Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Onchestos or Onchestus (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Ογχηστός) was the eponymous founder of the city of

Onchestus Onchestos or Onchestus ( el, Ογχηστός) was a Greek town in ancient Boeotia northwest of Thebes. In ancient times it was famous for its sanctuary of Poseidon. The site has been excavated intermittently since the 1960s. It was in the terri ...

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...

, where the Onchestian Poseidon had a temple and a statue.

Family

Little is known about Onchestos and only two literary sources (

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...

in ''Quaestiones Graecae'' and Pausanias in ''Description of Greece)'' gave information about him. In these accounts, he was described as the Boeotian son of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...

and father of

Megareus In Greek mythology, Megareus (Ancient Greek: Μεγαρεύς) may refer to: *Megareus, king of Onchestus in Boeotia and father of Hippomenes. *Megareus, son of Eurydice of Thebes, and a defender of Thebes during the war of the Seven against Thebe ...

and

Abrota In Greek mythology, Abrota (Ancient Greek: ) or Habrotê, was the daughter of eponymous King Onchestus of the Boeotian city of Onchestos and sister of Megareus. Nisos, the king of Megara in the time of his reign married her and the supposed moth ...

, wife of King Nisos. Onchestus's son and son-in-law were listed as kings of

Megara Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, befo ...

. In some traditions, Onchestus was called the son of Boeotus.

Mythology

Plutarch's account

Pausanias' account

Grove of Onchestus

In ancient times the city of Onchestus was famous for its sanctuary of Poseidon and is mentioned in the famous "Catalogue of Ships" in Homer's ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

'' where it is referred to as the god's "bright grove." In the ''

Homeric Hymns The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', ...

'' to Apollo the grove is also mentioned:Anonymous. ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Hymn 3 to Apollo, 230 ff)''
with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

Notes

References

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

, ''The Iliad'' with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
* Homer, ''Homeri Opera'' in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, ''Moralia'' with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936
Online version at the Perseus Digital LibraryGreek text available from the same website
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
Boeotian characters in Greek mythology {{Greek-myth-stub