Onchestos (mythology)

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

Onchestos or Onchestus
Eponym of Onchestus
Member of the Royal House of Onchestus
AbodeBoeotia (Onchestus)
ParentsPoseidon
OffspringAbrota and Megareus

Family

Little is known about Onchestos and only two literary sources (Plutarch in Quaestiones Graecae and Pausanias in Description of Greece) gives information about him. In these accounts he was described as the Boeotian son of Poseidon and father of Abrota, wife of Nisos and Megareus.[2] In some traditions, Onchestus was called the son of Boeotus.

Plutarch's account

When Nisus, from whom Nisaea acquired its name, was king, he took a wife from Boeotia, Habrotê, daughter of Onchestus, the sister of Megareus, a woman who, as it appears, was both exceptionally intelligent and remarkably discreet.

Pausanias' account

Distant from this mountain fifteen stades are the ruins of the city Onchestus. They say that here dwelt Onchestus, a son of Poseidon. In my day there remained a temple and image of Onchestian Poseidon, and the grove which Homer too praised.

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 where it is referred to as the god's "bright grove."[3]

In the Homeric Hymns to Apollo the grove is also mentioned:[4]

And further still you went, O far-shooting Apollo, and came to Onchestus, Poseidon's bright grove: there the new-broken colt distressed with drawing the trim chariot gets spirit again, and the skilled driver springs from his car and goes on his way. Then the horses for a while rattle the empty car, being rid of guidance; and if they break the chariot in the woody grove, men look after the horses, but tilt the chariot and leave it there; for this was the rite from the very first. And the drivers pray to the lord of the shrine; but the chariot falls to the lot of the god.

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References
  1. Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece, 9.26.5, 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.
  2. Plutarch. Quaes. Gr. 16. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
  3. Homer. The Iliad of Homer. Book 2: 480, Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Longmans, Green and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London. New York and Bombay. 1898
  4. 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.
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