Onchestos (mythology) explained

Type:	Greek
Onchestus
Deity Of:	Eponym of Onchestos
Member Of:	the Royal House of Onchestus
Other Names:	Onchestos
Abode:	Boeotia (Onchestus)
Parents:	Poseidon
Offspring:	Abrota and Megareus

In Greek mythology, Onchestos or Onchestus (Ancient Greek: Ογχηστός) was the eponymous founder of the city of Onchestos in Boeotia, where the Onchestian Poseidon had a temple and a statue.^{[1] [2]}

Family

Little is known about Onchestos and only two literary sources (Plutarch 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^[3] and father of Megareus and Abrota, wife of King Nisos.^[4] Onchestus's son and son-in-law were listed as kings of Megara.

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

Mythology

Pausanias' account

Grove of Onchestos

In ancient times the city of Onchestos was famous for its sanctuary of Poseidon and is mentioned in the famous "Catalogue of Ships" in Homer's Iliad where it is referred to as the god's "bright grove."^[5]

In the Homeric Hymns to Apollo the grove is also mentioned:^[6]

References

• Homer, 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 Library. Greek 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.

Notes and References

1. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
2. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
3. [Ovid]
4. [Plutarch]
5. [Homer]
6. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D3 Anonymous. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Hymn 3 to Apollo, 230 ff)