Oropus
Oropus, a historic Greek town situated on the coast near the Euripus strait opposite Euboea, played a significant role in ancient trade and religious practices. Known for its strategic harbor and the adjacent Sacred Harbor of Delphinium, Oropus facilitated access to Euboea and generated customs revenues, leading to perceptions of the inhabitants as avaricious. The town maintained a fluctuating independence, often under the control of Boeotia or Athens, and saw military occupation during the Peloponnesian War. A pivotal aspect of Oropus was its oracular shrine dedicated to Amphiaraus, a mythical warrior and seer, which became a renowned site for divination and healing from its establishment in the sixth century BC. The sanctuary featured a temple, a sacred spring, and facilities for pilgrims, highlighting its importance as a religious center. Remnants of a Hellenistic theater and a bathing establishment further illustrate Oropus's historical significance. Today, the archaeological remains offer a glimpse into the town's past, capturing both its commercial and spiritual legacy.
Subject Terms
Oropus
Oropos (Skala Oropou, Oropos)
A Greek town in the coastal territory (named Oropia after it) beside the mainland shore of the Euripus, the strait facing the island of Euboea.
Oropus was strategically important because its harbor and the adjacent `Sacred Harbor’ of Delphinium (Kamaraki) offered easy access to Euboea and the opportunity for customs tolls—which gave the inhabitants a reputation for avarice. The town also possessed a direct road link to Athens by way of Deceleia, which facilitated supplies of grain and cattle. Nevertheless, Oropus was only occasionally independent. More often, its control oscillated between Boeotia—of which it had originally formed part—and Athens; during the Peloponnesian War it was occupied by a force from the principal Boeotian city, Thebes (412). Ten years later, according to Diodorus, the Thebans moved the population three miles inland, to the site of the modern village of Oropos. There are sparse ancient remains in the area. The coinage of this new city, during a period of freedom in the second or first century BC—before permanent attachment to Athens ensued—displays a dolphin (a play on the name of the port of Delphinium), and a head that appears to represent Amphiaraus.
He was the mythical Argive warrior and seer who joined the expedition described in Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, and was carried away by Zeus during the battle. His oracular shrine, the Amphiaraeum, stood in a wooded glen beside a ravine two miles north of Oropus, and was the city's principal claim to fame. Established perhaps in the sixth century BC, its oracle was consulted by King Croesus of Lydia, and by the later fifth century and especially in Hellenistic times (with the help of benefactions from Ptolemaic monarchs) it had developed extensively as a source of divination by the interpretation of dreams, a place were cures were effected, and the site of the quinquennial festivals of the Amphiaraea, which continued to be celebrated with increasing splendor in Roman times.
On the north side of the ravine are the remains of the Temple of Amphiaraus, beside a holy spring at the place where, according to Pausanias, the seer was believed to have risen to heaven; an adjacent portico was probably employed as a place of incubation, until a larger replacement was created nearby c 350. There is also a line of stone bases, on which thank-offering dedications were erected; a small Hellenistic theater is still in excellent condition, and ruins of a bathing establishment are to be seen. The south side of the ravine bears extensive but ill-preserved traces of the various residential accommodations required by priests and pilgrims and the sick.