OCA´LEA
OCA´LEA or
OCALEIA (
Ὠκαλέα,
Ὠκάλεια: Eth.
Ὠκαλεύς), an ancient city of Boeotia, mentioned by Homer, situated upon a small stream of the same name, at an equal distance from Haliartus and Alalcomenae.
It lay in the middle of a long narrow plain, bounded on the east by the heights of Haliartus, on the west by the mountain Tilphossium, on the south by a range of low hills, and on the north by the lake Copais.
This town was dependent upon Haliartus.
The name is probably only a dialectic form of Oechalia. Its site is indicated by several squared blocks on the right bank of the stream. (
Hom. Il. 2.501,
Eymn. Apoll. 242;
Strab. ix. p.410;
Apollod. 2.4.11;
Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 12;
Steph. B. sub voce Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 205, seq.; Forchhammer,
Hellenika, p. 184.)
