Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/485

 OENOTEIDES INSULAE. habits of the people, and does not proTe 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 op- posed 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 tho.se 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. 1.3; Paus. viii. .3. § 5.) The statement of Pausa- nias, that this was the most ancient migration of which he had any knowledge, shows that the Oeno- trians were considered by the Greeks as the earliest inhabitants of the Italian peninsula. But a more conclusive testimony is the incidental notice in Ste- phanus 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. X7oi.) These serfs could be no other than the Oenotrians. Other argu- ments 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, Pan- dosia, and Acheron, &c. Aristotle also notices the custom of ffvcTciTiat, or feasting at public tables, as subsisting from a very early period among the Oeno- trians as well as in Crete. (Arist. Pol. vii. 10.) Tile 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 (^OlvwrpiSis vnaoi), 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 marked on ordinary modern maps. [E. H. B.] OENUS {Oivovs: Eth.Olvovvnos), 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. 5. v. ; Athen. i. p. 31.) The river Oenus, now called Kelefina, ri.ses 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. 6.5, 66 ; Liv. xsxiv. 28.) The principal tributary of the Oenus was the Gorgylus {VopyvAo?, Polyb. ii. 66), probably the river of Vrestend. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 347.) OENUSSAE (OtVoOo-trai, Oivovffai). 1. A group of islands off the coast of Messenia. [Vol. II. p. 342, b.] 2. A group of islands between Chios and tlie Asiatic coast. (Herod, i. 165; Thuc. viii. 24; Steph. B. s. y.) They are five in number, now called Spal- madores or ErgonisL Plhiy (t. 31. s. 38) mentions only one island. OEKOE. [Plataeae.] OESCUS. 1. (OTo-Kos, Ptol. iii. 10. § 10, viii. 11. § 6), a town of the Triballi in Lower Moesia, OETYLUS. 4C9 seated near the mouth of the river of the same name 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 'l(rK(5s, says that it was fortified by Justinian (c?e Aed. iv. 6). Usually identified with Oreszovilz, though some hold it to be Glava. 2. A river of Lower Moesia, called by Thucydides (ii. 96) "OdKios, and by Herodotus (iv. 49) Skios. Pliny (iii. 26. s. 29) places its source in Mount Pihodope; Thucydides {I. c.) in Mount Scomius, which adjoined lihodope. Its true source, however, is on the W. side of Haemus, whence it pursues its course to the Danube. It is now called the /sicer or Esker. [T. H. D.] OESTRYMNIDES. [Britannicae Lnsulae, Vol. I. p. 433.] OESYME (Olav/x-n, Thuc. iv. 107 ; Scyl. p. 27 (the MS. incorrectly Sitru/xTj); Scymn. Ch. 655; Diod. Sic. xii. 68 (by an error of the JIS. Su/xr;); Ptol. iii. 13. §9; Plin. iv. 18; Armenidas, ap. Athen. p. 31: Eth. Olavfxalos, Steph. B.), a Tha- sian 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 Neflir 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 (^OItt): Eth. OlTa7os 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 Katavo- t/w-a, and its highest summit is 7071 feet. (Journal of Geogr. Soc. vol. vii. p. 94.) The mountain im- mediately above Thermopylae is called Callidromon both by Strabo and Livy. (Strab. ix. p. 428; Liv. xxxvi. 15.) The latter writer says that Callidro- mon 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. Patrio- iiko, 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 Iloman poets give to this hero the epithet of Oetaeus. From this mountain the southern district of The-ssaly was called Oetaea (OiTaTa, Strab. ix. pp. 430, 432, 434), and its inhabitants Oetaei (OlTahi, 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. Patri- otiko, and conjectures that it was the same as the sacied city mentioned by Callimachus. {Hymn, in Del. 287.) [See Vol. II. p. 255.] (Leake, A'or//iem Greece, vol. ii. p. 4, seq.) OETENSII (OiTTjraioi, Ptol. iii. 10. § 9), a tribe in the eastern part of Moisia Inferior. [T. II. D.] OETYLUS (OtrvAoi, Horn., I'aus., Steph. B.; Be'iTvKos, Bikkh, Inscr. no. 1323; hlrvKa, Ptol. iii. 16. S 22 ; OtTuAos — KuXenai S' inrd tivwv BeirvAos, Strab. viii. p. 360, corrected in accordance with the inscription), a town of Laconia on the eastern side u u 3