Orchomenus

Orchomenos, or (on nearly all its coins) Erchomenos (recently renamed Orchomenos, combining two modern villages)

A city in Boeotia (central Greece), beside the western shore of Lake Copais (now drained), at the eastern end of the rocky ridge of Mount Akontion (`javelin’; now Dourdouvana), above the principal spring of the river Melas (Mavropotamos). A little to the south, another river, the Cephisus, likewise debouches into Lake Copais.

Palaeolithic remains have been found in the neighborhood, and Orchomenus was inhabited in Neolithic times. During the Bronze Age it was one of the most powerful palace centers in the country, founding (according to tradition) the huge island fortress of Glal, and becoming, in the second half of the second millennium BC, the principal city of Boeotia and the capital of the Minyans, half-legendary immigrants from Thessaly under the leadership of Minyas; the Treasury of the Minyans, according to Pausanias, was `a wonder second to none either in Greece or elsewhere.’ The name of Orchomenus, supposedly derived from a son of Minyas, appears in the Catalog of Ships in Homer's Iliad. The poem also refers to the wealth of the place, which was reflected in a number of personal names incorporating the word `gold’ (chrysos). The Orchomenians were said to have been strong enough to impose tribute on Thebes, the later capital of Boeotia. Many other stories also centered on their city, notably those relating to the fabulous buildings of its architects Trophonius and Agamedes, sons of King Erginus (though the father of Trophonius was also asserted to have been the god Apollo); while other stories tell of the first drainage systems of the shore-lands of Lake Copais (temporarily destroyed, according to tradition, by Heracles, who was said to have put Erginus to death.) The Orchomenians of the Bronze Age produced handsome grey and yellow `Minyan’ pottery, and prehistoric drainage works have been tentatively identified two miles east of the city.

In about the eighth century Orchomenus, according to an unexpected statement by Strabo, belonged to a grouping of cities known as the Amphictyony of Calauria (the island of Poros), which was based on the worship of Poseidon and drew the rest of its membership from the Argolid. Within Boeotia itself the city's position was gradually eclipsed by the Thebans. Its first coins (c 530), however, suggest that it was still independent of the Theban-controlled Boeotian League at that date, since the design of a buckler that characterized the federal issues does not appear. But Orchomenus joined the League soon after the Persian Wars (if not earlier), playing a prominent part—under the leadership of exiles expelled by the Athenians—in the reconstituted federation in 447/6. After a severe earthquake in 427/6, a further group of exiles from the city hatched an unsuccessful plot with the Athenians to hand them over Chaeronea (424), which at that time was an Orchomenian possession. Allied with Sparta against Thebes in the battles of Coronea and Haliartus (395, 394), Orchomenus was destroyed by the Thebans in 364 and again (after Phocian restoration) in 349. Reconstructed by Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great, it became—following the latter's destruction of Thebes (335)—the leading member of a new Boeotian Confederation. In 86 it was the scene of a victory by Sulla's Roman army over Archelaus—a general of Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus—which was followed by the plundering of the city. In Roman times it seems to have been wholly insignificant.

Throughout the ancient centuries a number of settlements rose successively at different sites on the eastern slopes and foot of Mount Akontion. A seventh-century BC wall, round the lowest terrace, is poorly preserved, but the complex fourth-century ramparts provide one of the finest specimens of ancient Greek fortification in existence. They are unified by three transverse walls, of which one marks the boundary of the fourth century hilltop acropolis, a thousand feet above the plain. On an intermediate terrace stood a temple of Asclepius, while a theater (c 300) has been recently excavated at the foot of the hill. The source of the river Melas was the Acidalia or spring of the Graces (Charites), who were celebrated at Orchomenus by worship and festivals (the Charitesia). Pausanias also refers to shrines of Dionysus and Heracles. (There were other towns with same name of Orchomenus in Arcadia and Phthiotis [Thessaly]).