Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/26

14 xiii. 377, xiv. 90, xvi. 247). That hie might be able to take vengeance upon them, it was necessary that he should not be recognised, in order to avail himself of any favourable moment that might pre- sent itself. Athena accordingly metamorphosed him into an unsightly beggar, in which appearance he was kindly treated by Eumaeus, the swineherd, a faithful servant of his house (xiii. 70, &c. xiv,). While he was staying with Eamaeus, his son Telemachus returned from Sparta and Pylos, whither he had gone to obtain information con- cerning his father. Odysseus made himself known to him, and with him deliberated upon the plan of revenge (xvi. 187, &c. 300). In the disguise of a beggar he accompanied Telemachus and Eumaeus to the town ; on his arrival he was abused and in- sulted by the goat-herd Melantheus and the suitors, who even tried to kill Telemachus ; but his old dog and his nurse Eurycleia recognised him, and Penelope received him kindly. The plan of revenge was now carried into effect. Penelope, with great difficulty, was made to promise lier hand to him who should conquer the others in shooting with the bow of Odysseus. As none of the suitors was able to manage it, Odysseus himself took it up, and having ordered all the doors to be shut, and all arms to be removed, he began his contest with the suitors, in which he was supported by Athena, his son, and some faithful servants. AH fell by his hands, the faithless male and female servants as well as the suitors ; the minstrel and Medon, the herald, alone were saved (xxii.). Odysseus now made himself known to Penelope, and went to see his aged father. In the meantime the report of the death of the suitors was spread abroad, and their relatives now rose in arms against Odysseus ; but Athena, who assumed the appearance of Mentor, brought about a recon- ciliation between the people and the king (xxiii. xxiv.). It has already been remarked that in the Homeric poems, Odysseus is represented as a prudent, cunning, inventive and eloquent man, but at the same time as a brave, bold, and persevering warrior, whose courage no misfortune or calamity could subdue, but later poets describe him as a cowardly, deceitful, and intriguing personage (Virg. Ae?i. ii. 164 ; Ov. Met. xiii. 6, &c.; Philostr. Her. ii. 20). Respecting the last period of his life the Homeric poems give us no information, except the prophecy of Teiresias, who promised him a painless death in a happy old age (Od. xi. 119) ; but later writers give us different accounts. According to one, Telegonus, tlie son of Odysseus by Circe, was sent out by his mother to seek his father. A storm cast him upon Ithaca, which he began to plunder in order to obtain provisions. Odysseus and Telemachus attacked him, but he slew Odysseus, and his body was afterwards carried to Aeaea (Hygin. Fab. 127 ; Diet. Cret. vi. 15 ; Horat. Carm. iii. 29. 8). According to some Circe called Odysseus to life again, or on his arrival in Tyrrhenia, he was burnt on Mount Perge (Tzetz. ad Lye. 795, &c.). In works of art Odysseus was commonly repre- sented as a» sailor, wearing the semi-oval cap of a sailor. (Plin. //. N. xxxv. 36 ; Paus. x. 26. § 1, 29. § 2 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 804.) [L. S.]

OEAGRUS {Oiaypos) a tragic actor at Athens, who appears to have been particularly successful in the character of Niobe. (Arist. Vesp. 579 ; Schol. ad he) [E.E.]

OEAGRUS {oraypos), a king of Thrace, and father of Orpheus and Linus (Apollod. i. 3. § 2 j Orph. Argon. 73 ; Ov. lb. 484). Hence the sisters of Orpheus are called Oeagrides, in the sense of the Muses. (Mosch. iii. 37.) [L. S.]

OEAX (Oia^), a son of Nauplius and Clymene, and brother of Palamedes and Nausimedon (Apollod. ii. 1. in fin. iii. 2. § 2 ; Eurip. Orest. 432). [L.S.]

OE'BALUS (OrgaXos). 1. A son of Cynortas, and husband of Gorgophone, by whom he became the father of Tyndareos, Peirene, and Arene, was king of Sparta, where he was afterwards honoured with an heroum (Paus. iii. 1. § 3, 15. § 7, ii. 2. § 3, iv. 2. § 3). According to others he was a son of Perieres and a grandson of Cynortas, and was married to the nymph Bateia, by whom he had several children (Apollod. iii. 10. § 4 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 447). The patronymic Oebalides is not only applied to his descendants, but to the Spartans generally, and hence it occurs as an epithet or surname of Hyacinthus, Castor, Pollux and Helena (Ov. lb. 590, Fast. v. 705, Her. xvi. 126.)

. A son of Telon by a nymph of the stream Sebethus, near Naples. Telon, originally a king of the Teleboans, had come from the island of Taphos to Capreae, in Italy ; and Oebalus settled in Campania. (Virg. Aen. vii. 734, with Serv. note.) [L. S.]

OEBARES (Oi§a/)77s). 1. A Persian, an officer of Cyrus. According to Ctesias {ap. Phot. Bibl. 72), when Astyages was taken at Ecbatana,whither he had fled from Cyrus, Oebares threw him into chains, from which, however, Cyrus released him. Ctesias further tells us that, at the siege of Sardis, Oebares advised Cyras to terrify the citizens by images of Persians placed on high poles and made to look like gigantic soldiers, and that the fear thus caused mainly led to the capture of the town. When Cyrus sent Petisaces to bring Astyages to court from his satrapy (the country of the Barcanii), Oebares instigated the messenger to leave the old king to perish in a desert place, and, when the deed was discovered, starved himself to death to avoid the vengeance of Amytis (Astyages's daughter), in spite of all the assurances of protection which Cyrus gave him.

. A groom of Dareius Hystaspis. According to Herodotus, when the seven conspirators, after slaying Smerdis, had decided on the continuance of monarchy, they agreed to ride forth together at sunrise, and to acknowledge as king any one of their number whose horse should be the first to neigh. Oebares, by a stratagem, caused the horse of Dareius to neigh before the rest, and thus secured the throne for his master. (Herod, iii. 84—87.)

. Son of Megabazus, was viceroy of Dascyleium, in Bithynia. He received the submission of the Cyzicenes to Dareius Hystaspis, about B. c. 494. (Herod, vi. 33 ; comp. Aesch. Pers. 980, ed. Schiitz.) [E. E.]

OEBO'TAS {pl€<iras), the son of Oenias, of Dyme in Achaefi, was victorious in the foot-race at Olympia, in the sixth Olympiad, b. c. 756. His countrymen, however, having conferred upon him no distinguished mark of honour, although he was the first Achaean who had gained an Olympic victory, he imprecated upon them the curse that no Achaean should ever again conquer in the games ; and, in fact, for three hundred years, not a single