Dryopes (; grc, Δρύοπες) or Dryopians () were one of the aboriginal tribes of ancient Greece. According to Herodotus, their earliest abode is said to have been on Mount Oeta and its adjacent valleys, in the district called after them, Dryopis (Δρυοπίς). The Dorians settled in that part of their country which lay between Oeta and Parnassus, and which was afterwards called Doris; but Dryopis originally extended as far north as the river Spercheius. The name of Dryopis was still applied to the latter district in the time of

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

, who calls it a tetrapolis, like Doris. Heracles, in conjunction with the Malians, is said to have driven the Dryopes out of their country, and to have given it to the Dorians; whereupon the expelled Dryopes settled at Hermione and Asine in the

Argolic peninsula The Argolid Peninsula is a peninsula situated in Greece in the Peloponnese, much of which is contained in the modern region of Argolis. One of the first major Greek settlements, Mycenae, is situated on this peninsula. During the Classical Gree ...

, at Styrus and Carystus in Euboea, and in the islands of Cythnus and Cyprus. These are the six chief places in which we find the Dryopes in historical times. Later, Thucydides identifies Carystus as Dryopian, but nearby Styria as Ionian. Dicaearchus gives the name of Dryopis to the country around Ambracia, from which we might conclude that the Dryopes extended at one time from the

Ambraciot Gulf The Ambracian Gulf, also known as the Gulf of Arta or the Gulf of Actium, and in some official documents as the Amvrakikos Gulf ( el, Αμβρακικός κόλπος, translit=Amvrakikos kolpos), is a gulf of the Ionian Sea in northwestern Greec ...

to Mount Oeta and the Spercheius.

References

Ancient tribes in Greece Ancient tribes in Euboea Ancient tribes in central Greece Ancient tribes in Thessaly {{AncientGreece-stub Mythology of Heracles

See also

References