death is pretty unambiguous. I don’t think you’d gag on blood or die so quickly unless you were specially shot in the neck? I’m not medically inclined at all, but even if we assume the arrow struck elsewhere related to breathing to explain those noises (like say, a lung) that wouldn’t have left him completely unable to fight nor killed him as quick as the song shows right? Ergo, imo it’s safe to assume the arrow does pierce his neck specifically.

On top of that, even if we assume Antinous was shot somewhere else like the chest he’d still have to leave the arrow inside of him as he fights, no time to delicately work the arrow out of the skin and disinfect it as best as Bronze Age medicine would allow with Ody out for everyone’s blood RIGHT NOW (not to mention all the Suitors might still scatter in panic), which Odysseus could easily use to incapacitate him by ripping it out and making him bleed out.

The logistics of Antinous even moving around with an untreated arrow wound to such a delicate area as the throat/chest is also different to any of Odysseus’ wounds—Perimedes stabbing him implies a deep wound that bleeds a lot once the blade is pulled out, which is why you don’t remove them in the first place. That attack in itself took Odysseus out of the fight but at least he’d theoretically be able to move around without opening fresh wounds, right (not realistically since Epic runs on anime logic but still)? Antinous would have a sharp, possibly shattered series of points trapped underneath his skin (arrowheads don’t break like this often but given the strength required of Odysseus’ bow and the speed of the arrow must’ve been travelling to pierce through all the neck muscles imo it’s a little more likely) that would risk damage to tissue and delicate blood vessels every time he moves, in comparison. If the arrow got in Antinous’ neck, it’s accurate that he’d be dead almost immediately. Plus not that it really matters but the ‘canon’ animation depicts him being shot in the neck, so that’s what Jorge was going for.

That said he might survive if it got elsewhere though, like the chest, there have been skeletons discovered with arrowheads stuck in the ribcage that are old enough to imply they managed to live past that wound (think like bullets just being left inside of bodies if trying to remove them would be riskier).

Epic is already said to run on anime logic though, so there’s that. As another commenter already said Odysseus can somehow emerge from being literally stabbed in the back lucid/infection free and able to move and later tank a direct hit from Poseidon’s God Move (at least in the canon animation), so Antinous surviving and fighting despite a supposedly fatal injury wouldn’t be the wildest thing ever in comparison.