OENUS
OENUS (
Οἰνοῦς: Eth.
Οἰνούντιος), a small town in Laconia, celebrated for its wine, from which the river Oenus, a tributary of the Eurotas, appears to have derived its name. From its being described by Athenaeus as near Pitane, one of the divisions of Sparta, it was probably situated near the junction of the Oenus and the Eurotas. (
Steph. B. sub voce Athen. 1.31.)
The river Oenus, now called
Kelefína, rises in the watershed of Mt. Parnon, and, after flowing in a general south-westerly direction, falls into the Eurotas, at the distance of little more than a mile from Sparta. (
Plb. 2.65,
66;
Liv. 34.28.)
The principal tributary of the Oenus was the Gorgylus (
Γόργυλος, Plb. 2.66), probably the river of
Vrestená. (Leake,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 347.)
