A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

18 OEN OPION. OEOBAZUS.
by Eusebius, who tells us that Oenomaus was pro- became the father of Thalus, Euanthes, Melas,
voked to write it in consequence of having been Salagus, Athamas, and Merope, Aerope or Haero
himself deceived by an oracle. (Euseb. Praep. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iii. 996; Paus. vii. 4. ~
Evang. v. 18, foll., vi. 7; Socrat. H. E. iv. 13; 6; Parthen. Erot. 20). Some writers call OenoNiceph. x. 36; Theodoret. Therap. vi. p. 86, x. p. pion. a son of Rhadamanthys by Ariadne, and a
141, a.) Julian also speaks of tragedies by Oeno- brother of Staphylus (Plut. Thes. 20); and Servius
maus (Orat. vii. p. 210). (ad Aen. i. 539; comp. x. 763) also calls him the
2. An epigrammatic poet, the author of a single father of Orion. From Crete he emigrated with
distich upon Eros, inscribed on a drinking vessel. his sons to Chios, which Rhadamanthys had asThere is nothing to determine whether or no he signed to him as his habitation (Paus. vii. 4. ~ 6;
was, the same person as the philosopher (Brunck, Diod. v. 79). While he was king of Chios, he
Anal. vol. ii. p. 402; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. iii. received a visit from the giant Orion, who for a
p. 110.) leng time sued for the hand of Merope. Once
3. A tragic poet. [DIOGENES, p. 1023.] [P.S.] Orion being intoxicated violated Merope, in conseOENO'NE (Ol'tvwl), a daughter of the river- quence of which Oenopion blinded him and expelled
god Cebren, and the wife of Paris. (Apollod. iii. him from his island. Orion, however, went to
12. ~ 6; Parthen. Erot. 4; Strab. xiii. p. 596; Lemnos, where Hephaestus gave to him Cedalion
comp. PARIS.) [L. S.] as a guide, or according to others stole a boy whom
OENO'PIDES (Oi'vo7rlns), a distinguished he carried on his shoulders, and who told him the
astronomer and mathematician, a native of Chios. roads. Orion was afterwards cured of his blindPlato (Erastae, c. 1) mentions him in conjunction ness, and returned to Chios to take vengeance on
with Anaxagoras, from which it has been concluded Oenopion. But the latter was not to be found in
that he was a contemporary of the latter. It may Chios, for his friends had concealed him in the
have been so, but there is nothing else to confirm earth, so that Orion, unable to discover him, went
the conjecture. He is spoken of in connection with to Crete (Apollod. i. 4. ~ 3; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii.
Pythagoras and his followers, so that he seems to 34; Eratosth. Catast. 32; Eustath. ad Hose. p.
have been regarded as a Pythagorean. Oenopides 1623). The tomb of Oenopion continued to be
derived most of his astronomical knowledge from shown at Chios even in the days of Pausanias (vii.
the priests and astronomers of Egypt, with whom 5. ~ 6; comp. ORION; Vilcker, Mythol. des Japet.
he lived for some time. Diodorus (i. 98) mentions Gesclk. p. 112, &c.). [L. S.]
in particular that he derived from this source his OENO'TROPAE (OisvorpJrra), that is, the
knowledge of the obliquity of the ecliptic, the dis- changers of or into wine, was the name of the three
covery of which he is said to have claimed (in the or four daughters of king Anius in Delos, because
treatise de Plac. Phil. ii. 12, ascribed to Plutarch). they had received from Dionysus the power of
Aelian ( V. H. x. 7) attributes to Oenopides the changing water into wine, and any thing else they
invention of the cycle of fifty-nine years for chose into corn and olives (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 750).
bringing the lunar and solar years into accordance, When Agamemnon heard this, he wanted to carry
of which Censorinus (c. 19) makes Philolaus to them off by force from their father, that they might
have been the originator. The length of the solar provide for the army of the Greeks at Troy; but
year was fixed by Oenopides at 365 days, and they implored Dionysus for assistance, and were
somewhat less than nine hours. (As Censorinus accordingly metamorphosed into doves. (Ov. liet.
expresses it, the fift'y-ninth part of twenty-two xiii. 640; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 80.) [L. S.]
days.) Oenopides set up at Olympia a brazen OENO'TRUS (OlvwTpos), the youngest son
tablet containing an explanation of his cycle. He of Lycaon who emigrated with a colony from
had a notion that the milky-way was the original Arcadia to Italy, and called the district in which
path of the sun, from which he had been frightened he settled, after himself, Oenotria (Paus. viii. 3. ~
into his present'path by the spectacle of the banquet 2; Virg. Aen. i. 532, iii. 165, vii. 85; Strab. vi.
of Thyestes. (Achilles Tatius, Isag. in Arat. c. 24.) p. 253, &c.). According to Varro, he was a king
Proclus, in his commentary on Euclid, attributes to of the Sabines, and not a Pelasgian, and his brother
Oenopides the discovery of the twelfth and twenty- was called Italus (Serv. ad Aen. i. 536). Accordthird propositions of the first book of Euclid, and ing to Dionysius (i. 11, &c. ii. 1), Oenotrus was
the quadrature of the meniscus. Oenopides is also accompanied by his brother Peucetius, and landed
mentioned more than once by Sextusw Empiricus. in the bay of Ausonia. [L. S.]
(Hypot. iii. 4, adv. Math. p. 367.) He had a theory OEOBA'ZUS (Oio'a'ors). 1. A Persian, who,
of his own about the rise of the Nile, which was when Dareius Hystaspis was on the point of marchthis, that in the summer the waters beneath the ing from Susa on his Scythian expedition, besought
earth are cold, in the winter warm; a fact which hirm to leave behind with him one of his three sons,
he said was proved by the temperature of deep all of whom were serving in the army. Dareius
wells. So that in the winter the heat shut up in answered that, as Oeobazus was a friend, and had
the earth carries off the greater part of the moisture, preferred so moderate a request, he would leave him
while there are no rains in Egypt. In the summer, all three. He then ordered them all to be put to
on the contrary, the moisture is no longer carried death. (Her. iv. 84; comp. vii. 38, 39; Senec. de
off in that way, so that there is enough to fill the Ira, iii. 16, 17.)
bed of the Nile and cause it to overflow. Diodorus 2. Father of Siromitres, who led the Paricanians
(i. 41) objects to that theory, that other rivers of in the Greek expedition of Xerxes. (Her. vii. 68.)
Libya, which correspond in position and direction 3. A noble Persian, who, when the Greek fleet
to the Nile, are not so affected. (Fabric. Bibl. arrived in the Hellespont after the battle of Mycale
Graec. vol. i. p.860; Ideler, Handbuch der Chlrono- (B. c. 479), fled from Cardia to Sestus, as the place
logie, vol. i. p. 302.) [C. P. M.] of all most strongly fortifies. Sestus was besieged
OENO'PION (Ov'o7rtcmv), a son of Dionysus by the Athenians under Xanthippus, and, on
and husband of the nymph Helice, by whom he the famine becoming unendurable, Ocobazus, with