O´LENUS
O´LENUS (
Ὤλενος: Eth.
᾿ωλένιος).
1.
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. sub voce The Roman poets use
Olenius as equivalent to Aetolian: thus Tydeus of Calydon in Aetolia is called
Olenius Tydeus. (
Stat. Theb. 1.402.)
2.
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; Pol. 2.41; Strab. viii. pp. 384, 386. 388;
Paus. 7.18.1,
7.22.1;
Plin. Nat. 4.6,
Olenum; Leake,
Morea, vol. ii. p. 157,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 208; Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. 82.)
