Oetylus or Oitylos (Ancient Greek: Οἴτυλος), also known as Beitylus or Beitylos (Βείτυλος),[1] or Bityla (Βίτυλα),[2] was a town of ancient Laconia on the eastern side of the Messenian Gulf, at the modern settlement of Oitylo.[3][4]

Pausanias says that it was 80 stadia from Thalamae and 150 from Messa;[5] the latter distance is too great, but there is no doubt of the identity of Oetylus and modern Oitylo; and it appears that Pausanias made a mistake in the names, as the distance between Oetylus and Caenepolis is 150 stadia. Oetylus is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.[6]

During the Roman period it was one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns. It was still governed by its ephors in the 3rd century AD. Pausanias saw at Oetylus a temple of Sarapis, and a wooden statue of Apollo Carneius in the agora.[5][7]

Among the modern houses of Oitylo there are remains of Hellenic walls, and in the church a beautiful fluted Ionic column supporting a beam at one end of the aisle, and three or four Ionic capitals in the wall of the church, probably the remains of the temple of Sarapis.

References

  1. ↑ August Böckh, Inscr. no. 1323; Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p.360. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  2. ↑ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 3.16.22.
  3. ↑ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying.
  4. ↑ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  5. 1 2 Pausanias (1918). "21.7". Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., 3.25.10, 3.26.1.
  6. ↑ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.585.
  7. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Oetylus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

36°42′18″N 22°23′05″E / 36.705058°N 22.3848°E / 36.705058; 22.3848


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