Oeantheia

Oeantheia or OEANTHE (Οἰάνθεια, Hellanic. ap. Steph. B. sub voce, Polyb., Paus.; Οἰάνθη, Hecatae. ap. Steph. B. sub voce, Plin. Nat. 4.3. s. 4; Εὐανθίς, Scylax, p. 14; Εὐανθία, Ptol. 3.15.3: Eth. Οἰανθεύς: Galaxídhi), an important town of the Locri Ozolae, situated at the western entrance of the Crissaean gulf. Polybius says that it is opposite to Aegeira in Achaia (4.57, comp. 5.17), which agrees with the situation of Galaxídhi. The Oeanthians (Οἰανθεῖς) are mentioned among the Locri Ozolae by Thucydides (3.101). Scylax calls the town Euanthis; and since Strabo says (vi. p. 259) that Locri Epizephyrii in Italy was founded by the Locri Ozolae, under a leader named Euanthes, it has been conjectured that Oeantheia or Euantheia was the place where the emigrants embarked. Oeantheia appears to have been the only maritime city in Locris remaining in the time of Pausanias, with the exception of Naupactus. The only objects at Oeantheia mentioned by Pausanias were a temple of Aphrodite, and one of Artemis, situated in a grove above the town (10.38.9). The town is mentioned in the Tab. Peut. as situated 20 miles from Naupactus and 15 from Anticyra. The remains of antiquity at Galaxidhi are very few. There are some ruins of Hellenic walls; and an inscription of no importance has been discovered there. (Böckh, Inscr. No. 1764.) The modern town is inhabited by an active seafaring population, who possessed 180 ships when Ulrichs visited the place in 1837. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 594; Ulrichs, Reisen, dc. p. 5.)