Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/503

 ORCADES, p. 33; comp. Poppo, Prolegom. in TTinc. pars i. vol. ii. p. 321), in consequence, was inclined to believe that there were two mountains of this name. Kie- pert (Karte der Ewrop. Turhei) identifies Orbelus with Perin Dagh. The district called Orbelia ('Op- fiTjAia, Ptol. iii. 13. § 25), with the town Gares- CTjs, derived its name from the mountain. (Leake, Norfhei-n Greece, vol. iii. pp. 211, 463.) [E.B. J.] O'RCADES ('OpKctSes injdoi, Ptol. ii. 3. § 31), a group of small islands lying oiF the northern ex- tremity of Britannia Barbara. According to Ptolemy (?. c.) and Mela (iii. 6. § 7) they were 30 in num- ber; Pliny (iv. 16. s. 30) reckons them at 40; Orosius (i. 2) at 33, of which 20 were inhabited and 13 uninhabited. This last account agrees very nearly with that of Jornandes (i?. Get 1), who makes them 34 in number. See also Tacitus (^Agric. 10) and the Itinerary (p. 508). The modern Orkney and Shetland Islands. [T. H. D.] ORCAORICI (^OpKaopiKoi), a place in a rough district of Galatia, devoid of a sufficient supply of water, near Pessinus, on the borders of Plirygia, if not in Phrygia itself (Strab. xii. pp. 567, 568, 576). [L. S.] ORCAS ('Op/car, Ptol. ii. 3. § 1), a promontory on the N. coast of Britannia Barbara, now Dun- net Head. It should be remarked, however, that Ptolemy (?. c.) places it on the E. coast, and gives it the additional name of Tarvedum (Tapovi- Soifi). [T. H. D.] O'RCELIS ('OpKeAfs, Ptol. ii. 6. § 61). 1. A town of the Biistitani in Hispania Tan-aconensis, sometimes, but erroneously, identified wth Oribuela. (Mentelle, Esp. an. p. 186; Ukert, vol. ii. pt, 1. p. 406.) 2. Ail inland town of Thrace. (Ptol. iii. 2. § 11.) [T. H.D.] OECHE'NI (JOpxnvoi), a people of Arabia Deserta, placed hy Ptolemy on the Persian Gulf, i.e. to the NE. of his Arabia Felix. (Ptol. v. 19. § 2.) They were perhaps the inhabitants of Orchoe mentioned below. [G.W.] ORCHISTE'NE (jOpxicrrvv-fi, Strab. xi. p. 528), a canton of Armenia, which Strabo (Z. c.) describes as abounding in horses, but does not mention its position. [E. B. J.] O'RCHOE ('Opx«5tj), a city of southern Babylonia, placed by Ptolemy among the marshes in the direc- tion of Arabia Deserta (vi. 20. § 7). There can be little doubt that it is to be identified with one of the great mounds lately excavated in those parts, and that the one now called Warka represents its j)i)sition. It was supposed that another mound in the immediate neighbourhood, Muqueyer, was the same as the " t/r of the Chaldees;" and there is now good reason for identifying it as the site of that celebrated place. The name of Warka reads on inscriptions lately discovered by ]Ir. Taylor, Ilur or Hurik, which is nearly the same with the "Op€x of the LXX. and the 'Opxdrj of Ptolemy Q. c). Moreover, Hur and Warka are constantly connected in the inscriptions, just as Kiech and Accad are in the Bible. It is most probable that the Orcheni (^Opxwoi), described in Strabo as an astronomical sect of Chaldaeans, dwelling near Babylon (xxi. p. 739); in Ptolemy, as a people of Arabia, living near the Persian Gulf (v. 19. § 2) ; and in PUny, as an agricultural popu- lation, who banked up the waters of the Euphrates and compelled them to flow into the Tigris (vi. 27. s. 31), were really the inhabitants of Orchoe and of ORCHOMENUS. 487 the district surrounding it. We now know tLat this country was ruled in very eariy times by a Chaldaear. race, some of the kings of which Berosus has re- corded. (Rawlinson, in Athenaeuvi, 1854, No. 1377; Euseb. Praejmr. Evang. is. 17.) It is worthy of notice that Eusebius has preserved an ancient fragment from Eupolemus, who speaks of a city of Babylonia, Camarina," which some callUrie(Oypt7))." As the Assyrian name of Warka is written with a monogram which signifies " the Moon," and as the name Camarina would naturally be der-ivable from the Arabic Kamar, " the Moon," there is an ad- ditional connection between the two names. (Euseb. /. e.) It is also clear from the inscriptions that the names of the two cities were constantly inter- changed, [v.] ORCHO'MENUS. 1. ('OpxoMf ""'s ; in insc. and coins, ^'Epxoixiv6s : Eth. ' Opxo/ueVios, 'EpxOiacVios), usually called the Mintean Okchomenus ('Opxo- (levhs Mlvvhos, Hom. //. ii. 51 1 ; Thuc. iv. 76 ; Strab. ix. p. 414), a city in the north of Boeotia, and in ante-historical times the capital of the powerful kingdom of the Minyae. This people, according ta tradition, seem to have come originally from Thessaly. We read of a town Minya in Thessaly (Steph. B. s. V. Mlvvo), and also of a Thessalian Orchomenus Minyeus. (Plin. iv. 8. s. 15.) The first king of the Boeotian Orchomenus is said to have been Andreus, a son of the Thessalian river Peneius, from whom the country was called Andreis. (Pans. ix. 34. § 6 ; oi 'Opxofievtot airoiKoi flffi QeacaAaw, Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1190.) Andreus assigned part of his territory to the Aetolian Alhamas, who adopted two of the grandchildren of his brother Sisyphus : they gave their names to Haliartus and Coroneia. Andreus was succeeded in the other part of his territory by his son Eteocles, who was the first to worship the Charites (Graces) in Greece. Upon J;he death of Eteocles the sovereignty devolved upon the family of Halmus or Almus, a son of Sisyphus. (Pans. ix. 34. §7 — ix. 35.) Halmus had two daughters, Cbryse and Chrysogeneia. Chryse by the god Ares became the mother of Phlegyas, who succeeded the childless Eteocles, and called the country Phlegyantis after himself. He also gave his name to the fierce and sacrilegious race of the Phlegyae, who separated themselves from the other Orchomenians, and at- tempted to plunder the temple of Delphi. They were however all destroyed by the god, with the exception of a few who fled into Phocis. Phlegyas died with- out children, and was succeeded by Chryses, the son of Chrysogeneia by the god Poseidon. Chryses was the father of the wealthy Minyas, who built the treasury, and who gave his name to the Minyan race. Minyas wa.s succeeded by his son Orchomenus, after whom the city was named. (Pans. ix. 30. §§ 1--6.) Some modern scholars have supposed that the Minyae were Aeolians (Thiriwall, Hist, of Greece, vol. i. p. 91); but as they disappeared before the historical period, it is impossible to predicate anything certain respecting them. There is, however, a concurrence of tradition to the fact, that Orchomenus was in the earliest times not only the chief city of Boeotia, but one of the most powerful and wealthy cities of Greece. It has been observed tlwt the genealogy of Orchomenus glitters with names which express the traditional opinion of his unbounded wealth (Chryses, Chrysogeneia). Homer even compares the treasures which flowed into the city to those of the Egyptian Thebes {II. ix. 381 ; comp. Eustath. I. c.) It would seeiD that at an early period Orchomenus ruled over 1 I 4