Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/500

 484 OPHIONENSES. frjaoi, Ptol. iv. 5. § 77) was probably the snme with Ophiodes, and answers to the present Za- viargat. The isle of Karnaha, opposite the head- land oi Ras-el-Anf, is, indeed, by some geographers supposed to be the true Ophiodes Insula. (Castro, Eist. Gen. des Voyages, vol. i. p. 205.) [W.B.D.] OPHIONENSES or OPHIENSES. [Aetolia, p. 65, a.] OPHIK (OiJ(/)'p ; Ov(pdp ; 2ou<f I'p ; ^ovcpiip ; Sax^i'p ; 2ci)^ipo ; 'l,ai(papd ■ ^oi<pripd • 'Xaircpeip ; '07r(/)ei'p ; 'n<peip, LXX. ; Joseph. Ant. viii. 6. § 4), a district, the name of which first occurs in the ethnographic table of Genesis, x. 29. Solomon caused a fleet to be built in the Edomite ports of the Red Sea, and Hiram supplied him with Phoe- nician mariners well acquainted with navigation, and also Tyrian vessels, " ships of Tarshish." (1 Kings, ix.'28; 2 Chron. viii. 18.) The articles of merchandise which were brought back once in three years from Ophir were gold, silver, red sandal- wood ("almuggim," 1 Kings, x.l; " algummim," 2 Cliron. ix. 10), precious stones, ivory, apes, (" kopliim "), and peacocks (" thiikyim," 1 Kings, x. 22 ; " thukyim," 1 Chron. ix. 21). The gold of Ophir was considered to be of the most precious quality. (^Joh, XX. 11, 24, xxviii. 16; Ps. xlv. 9; Isa. xiii. 12; Eccles. vii. 18). In Jer. x. 9, " the gold from Upliaz," and in Dan. x. 5, " the fine gold of Upliaz," is, by a slight change of pronunciation, the same as that of Ophir. Many elaborate treatises have been written upon the details of these voyages. The researches of Gcsenius (Thesaur. Linguae Eehr. vol. i. p. 141; and in Ersch und Gruhers Encycl, art. Ophir'), Benfey {Indien, pp. 30 — 32) and Lassen {Ind. Alt. vol. i. pp. 537 — 539) have made it ex- tremely probable that the W. shores of the Indian peninsula were visited by the Phoenicians, who, by their colonies in the Persian Gulf, and by their in- tercourse with the Gerrhaei, were early acquainted with the periodically blowing monsoons. In favour of tills Indian hypothesis is the remarkable circum- stance that the names by which the articles of mer- chandise are designated are not Hebrew but Sanscrit. The peacock, too, is an exclusively Indian bird ; al- though from their gradual extension to the W. they were often called by the Greeks " Median and Per- sian birds;" the Samians even supposed them to have originally belonged to Samos, as the bird was reared at first in the sanctuary dedicated to Hera in that island. Silks, also, which are first mentioned in Proverbs, xxxi. 22, could alone have been brought from India. Quatremfere {Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xv. pt. ii. 1845, pp. 349 — 402) agrees with Heeren {Researches, vol. ii. pp. 73, 74, trans.), ■who places Ophir on the E. coast of Africa, and ex- plains " thukyim " to mean not peacocks, but par- rots or guinea-fowls. Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 41) speaks of a Saphara (2a7r<|)apa) as a metropolis of Arabia, and again of a Soupara {tovizapa, vii. 1. § 6) in India, on the Barygazenus Sinus, or Gulf of Caiuhay, a name which in Sanscrit signifies " fair-shore." (Lassen, Dissert, de Taprohane Ins. p. 18; eomp. Ind. Alt. vol. i. p. 537.) Stfala, on the E. coast of Africa, opposite to the island of Madagascar {London Geog. Joum. vol. iii. p. 207), is described by Edrisi (ed. