exists, and cannot be much less than three miles. The walls, which are chiefly of polygonal construction, are in an excellent state of preservation, often to a height of from 10 to 12 feet. Towards the N. of the city was the port, communicating with the sea by a deep river or creek running up through the contiguous marsh to Petala on the coast. Leake discovered the ruins of a theatre, which stood near the middle of the city; but the most interesting remains in the place are its arched posterns or sally ports, and a larger arched gateway leading from the port to the city. These arched gateways appear to be of great antiquity, and prove that the arch was known in Greece at a much earlier period than is usually supposed. Drawings of several of these gateways are given by Mure. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 556, seq.; Mure, Journal of a Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 106, seq.; see also, respecting the arches at Oeniadae, Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 121.) which they took; but after holding it for a year, they were attacked by the Acarnanians and compelled to abandon the town. (Paus. iv. 25.) Oeniadae is represented at that time as an enemy of Athens, which is said to have been one of the reasons that induced the Messenians to attack the place. Twenty-three years before the Peloponnesian War (B. C. 454) Pericles laid siege to the town, but was unable to take it. (Thuc. i. 111; Diod. xi. 85.) In the Peloponnesian War, Oeniadae still continued opposed to the Athenians, and was the only Acarnanian town, with the exception of Astacus, which sided with the Lacedaemonians. In the third year of the war (429) Phormion made an expedition into Acarnania to secure the Athenian ascendancy; but though he took Astacus, he did not continue to march against Oeniadae, because it was the winter, at which season the marshes secured the town from all attack. In the following year (428) his son Asopius sailed up the Achelous, and ravaged the territory of Oeniadae; but it was not till 424 that Demosthenes, assisted by all the other Acarnanians, compelled the town to join the Athenian alliance. (Thuc. ii. 102, iii. 7, iv. 77.) It continued to be a place of great importance during the Macedonian and Roman wars. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Aetolians, who had extended their dominions on the W. bank of the Achelous, succeeded in obtaining possession of Oeniadae, and expelled its inhabitants in so cruel a manner that they were threatened with the vengeance of Alexander. (Diod. xviii. 8.) Oeniadae remained in the hands of the Aetolians till 219, when it was taken by Philip, king of Macedonia. This monarch, aware of the importance of the place, strongly fortified the citadel, and commenced uniting the harbour and the arsenal with the citadel by means of walls. (Polyb. iv. 65.) In 211 Oeniadae, together with the adjacent Nesus 2. A city of Thessaly, in the district Oetaca (Nigos) or Nasus, was taken by the Romans, under | (Strab. ix. p. 434; Steph. B. s. v.) M. Valerius Laevinus, and given to the Aetolians, who were then their allies; but in 189 it was restored to the Acarnanians by virtue of one of the conditions of the peace made between the Romans and Aetolians in that year. (Pol. ix. 39; Liv. xxvi. 24; Polyb. xxii. 15; Liv. xxxviii. 11.) From this period Oeniadae disappears from history; but it continued to exist in the time of Strabo (x. p. 459). The exact site of Oeniadae was long a matter of dispute. Dodwell and Gell supposed the ruins on the eastern side of the Achelous to represent Oeniadae; but these ruins are those of Pleuron. [PLEURON.] The true position of Oeniadae has now been fixed with certainty by Leake, and his account has been confirmed by Mure, who has since visited the spot. Its ruins are found at the modern Trikardho, on the W. bank of the Achelous, and are surrounded by morasses on every side. To the N. these swamps deepen into a reedy marsh or lake, now called Lesini or Katokhi, and by the ancients Melite. In this lake is a small island, probably the same as the Nasos mentioned above. Thucydides is not quite correct in his statement (ii. 102) that the marshes around the city were caused by the Achelous alone; he appears to take no notice of the lake of