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: , 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 . 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, was 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[]

• The asteroids 5284 Orsilocus and 5285 Krethon were named after Orsilochus and Crethon, the sons of Diocles, respectively.
• Orsilochus (millipede), a genus of millipedes in the family Siphonotidae

Notes[]

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.

This article includes a list of Greek mythological figures with the same or similar names. If an for a specific Greek mythology article referred you to this page, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended Greek mythology article, if one exists.