Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/499

 ONEIA. ii. 506), and subsequent poets. (Find. Istkm. i. 44, iv. 32 ; Lycophr. 645.) Here an Amphictyonic council of the Boeotians used to assemble. (Strab. i.K. p. 412.) Pausanias {I. c.) says that Onchestus was 15 stadia from the mountain of the Sphinx, tlie modem Fagn; and its position is still more ac- curately defined by Strabo {I. c). The latter writer, who censures Alcaeus for placing Onchestus at the foot of Mt. Helicon, says that it was in the Haliartia, on a naked hill near the Teneric plain and the Copaic lake. He further maintains that the prove of Poseidon existed only in the imagination of the poets ; but Pausanias, who visited the place, mentions the grove as still existing. The site of Onchestus is probably marked by the Hellenic re- mains situated upon the low ridge which separates the two great Boeotian basins, those of lake Copais and of Thebes, and which connects Mount Fagd with the roots of Helicon. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 213, seq.; Gell, Itiner. p 125.) 2. A river of Thessaly, flowing near Scotussa, through the battle-field of Cynoscephalae into the lake Boebeis. It was probably the river at the sources of which Dederiani stands, but which bears no modern name. (Liv. xxxiii. 6; Polyb. xviii. 3; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 473.) It is perhaps the same river as the Ono- CHONUS (^Ov6xtavos, Herod, vii. 129; Plin. iv. 8. s. 15), whose waters were exhausted by the army of Xerxes. It is true that Herodotus describes this river as flowing into the Peneius ; but in this he was probably mistaken, as its course must have been into the lake Boebeis. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 514.) ONKIA. [CoRiNTHUs, Vol. I. p. 674.] ONEUM (^Ovalov, Ptol. ii. 16. § 4; Peut Tab.; Geog. Eav.), a town of Dalmatia, which has been identified v/ith Ahnissa,?ii the mouth of the Cettina. (Neigebaur, Die Sud-Slaven, p. 25.) [E. B. J.] oisflNGIS. [AuRiNX.] ONI'SIA, an island near Crete, on the E. side of the promontory Itanus. (Plin. iv. 12. s. 20.) O'NOBA AESTUA'RIA ("Ovoga Marovapia, Ptol. ii. 4. § 5), called also simply 0nob. (Strab. iii. p. 143; Mela, iii. 1. § 5). 1. A maritime town of the Turdelani in Hispiinia Baetica, between the rivers Anas and Baetis. It was seated on the estuary of the river Luxia, and on the road from the mouth of the Anas to Augusta Emerita. (^Itin. Ant. p. 431.) It is commonly identified with Huelva, where there are still some Roman remains, especially of an aqueduct; the vestiges of which, liowever, are fast disappearing, owing to its being used as a quarry by the boorish agriculturists of the neighbourhood. (Murray's Handbook of Spain, p. 170.) Near it lay Hercuhs Insula, mentioned by Strabo (iii. p. 170), called 'HpaKXeia by Steph. B. (s. v.), now Suites, Onoba had a mint; and many coins have been found there bearing the name of the town, with a slight alteration in the spelling, — Onuba. (Florez. Med. ii. pp. 510, 649; Mionnet, i. p. 23, Suppl. p. 39; Sestini, Med. Isp. p. 75, ap. Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 340.) 2. Another town of Baetica, near Corduba. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3.) In an inscription in Gruter (p. 1040. 5) it is called Conoba. Ukert (vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 366) places it near Villa del Carpio. [T. H. D.] ONOBALAS. [AcEsiNEs, No. 1.] ONOBRISATES, a people of Aquitania, as the name stands in the common texts of Pliny (iv. 19); who has " Onobrisates, Belendi, Saltus Pyrenaeus." OPHIODES. 483 D'Anville {Notice, 4c-) ingeniously supposes that Onobrisates ought to be Onobusates, which is the least possible correction; and he thinks that he dis- covers the old name in the modern N£housan, the name of a canton on the left side of the Neste to- wai'ds the lower part of its course. The Neste is one of the branches of the Garomie, and rises in the Pyrenees. [G. L.] ONOCHO'NUS. [Onchestus, No. 2.] ONUGNATHUS QOvov yvddos), " the jaw of an ass," the name of a peninsula and promontory in the south of Laconia, distant 200 stadia south of Aso- pus. It is now entirely surrounded with water, and is called Elafonisi ; but it is in reality a peninsula, for the isthmus, by which it is connected with the mainland, is only barely covered with water. It contains a harbour, which Strabo mentions ; and Pausanias saw a temple of Athena in ruins, and the sepulchre of Cinadus, the steersman of Menelaus. (Paus. iii. 22. § 10, iii. 23. § 1 ; Strab. viii. pp. 363, 364; Curtius, Peloponnesos,vo. ii. p. 295.) ONU'PHIS ("Ovouilxs, Herod, ii. 166; Steph. B. s. v. Ptol. iv. 5. § 51 ; Phn. v. 9. s. 9: Eih. 'Ovuv- (plnrrji), was the chief town of the Nomos Onu- phites, in the Aegyptian Delta. The exact position of this place is disputed by geographers. D'Anville believes it to have been on the site of the modern Banouh, on the western bank of the Sebennytic arm of the Nile. Mannert (vol. x. pt. i, p. 573) places it south of the modern Mansour. Belley {Mem. de VAcad. des Inscript. torn, xxviii. p. 543) identifies it with the present village of Nouph, in the centre of the Delta, a little to the E. of Buto, about lat. 31° N. Champollion, however, regards the site of this nome as altogether uncertain {VEgypte sous les Pharaohs, vol. ii. p. 227). The Onuphite nome was one of those assigned to the Calasirian division of the native Aegyptian army. Coins of Onuphis of the age of Hadrian — obverse a laureated head of that emperor, reverse a female figure, probably Isis, with extended right hand — are described in Riische {Lex. R, Num. III. pars posterior, s. v.). This town is mentioned by ecclesiastical writers, e. g. by Athanasius. (Athanas. Opera, tom. i. pt. ii. p. 776, ed. Paris, 1698; Le Quien, Oriens Chris- tian, tom. ii. p. 526, Paris, 1740; com p. Pococke, Travels in the East, fol. vol. i. p. 423.) [W.B.D.] OONAE. [Oaeones.] OPHARUS, a small river of Sarmatia Asiatica, mentioned by Pliny (vi. 7. s. 7) as a tributary of the Lagous, which flowed into the Palus Maeotis. Herodotus mentions two sti-eams, which he calls the Lycus and Oarus, which had the same course and direction (iv. 123, 124). It is likely that the rivers in Pliny and Herodotus are the same. It is not possible now to identify them with accu- racy. L'-J OPHEL. [Jerusalem, p. 20, b.] OJ'HIO'JDES (■O0i£i5>js, Strab. xvi. p. 770; Diod. iii. 39 ; Agatharch, ap. Uitdson, Geog Graec. Min. p. 54), or Serpent-isle, was an island in the Red Sea, in Foul Bay, neariy opposite the mouth of the har- bour of Berenice; lat 24° N. The topazes pro- duced in this island were greatly prized both in the Arabian and Aegyptian markets; and it seems from Pliny (v. 29. s. 34) to have been by some dene minated Topaz-isle (Topazos). The cause of its more usual name is doubtful ; but there ha.s always been a tradition in the East that serpents and pre- cious stones arc found near one another. The island of Agathon, i. e. the good genius {'hyidoivoi II 2