Melite, which afforded a much greater protection to the city than the Achelous, and which has no connection with this river. The city occupied an extensive insulated hill, from the southern extremity of which there stretches out a long slope in the direction of the Achelous, connecting the hill with the plain. The entire circuit of the fortifications still Strabo (x. p. 450) speaks of a town called Old Oenia (ʼn waλaià Oivaía*), which was deserted in his time, and which he describes as midway between Stratus and the sea. New Oenia (ή νῦν Oivaía), which he places 70 stadia above the mouth of the Achelous, is the celebrated town of Oeniadae, spoken of above. The history of Old Oenia is unknown. Leake conjectures that it may possibly have been Erysiche ('Epvolxn), which Stephanus supposes to be the same as Oeniadae; but this is a mistake, as Strabo quotes the authority of the poet Apollodorus to prove that the Erysichaei were a people in the interior of Acarnania. Leake places Old Oenia at Palea Mani, where he found some Hellenic remains. (Steph. B. s. v. Oiveιádai; Strab. x. p. 460; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 524, seq.) COIN OF OENIADAE. OENIUS (Olvios), also called Oenoë (Olvón, Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 16), a small river of Pontus, emptying itself into the Euxine, 30 stadia east of the mouth of the Thoaris. (Anonym. Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 11.) [L. S.] OENOANDA (Olvoάvda), a town in the extreme west of Pisidia, belonging to the territory of Cibyra, with which and Balbura and Bubon it formed a tetrapolis, a political confederacy in which each town had one vote, while Cibyra had two. (Strab. xiii. p. 631; Steph. B. s. v.; Liv. xxxviii. 37; Plin. v. 28; comp. CIBYRA.) The town is mentioned as late as the time of Hierocles, who, however (p. 685), calls it by the corrupt name of Enoanda. [L.S.] * The MSS. of Strabo have Aivaía, which Leake was the first to point out must be changed into Oivaía. Kramer, the latest editor of Strabo, has inserted Leake's correction in the text. OENOBARAS (Οἰνοβάρας οι Οινοπάρας), the sandy waste; and Müller, in his map to illustrate river of the plain of Antioch, in Syria, at which, the Coast-describer (Tab. in Geog. Graec. Min. Par. according to Strabo (xvi. p. 751), Ptolemy Phi-1855), places Amaraea at Ras-al-Hamrak, where lometer, having conquered Alexander Balas in Admiral Smyth (Mediterranean, p. 456) marks battle, died of his wounds. It has been identified cove ruins, and Admiral Beechey (Exped, to N.Coast with the Uphrenus, modern Aphreen, which, rising of Africa, p. 72) the ruins of several baths with in the roots of Amanus Mons (Almadaghy), runs tesselated pavements, to the W. of which there is southward through the plain of Cyrrhestica, until a stream flowing from the Wady Mata. [E. B. J.] it falls into the small lake, which receives also the OENO'NE or OENO'PIA. [AEGINA.] Labotas and the Arceuthus, from which their united waters run westward to join the Orontes coming from the south. The Oenoparas is the easternmost of the three streams. It is unquestionably the Afrin of Abulfeda. (Tabula Syr., Supplementa, p. 152, ed. Koehler; Chesney, Expedition, vol. i. pp. 407, 423.) [G. W.] OE'NOE (Oivón). 1. A small town on the northwest coast of the island of Icaria. (Strab. xiv. p. 639; Steph. B. s. v. ; Athen. i. p. 30.) This town was probably situated in the fertile plain below the modern Messaria. The name of the town seems to be derived from the wine grown in its neighbourhood on the slopes of Mount Pramnus, though others believe that the Icarian Oenoë was a colony of the Attic town of the same name. (Comp. Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, ii. pp. 159, 162.) 2. A port-town on the coast of Pontus, at the mouth of the river Oenius, which still bears its ancient name of Oenoë under the corrupt form Unieh. (Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. p. 16; Anonym. Peripl. p. 11; comp. Hamilton, Researches, i. p. 271.) 3. An ancient name of the island of Sicinus. [SICINUS.] [L. S.] OE'NOE (Olvón: Eth. Oivoaîos, Olvaîos). 1. An Attic demus near Marathon. [MARATHON.] 2. An Attic demus near Eleutherae, upon the confines of Boeotia. [Vol. I. p. 329, No. 43.] 