Orsilochus

In Greek mythology, Orsilochus (Ancient Greek: Ὀρσίλοχος), Ortilochus (Ὀρτίλοχος) or Orsilocus is a name that may refer to:

  • Orsilochus, son of the river god Alpheus and Telegone, daughter of Pharis.[1] He was a resident of Pherae,[2] and it was at his home that Odysseus met Iphitos the son of Eurytus.[3] He had at least one son Diocles[4] and at least two daughters: Dorodoche, said by some to be the wife of Icarius,[5] and Medusa, the wife of Polybus of Corinth.[6]
  • Orsilochus, grandson of the precedent through Diocles, and twin of Crethon. He was the brother of Anticleia. These men fought at Troy under Agamemnon and were killed by Aeneas.[7]
  • Orsilochus, a Trojan killed by Teucer.[8]
  • Orsilochus, another Trojan who followed Aeneas to Italy and was killed by Camilla.[9]
  • Orsilochus of Argos, who was credited with inventing the four-horse chariot, and, in reward for his invention, wk989s placed among the stars as the constellation Auriga.[10] See also Trochilus.
  • Orsilochus, a (perhaps imaginary) son of King Idomeneus of Crete and scion of Minos, renowned as a great runner and the fastest man on Crete, who only appears in a story made up by Odysseus,[11] see below.
  • Orsilochus of Crete was mentioned in Book 13 of Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus makes use of his little-known status in Ithaca to construct an elaborate lie for the benefit of the disguised and fully cognisant Pallas Athena, claiming that he had killed him: "He tried to fleece me of all the booty I had won at Troy, my reward for the long-drawn agonies of war and all the miseries of voyages by sea, merely because I refused to obey his father and serve under him at Troy, and preferred to lead my own command. So, with a friend at my side, I laid an intense ambush for him at the side of the road, and struck him with my bronze spear as he was coming in from the country. There was a pitch-black sky that night covering the heavens, and not a soul saw us; so no-one knew that it was I who had killed him."[12]

Modern references

Notes
  1. Pausanias, 4.30.2
  2. Strabo, 8.5.8
  3. Homer, Odyssey 21.15
  4. Homer, Iliad 5.547; Odyssey 3.489 = 15.187
  5. Scholia on Odyssey 15.16
  6. Scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 775
  7. Homer, Iliad 5.542–549; Tzetzes, Homerica 80
  8. Homer, Iliad 8.274
  9. Virgil, Aeneid 11.636 & 690; Macrobius, Saturnalia 6.6.10
  10. Hyginus, De Astronomica 2.13
  11. Homer, Odyssey 13.260 ff.
  12. Homer, Odyssey 13.262–270

References
  • Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
  • 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. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. ISBN 978-0674995611. 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. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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