Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "KYPARISSI Village ATALANTI" .
OPOUS (Ancient city) ATALANTI
Opous (contr. of Opoeis, Il. ii. 531), Eth. Opountios. The chief town
of a tribe of the Locri, who were called from this place the Locri Opuntii. It
stood at the head of the Opuntian gulf (ho Opountios kolpos, Strab. ix. p. 425;
Opuntius Sinus, Plin. iv. 7. s. 12; Mela, ii. 3. § 6), a little inland, being
15 stadia from the shore according to Strabo, or only a mile according to Livy
(xxviii. 6). Opus was believed to be one of the most ancient towns in Greece.
It was said to have been founded by Opus, a son of Locrus and Protogeneia; and
in its neighbourhood Deucalion and Pyrrha were reported to have resided. (Pind.
Ol. ix. 62, 87; Schol. ad loc.) It was the native city of Patroclus. (Hom. Il.
xviii. 326), and it is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue as one of the Locrian
towns subject to Ajax, son of Oileus (Il. ii. 531). During the flourishing period
of Grecian history, it was regarded as the chief city of the eastern Locrians,
for the distinction between the Opuntii and Epicnemidii is not made either by
Herodotus, Thucydides, or Polybius. Even Strabo, from whom the distinction is
chiefly derived, in one place describes Opus as the capital of the Epicnemidii
(ix. p. 416); and the same is confirmed by Pliny (iv. 7. s. 12) and Stephanus
(s. v. Opoeis; from Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 181.) The Opuntii joined
Leonidas with all their forces at Thermopylae, and sent seven ships to the Grecian
fleet at Artemisium. (Herod. vii. 203, viii 1.) Subsequently they belonged to
the anti-Athenian party in Greece. Accordingly, after the conquest of Boeotia
by the Athenians, which followed the battle of Oenophyta, B.C. 456, the Athenians
carried off 100 of the richest Opuntians as hostages. (Thuc. i. 108.) In the Peloponnesian
War the Opuntian privateers annoyed the Athenian trade, and it was in order to
check them that the Athenians fortified the small island of Atalanta off the Opuntian
coast. (Thuc. ii. 32.) In the war between Antigonus and Cassander, Opus espoused
the cause of the latter, and was therefore besieged by Ptolemy, the general of
Antigonus. (Diod. xix. 78.) The position of Opus is a disputed point. Meletius
has fallen into the error of identifying it with Pundonitza, which is in the territory
of the Epicnemidii. Many modern writers place Opus at Talanda, where are several
Hellenic remains; but Leake observes that the distance of Talanda from the sea
is much too great to correspond with the testimony of Strabo and Livy. Accordingly
Leake places Opus at Kardhenitza, a village situated an hour to the south-eastward
of Talanda, at a distance from the sea corresponding to the 15 stadia of Strabo,
and where exist the remains of an ancient city. (Northern Greece, vol. ii. p.
173, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A town of Locris, from which the Opuntian Locrians derived their name. It was the birthplace of Patroclus. The bay of the Euboean Sea, near Opus, was called Opuntius Sinus.
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