3. A fortress in the territory of Corinth. [Vol. I. p. 685, b.] 4. Or OENE (Olvn, Steph. B. s. v.), a small town in the Argeia, west of Argos, on the left bank of the river Charadrus, and on the southern (the Prinus) of the two roads leading from Argos to Mantineia. Above the town was the mountain Artemisium (Malevós), with a temple of Artemis on the summit, worshipped by the inhabitants of Oenoe under the name of Oenoatis (Olvwaris). The town was named by Diomedes after his grandfather Oeneus, who died here. In the neighbourhood of this town the Athenians and Argives gained a victory over the Lacedaemonians. (Paus. ii. 15. § 2, i. 15. § 1, x. 10. § 4; Apollod. i. 8. § 6; Steph. B. 3. v.) Leake originally placed Oenoe near the left bank of the Charadrus; but in his later work he has changed his opinion, and supposes it to have stood near the right bank of the Inachus. His original supposition, however, seems to be the correct one; since there can be little doubt that Ross has rightly described the course of the two roads leading from Argos to Mantineia. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 413, Pelopon. p. 266; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 133.) 5. Or BOEONOA, a town of Elis, near the Homeric Ephyra. (Strab. viii. p. 338.) [Vol. I. p. 839, b.] OENOLADON (Olvoλádwv, Stadiasm. § 96). a river in the district of the African Syrtes, near the town of AMARAEA ('Aμapaía, Stadiasm. I. c.), where there was a tower and a cove. Barth (Wanderungen, pp. 300, 359) refers it to the Wady Msid, where there is a valley with a stream of sweet water in ΟΕΝΟΡΗΥΤΑ (τὰ Οινόφυτα), a place in Boeotia, where the Athenians under Myronides gained a signal victory over the Boeotians in B. C. 456. As this victory was followed by the destruction of Tanagra, there can be little doubt that it was in the territory of the latter city, not far from the frontier of Attica. Its name, moreover, shows that it was the place where the wine was chiefly produced, for which the territory of Tanagra was celebrated. Leake therefore places it at I'nia (written Olvia, perhaps a corruption of Oivópura), which stands in a commanding position near the left bank of the Asopus, between Tanagra and Oropus. (Thuc. i. 108, iv. 95; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 463.) OENO'TRIA (Oivwrpía), was the name given by the Greeks in very early times to the southernmost portion of Italy. That country was inhabited at the period when the Greeks first became acquainted with it, and began to colonise its shores, by a people whom they called OENOTRI or OENOTRII (Oiverpoí or Olvárpio). Whether the appellation was a national one, or was even known to the people themselves, we have no means of judging; but the Greek writers mention several other tribes in the same part of Italy, by the names of Chones, Morgetes, and Itali, all of whom they regarded as of the same race with the Oenotrians; the two former being expressly called Oenotrian tribes [CHONES; MORGETES], while the name of Itali was, according to the account generally received, applied to the Oenotrians in general. Antiochus of Syracuse distinctly spoke of the Oenotri and Itali as the same people (ap. Strab. vi. p. 254), and defined the boundaries of Oenotria (under which name he included the countrs subsequently known as Lucania and Bruttium exclusive of Iapygia) as identical with those of Italia (ap. Strab. 1. c.). A well-known tradition, adopted by Virgil, represented the Oenotrians as taking the name of Italians, from a chief or king of the name of Italus (Dionys. i. 12, 35; Virg. Aen. i. 533; Arist. Pol. vii. 10); but it seems probable that this is only one of the mythical tales so common among the Greeks: and whether the name of Itali was only the native appellation of the people whom the Greeks called Oenotrians, or was originally that of a particular tribe, like the Chones and Morgetes, which was gradually extended to the whole nation, it seems certain that, in the days of Antiochus, the names Oenotri and Itali, Oenotria and Italia, were regarded as identical in signification. The former names, however, had not yet fallen into disuse; at least Herodotus employs the name of Oenotria, as one familiar to his readers, to designate the country in which the Phocaean colony of Velia was founded. (Herod. i. 167.) But the gradual extension