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 67) as a country rich in gold, and subsequently by the Por- tuguese, after Gama's voyage of discovery. The let- ters r and I so frequently interchanged make the name of the African Sofala equivalent for that of OP IS. Sophara, which is used in the Septuaglnt with several other forms for the Ophir of Solomon's and Hiram's fleet Ptolemy, it has been seen, has a Saphara in Arabia and a Soupara in India. The significant Sanscrit names of the mother-country had been repeated or reflected on neighbouring or opposite coasts, as in the present day occurs in many instances in the English and Spanish Americas. The range of the trade to Ophir might thus be extended over a wide space, just as a Phoenician voyage to Tartessus might include touching at Gy- rene and Carthage, Gadeira and Cerne. (Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. pp. 132, 133, notes 179 — 182, trans.) fE.B J.] OPHIS ("Ot^iy), a river of Pontus, the mouth of which was 90 stadia to the east of port Hyssus, and which separated Colchis from the country of the Tbianni. (Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Evx. p. 6 ; Ano- nym. Peripl. p. 14, where it is called 'Og>ious.) This river still bears the name of Of. [L. S.] OPHIS. [Mantineia.] OPHIUSA INS. [PiTYUSAE.] OPHIUSA, OPHIUSSA. 1. [Tyras.] 2. An island off the coast of Crete (Plin. iv. 20), which is probably represented by Gavdapoulo or Anti-Goszo, unless it be the same as the Oxeia Ins. ('O^fta, Stadiasm. 321), which the anonymous Coast-describer places near Leben. [E. B. J.] OPHIUSSA ('0<|)ioC(7(ra), a small i.sland in the Propontis, off the coast of Mysia, is mentioned only by Pliny (iv. 44) and Stephanus B. {s. v. BtaSiKos, where it is called 'Ocptofcraay, it still bears its ancient name under the corrupt form of Afzia. (Pococke, Travels, iii. p. 167.) [L. S.] OPHLIMUS {''0<pKiy.os), a branch of Mount Paryadres in the north-west of Pontus, enclosing with Mount Lithrus, the extensive and fertile dis- trict called Phanaroea. (Stiab. xii. p. 556.) Ac- cording to Hamilton {Researches, i. p. 439), it now bears the name of Kemer Dagh and Oktax Dagh. [L. S.] OPHRADUS, a river mentioned by Pliny (vi. 25. s. 23) as belonging to the province of Drangiana. Forbiger conjectures that it may be a tributary of the Erymandrus {Ilmend), now called the Khash Rud. [V.] OPHRAH, a city of Benjamin, written 'EtppaOci by the LXX. {Joshua, xviii. 23) and To(pfpa. (1 Sam. xiii. 17). It is placed by Eusebius and S. Jerome v. M.P. east of Bethel. {Onomast. s. v. Aphra.) Dr. Robinson says that this accords well with the position of Et-Taiyiheh, a village of Greek Christians, on a conical hill on a high ridge of land, which would probably not have been left un- occupied in ancient times. {Bib. Res. vol. ii. pp. 123—125.) 2. Ophrah of the Abiezrites ('E^paOa varphi Tov 'EtrSpi, LXX.; Judges, vi. 11, 24, viii. 27; in ver. 32. 'A6l 'EaSpi), a town in the half-tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan, the native place of Gi- deon, where also he was buried. [G. W.] OPHRY'NIUM {'Ocppvveiov), a small town in the' north of Troas, near lake Pteleos, and between Dar- danus and Rhoeteum, with a grave sacred to Ajax. (Herod, vii. 43 ; Xenoph. Anah. vii. 8. § 5, where it is called 'Ocppvfiov ; Strab. xiii. p. 595.) It is probably the modern Fren-Kevi. (Comp. Rasche, Lexic. Rei Num. iii. 2. p. 136.) [L. S.] OPICI. [Osci.] OPIS COTTiy, Herod. 1. 189), a city of Babylonia, mentioned first by Herodotus, who simply state.s that