Orchomĕnus
（
Ὀρχόμενος).
1.
An ancient, wealthy, and powerful city of Boeotia, the capital of the Minyans in the
ante-historical ages of Greece, and hence called by Homer the Minyan Orchomenos. It was
situated northwest of the lake Copa ïs, on the river Cephissus. Sixty years after
the Trojan War it was taken by the Boeotians, and became a member of the Boeotian League. It
continued to exist as an independent town till B.C. 367, when it was taken and destroyed by
the Thebans; and though subsequently rebuilt by the Phocians, the Thebans again demolished
it. Philip of Macedon once more restored it (B.C. 338), but it never recovered its former
prosperity. It was famous for its musical festival in honour of the Charites, who were
worshipped here (
Theoc.xvi. 104). In the vicinity of
Orchomenos Sulla defeated Archelaüs, the general of Mithridates, in B.C. 85. In
1880, 1881, and 1886 extensive excavations were made here by Dr. Schilemann, who exhumed an
ancient “treasury” or mausoleum larger even than the famous one
discovered by him at
Mycenae (q.v.). See K. O.
Müller, Orchomenos und die Minyer (1844);
Schliemann, Orchomenos (1881); and Schuchhardt,
Schliemann's Excavations (Eng. tr. London, 1891).
2.
An ancient town of Arcadia, situated northwest of Mantinea.