of the name of Italia, as well as the conquest of the Oenotrian territory by the Sabellian races of the Lucanians and Bruttians, naturally led to the disuse of their name; and though this is still employed by Aristotle (Pol. vii. 10), it is only in reference to the ancient customs and habits of the people, and does not prove that the name was still in current use in his time. Scymnus Chius uses the name Oenotria in a different sense, as distinguished from Italia, and confines it to a part only of Lucania; but this seems to be certainly opposed to the common usage, and probably arises from some misconception. (Scymn. Ch. 244, 300.) There seems no doubt that the Oenotrians were a Pelasgic race, akin to the population of Epirus and the adjoining tract on the E. of the Adriatic. This was evidently the opinion of those Greek writers who represented Oenotrus as one of the sons of Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, who emigrated from Arcadia at a very early period. (Pherecydes, ap. Dionys. i. 13; Paus. viii. 3. § 5.) The statement of Pausanias, that this was the most ancient migration of which he had any knowledge, shows that the Oenotrians were considered by the Greeks as the earliest inhabitants of the Italian peninsula. But a more conclusive testimony is the incidental notice in Stephanus of Byzantium, that the Greeks in Southern Italy called the native population, whom they had reduced to a state of serfdom like the Penestae in Thessaly and the Helots in Laconia, by the name of Pelasgi. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Xio..) These serfs could be no other than the Oenotrians. Other arguments for their Pelasgic origin may be deduced from the recurrence of the same names in Southern Italy and in Epirus, as the Chones and Chaones, Pandosia, and Acheron, &c. Aristotle also notices the custom of avoσírial, or feasting at public tables, as subsisting from a very early period among the Oenotrians as well as in Crete. (Arist. Pol. vii. 10.) The relation of the Oenotrians to the other tribes of Italy, and their subjection by the Lucanians, a Sabellian race from the north, have been already given in the article ITALIA. [E. H. B.] OENO'TRIDES INSULAE (Oivwrpides vñσoi), were two small islands off the shore of Lucania, nearly opposite Velia. (Strab. vi. p. 252; Plin. iii. 7. s. 13.) Their individual names, according to Pliny, were Pontia and Iscia. Cluverius (Ital. p. 1260) speaks of them as still existing under their ancient names; but they are mere rocks, too small to be inarked on ordinary modern maps. [E. H. B.] OENUS (Olvous: Eth. Oivoúvrios), a small town in Laconia, celebrated for its wine, from which the river Oenus, a tributary of the Eurotas, appears to have derived its name. From its being described by Athenaeus as near Pitane, one of the divisions of Sparta, it was probably situated near the junction of the Oenus and the Eurotas. (Steph. B. s. v.; Athen. i. p. 31.) The river Oenus, now called Kelefina, rises in the watershed of Mt. Parnon, and, after flowing in a general south-westerly direction, falls into the Eurotas, at the distance of little more than a mile from Sparta. (Polyb. ii. 65, 66; Liv. xxxiv. 28.) The principal tributary of the Oenus was the Gorgylus (Copyvλos, Polyb. ii. 66), probably the river of restená. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 347.) OENUSSAE (Οἰνοῦσσαι, Οἰνοῦσαι). 1. A group of islands off the coast of Messenia. [Vol. II. p. 342, b.] 2. A group of islands between Chios and the Asiatic coast. (Herod. i. 165; Thuc. viii. 24; Steph. B. 8. v.) They are five in number, now called Spalmadores or Ergonisi. Pliny (v. 31. s. 38) mentions only one island. OEROE. [PLATAEAE.] OESCUS. 1. (Olσkos, Ptol. iii. 10. § 10, viii. 11. § 6), a town of the Triballi in Lower Moesia, seated near the mouth of the river of the same naine, and on the road from Viminacium to Nicomedia, 12 miles E. from Valeriana, and 14 miles W. from Utum. (Itin. Ant. p. 220.) It was the station of the Legio V. Maced. Procopius, who calls the town 'IoKós, says that it was fortified by Justinian (de Aed. iv. 6). Usually identified with Oreszovitz, though some hold it to be Glava. 