Orsilochus

In Greek mythology, Orsilochus (Ὁρσἰλοχος) or Ortilochus (Ὁρτἰλοχος) is a name that may refer to:

Orsilochus of Crete

Orsilochus is 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.

References

  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 4. 30. 2
  2. Strabo, Geography, 8. 5. 8
  3. Homer, Odyssey, 21. 15
  4. Homer, Iliad, 5. 547; Odyssey, 3. 489 = 15. 187
  5. Scholia on Odyssey, 15. 16
  6. Scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus the King, 775
  7. Homer, Iliad, 5. 542 - 549; Tzetzes, Homerica, 80
  8. Homer, Iliad, 8. 274
  9. Virgil, Aeneid, 11. 636 & 690; Macrobius, Saturnalia, 6. 6. 10
  10. Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy, 2. 13
  11. Homer, Odyssey, 13. 260 ff
  12. Odyssey 13. 262 - 270
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