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]
It was believed that it took its name from Oetylus, a son of Amphianax and grandson of Antimachus of Argos. The town honoured him as a hero.[7]
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][8]
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
- ^ August Böckh, Inscr. no. 1323;
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- ^ , 3.25.10, 3.26.1.
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- ^ A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Oetylus
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