2. A river of Lower Moesia, called by Thucydides (ii. 96) "Oσkios, and by Herodotus (iv. 49) Exios. Pliny (iii. 26. s. 29) places its source in Mount Rhodope; Thucydides (l. c.) in Mount Scomius, which adjoined Rhodope. Its true source, however, is on the W. side of Haemus, whence it pursues its course to the Danube. It is now called the Isker or Esker. [T. H. D.] [BRITANNICAE Insulae, OESTRYMNIDES. Vol. I. p. 433.] OESYME (Olovun, Thuc. iv. 107; Scyl. p. 27 (the MS. incorrectly Zovun); Scymn. Ch. 655; Diod. Sic. xii. 68 (by an error of the MS. Zúun); Ptol. iii. 13. §9; Plin. iv. 18; Armenidas, ap. Athen. p. 31: Eth. Olovμaîos, Steph. B.), a Thasian colony in Pieris, which, with Galepsus, was taken by Brasidas, after the capture of Amphipolis. (Thuc. I. c.) Its position must be sought at some point on the coast between Neftér and the mouth of the Strymon. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 179; Cousinery, Voyage dans la Macedoine, vol. ii. p. 69.) [E. B. J.] OETA (Oirn: Eth. Oiraîos), a mountain in the south of Thessaly, which branches off from Mt. Pindus, runs in a south-easterly direction, and forms the northern barrier of Central Greece. The only entrance into Central Greece from the north is through the narrow opening left between Mt. Oeta and the sea, celebrated as the pass of Thermopylae. [THERMOPYLAE]. Mt. Oeta is now called Kataróthra, and its highest summit is 7071 feet. (Journal of Geogr. Soc. vol. vii. p. 94.) The mountain immediately above Thermopylae is called Callidromon both by Strabo and Livy. (Strab. ix. p. 428; Liv. xxxvi. 15.) The latter writer says that Callidromon is the highest summit of Mt. Oeta; and Strabo agrees with him in describing the summit nearest to Thermopylae as the highest part of the range; but in this opinion they were both mistaken, Mt. Patriótiko, which lies more to the west, being considerably higher. Strabo describes the proper Oeta as 200 stadia in length. It is celebrated in mythology as the scene of the death of Hercules, whence the Roman poets give to this hero the epithet of Oetaeus. From this mountain the southern district of Thessaly was called Oetaea (Oiraîa, Strab. ix. pp. 430, 432, 434), and its inhabitants Oetaei (Oirator, Herod. vii. 217; Thuc. iii. 92; Strab. ix. p. 416). There was also a city, Oeta, said to have been founded by Amphissus, son of Apollo and Dryope (Anton. Liberal. c. 32), which Stephanus B. (s. v.) describes as a city of the Malians. Leake places it at the foot of Mt. Patriótiko, and conjectures that it was the same as the sacred city mentioned by Callimachus. (Hymn. in Del. 287.) [See Vol. II. p. 255.] (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 4, seq.) OETENSII (Oiτývσio, Ptol. iii. 10. § 9), a tribe in the eastern part of Moesia Inferior. [T. H. D.] OETYLUS (OTUλos, Hom., Paus., Steph. B.; BeíTuλos, Böckh, Inscr. no. 1323; Bírvλa, Ptol. iii. 16. § 22; Οίτυλος—καλεῖται δ ̓ ὑπό τινων Βείτυλος, Strab. viii. p. 360, corrected in accordance with the inscription), a town of Laconia on the eastern side era. of the Messenian gulf, represented by the modern town of Vitylo, which has borrowed its name from it. Pausanias says that it was 80 stadia from Thalamae and 150 from Messa; the latter distance is too great, but there is no doubt of the identity of Oetylus and Vitylo; and it appears that Pausanias made a mistake in the names, as the distance between Oetylus and Caenepolis is 150 stadia. Oetylus is mentioned by Homer, and was at a later time one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns. It was still governed by its ephors in the third century of the Christian Pausanias saw at Oetylus a temple of Sarapis, and a wooden statue of Apollo Carneius in the agora. Among the modern houses of Vitylo there are remains of Hellenic walls, and in the church a beautiful fluted Ionic column supporting a beam at one end of the aisle, and three or four Ionic capitals in the wall of the church, probably the remains of the temple of Sarapis. (Hom. Il. ii. 585; Strab. viii. p. 360; Paus. iii. 21. § 7, 25. § 10, 26. § 1; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. l. c.; Böckh, l. c.; Morritt, in Walpole's Turkey, p. 54; Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 313; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 92; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 283.) OEUM (Olov), a mountain fortress situated in eastern Locris, above