Olenus

(Ὤλενος.)

1. A son of Hiephaestus, and father of the nymphs Aege and Helice who brought up Zeus, and Iromi whom the town of Olenus in Aetolia was believed to have derived its name. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. 13; Steph. Byz. s. v.)

2. A son of Zeus and the Danaid Anaxiithea, from whom the town of Olenus in Achaia derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. ; Strab. viii. p.386.)

3. A person living on Mount Ida, who wanted to take upon himself the punishment which his wife aId deserved by her pride of her beauty, and was metamorphosed along with her into stone. (Ov. Mel. 10.68, &c.) [L.S]

OLENUS (ωλενος), a town in Galatia, in the west of Ancyra, and belonging to the territory of the Tectosages, is mentioned only by Ptolemy (Ptol. 5.4.8).

O´LENUS (Ὤλενος: Eth. ωλένιος).

An ancient town in the S. of Aetolia, between the Achelous and the Evenus, was named after a son of Zeus or Hephaestus, and is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue. It was situated near New Pleuron, at the foot of Mount Aracynthus; but its exact site is uncertain. It is said to have been destroyed by the Aeolians; and there were only a few traces of it in the time of Strabo. (Strab.x. pp. 451, 460; Hom. Il. 2.638; Apollod. 1.8.4; Hyg. Poët. Astron. 2.13; Stat. Theb. 4.104; Steph. B. s. v.) The Roman poets use Olenius as equivalent to Aetolian: thus Tydeus of Calydon in Aetolia is called Olenius Tydeus. (Stat. Theb. 1.402.)

A town of Achaia, and originally one of the 12 Achaean cities, was situated on the coast, and on the left bank of the river Peirus, 40 stadia from Dyme, and 80 stadia from Patrae. On the revival of the Achaean League in B.C. 280, it appears that Olenus was still in existence, as Strabo says that it did not join the league; but the inhabitants subsequently abandoned the town, and retired to the neighbouring villages of Peirae (Πειραί), and Euryteiae (Εὐρυτειαί), and to Dyme. In the time of Polybius, however, Olenus was no longer inhabited; and in the time of Strabo it was in ruins, and its territory belonged to Dyme. There are some remains of the ancient city at Kato or Palea-Akhaia. (Hdt. 1.145; Plb. 2.41; Strab. viii. pp. 384, 386. 388; Paus. 7.18.1, 7.22.1; Plin. Nat. 4.6, Olenum; Leake, Morea, vol. 2. p. 157, Peloponnesiaca, p. 208; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. 8. p. 82.)

(Ὤλενος). The husband of Lethaea, and changed with her into a stone. He was the father of the nymphs Aegé and Helicé, who reared the youthful Zeus.

(Ὤλενος). (1) A town in Aetolia, near New Pleuron, destroyed by the Aetolians at an early period.

(2) A town in Achaia, between Patrae and Dyme. The goat Amalthaea, which suckled the infant Zeus, is called Olenia capella by the poets, either because the goat was supposed to have been born near the town of Olenus, and to have been subsequently transferred to Crete, or because the nymph Amalthaea, to whom the goat belonged, was the daughter of Olenus.

• Hdt. 1.145, Paus. 5.3.3, Paus. 7.6.1, Paus. 7.18.1, Paus. 7.22.1
• sack of: Apollod. 1.8.3
• Herakles goes to Dexamenus at: Apollod. 2.5.5