Opus, and destroyed by an earthquake. (Strab. i. p. 60.) According to Gell its ruins are to be seen on a steep hill, 25 minutes above Livanitis. (Itin. p. 232.) OEUM or IUM (Olóv, Olov, 'Ióv: Eth. Oldτns, 'Iárns), the chief town of the district Sciritis in Laconia, commanded the pass through which was the road from Tegea to Sparta. It probably stood in the Klisura, or narrow pass through the watershed of the mountains forming the natural boundary between Laconia and Arcadia. When the Theban army under Epaminondas first invaded Laconia in four divisions, by four different passes, the only division which encountered any resistance was the one which marched through the pass defended by Oeum. But the Spartan Ischolaus, who commanded a body of troops at this place, was overpowered by superior numbers; and the invading force thereupon proceeded to Sellasia, where they were joined by the other divisions of the army. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. §§ 24-26.) In Xenophon the town is called 'Ió and the inhabitants 'Iarai; but the form Oióv or Olov is probably more correct. Such towns or villages, situated upon mountainous heights, are frequently called Oeum or Oea. (Comp. Harpocrat. s. v. Olov.) Probably the Oeum in Sciritis is referred to in Stephanus under Olos · noλíxviov Teyéas. Aloxúλos Μυσοῖς· οἱ πολίται Οἰᾶται. Oeum is not mentioned subsequently, unless we suppose it to be the same place as IASUS (laσos), which Pausanias describes as situated within the frontiers of Laconia, but belonging to the Achaeans. (Paus. vii. 13. § 7; comp. Suid. s. v. "Iaσos; Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 30; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 179; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 264.) OEUM CERAMEICUM. [ATTICA, p. 326, a.] OEUM DECELEICUM. [ATTICA, p. 330, a.] OGDAEMI. [MARMARICA.] OGLASA, a small island in the Tyrrhenian or Ligurian sea, between Corsica and the coast of Etruria. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12.) It is now called Monte Cristo. [E. H. B.] OGY'GIA ('Qyvyin) is the name given by Homer in the Odyssey to the island inhabited by the nymph Calypso. He describes it as the central point or navel of the sea (õμparos daráoons), far from all other lands; and the only clue to its position that he gives us is that Ulysses reached it after being borne at sea for eight days and nights after he had escaped from Charybdis; and that when he quitted it again he sailed for seventeen days and nights with a fair wind, having the Great Bear on his left hand (i.e. in an easterly direction), until he came in sight of the land of the Phaeacians. (Hom. Odyss. i. 50, 85, v. 55, 268-280, xii. 448.) It is hardly necessary to observe that the Homeric geography in regard to all these distant lands must be considered as altogether fabulous, and that it is impossible to attach any value to the distances above given. We are wholly at a loss to account for the localities assigned by the Greeks in later days to the scenes of the Odyssey: it is certain that nothing can less accord with the data (such as they are) supplied by Homer than the identifications they adopted. Thus the island of Calypso was by many fixed on the coast of Bruttium, near the Lacinian promontory, where there is nothing but a mere rock of very small size, and close to the shore. (Plin. iii. 10. s. 15; Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. p. 225.) Others, again, placed the abode of the goddess in the island of Gaulos (or Gozo), an opinion apparently first advanced by Callimachus (Strab. i. p. 44, vii. p. 299), and which has at least some semblance of probability. But the identification of Phaeacia with Corcyra, though more generally adopted in antiquity, has really no more foundation than that of Ogygia with Gaulos: so that the only thing approaching to a geographical statement fails on examination. It is indeed only the natural desire to give to the creations of poetic fancy a local habitation and tangible reality, that could ever have led to the associating the scenes in the Odyssey with particular spots in Sicily and Italy; and the view of Eratosthenes, that the geography of the voyage of Ulysses was wholly the creation of the poet's fancy, is certainly the only one tenable. At the same time it cannot be denied that some of the fables there related were founded on vague rumours brought by voyagers, probably Phoenicians, from these distant lands. Thus the account of Scylla and Charybdis, however exaggerated, was doubtless based on truth. But the very character of these marvels of the far west, and the tales concerning them, in itself excludes the idea that there was any accurate geographical knowledge of them. The ancients themselves were at variance as to whether the wanderings of Ulysses took place within the limits of the Mediterranean, or were extended to the ocean beyond. (Strab. i. pp. 22-26.) The fact, in all probability, is that Homer had no conception of the distinction between the two. It is at least very doubtful whether he was acquainted even with the existence of Italy; and the whole expanse of the sea beyond it was undoubtedly to him a region of mystery and fable. The various opinions put forth by ancient and modern writers concerning the Homeric geography are well reviewed by Ukert (Geographie der Griechen u. Römer, vol. i. part ii. pp. 310-319); and the inferences that may really be drawn from the language of the poet himself are clearly stated by him. (Ib. part i. pp. 19—31.) [E. H. B.] OGYRIS (yupis, Strab. xvi. p. 766), an island, off the southern coast of Carmania about 2000 stadia, which was traditionally said to contain the tomb of king Erythras, from which the whole sea was supposed to have derived its name. It was marked by a huge mound planted with wild palms. Strabo states that he obtained this story from Nearchus | and Orthagoras (or Pythagoras), who learnt it from Mithropastes, the son of a Phrygian satrap, to whom he had given a passage in his fleet to Persia. The same name is given to the island in many other geographers (as in Mel. iii. 8. § 6; Dionys. P'er. 607; Plin. vi. 28. s. 32; Priscian, Perieg. 605; Fest. Avien. 794; Steph. B. s. v.; Suidas, s. v.). The other editions of Strabo read Tupþývn and Tußßlvn, -possibly a corruption of 'yupivn or Tupívn,-the form which Vossius (in Melam, l. c.) has adopted. The account, however, preserved in Arrian's Voyage of Nearchus (Indic. 37), differs much from the above. According to him, the fleet sailing westward passed a desert and rocky island called Organa; and, 300 stadia beyond it, came to anchor beside another island called Ooracta; that there the tomb of Erythras was said to exist, and the fleet obtained the aid of Mazene, the chief of the island, who volunteered to accompany it, and pilot it to Susa. It seems generally admitted, that the Organa of Arrian and Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 46, who, placing it along the Arabian coast, has evidently adopted the distances of Strabo) is the modern Hormuz, which bears also the name of Gerun, or Jerun. Vincent, however, thinks that it is the modern Arek, or L'Arek. (Voy. Nearchus, i. p. 348.) The distance in Strabo is, perhaps, confounded with the distance the fleet had sailed along the coast of Carinania. Again Nearchus places the tomb of Erythras, not in Organa, but in Ooracta; and Agatharchides mentions that the land this king reigned over was very fertile, which applies to the latter, and not to the former. (Agatharch. p. 2, ed Hudson.) The same is true of what Pliny states of its size (l. c.). Curtius, without mentioning its name, evidently alludes to Ogyris (Ormuz), which he places close to the continent (x. 2), while the Geographer of Ravenna has preserved a remembrance of all the places under the head of "Colfo Persico," in which he places "Ogiris, Oraclia, Durcadena, Rachos, Orgina." Ooracta is called in Strabo (l. c.) Aúpaктa; in Pliny, Oracla (vi. 28. s. 98); in Ptolemy, Ovopóxea (vi. 8. § 15). The ancient name is said to be preserved in the modern Vroct, or Broct. It also derives the name of Kishmi from the quantity of grapes now found on it. Edrisi calls Jezireh-tuileh, the long island (i. p. 364; cf. also Wellsted's Travels, vol. i. p. 62). The whole of this complicated piece of geography has been fully examined by Vincent, Voy. of Nearchus, vol. i. p. 348, &c.; Ritter, vol. xii. [V.] P. 435. OI'SPORIS (Olonopís, Ptol. iv. 3. § 14; Opirus, Peut. Tab.; Ernpos, Stadiasm. § 86), a town of the Greater Syrtis, which Barth (Wanderungen, pp. 368, 378) identifies with Liman Naim, where there is a sandy bay into which ships might send their boats, with almost all winds, for water, at three wells, situated near the beech. (Beechey, Exped. to N. Coast of Africa, p. 173.) The tower, of which the Coast-describer speaks, must be the ruins at Rás Eski, to the E. of Naim. [E. B. J.] OLBASA ("O^бara). 1. A town in Cilicia Aspera, at the foot of Mount Taurus, on a tributary of the Calycadnus. (Ptol. v. 8. § 6.) Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 320) identifies the town of Olbasa with the Olbe mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p. 672); while in another passage (p. 117) he conjectures that Olbasa may at a later period have changed its name into Claudiupolis, with which accordingly he is inclined to identify it. The former supposition is possible, but not the latter, for Strabo places Olte in the interior of Cilicia, between the rivers Lamus and Cydnus, that is, in the mountainous districts of the Taurus. According to tradition, Olbe had been built by Ajax, the son of Teucer; it contained a temple of Zeus, whose priest once ruled over all Cilicia Aspera. (Strab. I. c.) In later times it was regarded as belonging to Isauria, and was the seat of a bishop. (Hierocl. p. 709; Basil. Vit. Theclae, ii. 8.) We still possess coins of two of those priestly princes, Polemon and Ajax. (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. vol. iii. p. 26, &c.) It should be observed that Stephanus Byz. (8. v. 'O^¤ía) calls Olbasa or Olbe Olbia. 2. A town in the Lycaonian district Antiochiana, in the south-west of Cybistra. (Ptol. v. 6. § 17; Hierocl. p. 709.) 3. A town in the northern part of Pisidia, between Pednelissus and Selge. (Ptol. v. 5. § 8; Hierocl. P. 680.) [L. S] OLBE. [OLBASA, No. 1.] O'LBIA COλ6ía, Strab. iv. p. 200, vii. p. 206; Scymn. 806; Ptol. iii. 5. § 28; Arrian, Per. p. 20; Anon. Per. p. 8; Mela, ii. 1. § 6; Jornand. B. Get. 5; with the affix Sabia, Zabía, Anon. l. c.; on coins in the Ionic form always 'Ox6ín). Pliny (iv. 26) says that it was anciently called OLBIOPOLIS, and MILETOPOLIS: the former of these names does not occur elsewhere, and is derived probably from the ethnic name OLBIOPOLITAE ('Oλbiomoλîтai, Herod. iv. 18; Suid. 8. v. Пoσeidwvios), which appears on coins as late as the date of Caracalla and Alexander Severus. (Kohler, Mém. de l'Acad. de St. Petersb. vol. xiv. p. 106; Blaramberg, Choix des Méd. Antiques d'Olbiopolis ou d'Olbia, Paris, 1822; Mionnet, Descr. des Méd. vol. i. p. 349.) Although the inhabitants always called their city Olbia, strangers were in the habit of calling it by the name of the chief river of Scythia, BORYSTHENES (Bopvo@évns, Bopoσlévis), and the people BORYSTHENITAE (Bopuolevetтai, Herod. l. c.; Dion Chrys. Orat. xxxvi. vol. ii. p. 74; Lucian, Toxar. 61; Menand. ap. Schol. ad Dionys. Perieg. 311; Steph. B. s. v.; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. § 40; Macrob. Sat. i. 10). A Grecian colony in Scythia, on the right bank of the Hypanis, 240 stadia (Anon. l. c.: 200 stadia, Strab. p. 200; 15 M. P., Plin. l. c.) from its mouth, the ruins of which are now found at a place on the W. bank of the Bug, called Stomogil, not far from the village Ilginskoje, about 12 Eng. miles below Nicholaev. This important settlement, which was situated among the Scythian tribes of the Callipidae and Alazones, owed its origin to the Ionic Miletus in B. c. 655. (Anon. Peripl. l. c.; Euseb. Chron.) At an early period it became a point of the highest importance for the inland trade, which, issuing from thence, was carried on in an easterly and northern direction as far as Central Asia. It was visited by Herodotus (iv. 17, 18, 53, 78), who obtained his valuable information about Scythia from the Greek traders of Olbia. From the important series of inscriptions in Böckh's collection (Inser. 20582096), it appears that this city, although at times dependent upon the Scythian or Sarmatian princes, enjoyed the privileges of a free government, with institutions framed upon the Ionic model. Among its eminent names occur those of Poseidonius (Suidas, 8. v.), a sophist and historian, and Sphaerus the stoic, a disciple of Zeno of Citium. (Plut. Cleom. 2.) There has been much controversy as to the date of the famous inscription (Böckh, No. 2058) |