OINOE
(Myoupolis) Attica, Greece.
There are
two Attic demes of this name.
1) The site of one presents little difficulty. Belonging
first to the Aiantis tribe then later to the tribes of Attala
and Hadrian (Imperial period), it is situated in the Marathon Plain 4 km W of the village of the same name and
S of the stream known as Charadra. On the N slope of
the acropolis is the grotto of Pan and the nymphs described by Pausanias (
1.32.7). Nearby is a copious
spring, known as Kephalari or Ninoe (whence the popular local name Ninoi). The deme formed part of the
tetrapolis along with Marathon, Probalinthos, and Trikorynthos (
Strab. 8.7.1).
2) The second deme belonged to the tribe Hippothontis, later to the tribe Ptolemais; its site is still disputed.
It is probably somewhere along the boundary between
Attica and Boiotia, in the NW part of Attica.
Herodotos (
5.74) writes that in 507 Kleomenes, king
of Sparta, eager to take revenge on the Athenian people
and to set up Isagoras as a despot, “invaded the territory
of Eleusis, while the Boiotians, as had been agreed with
him, seized Oinoe and Hysini, demes on the borders of
Attica.” When Euboia revolted in 446, Pericles learned
that Megara had defected. The Peloponnesians made
ready to invade Attica and the Athenian garrisons were
massacred by the Megarians, except for one which had
taken refuge in Nisaia (
Thuc. 1.114). The Peloponnesians invaded Attica, penetrating as far as Eleusis and
Thria: this was not only the direct route, blocking the
passage from Pagai to Athens, but also the shortest, as
it went through Panakton and Eleutheres as well as
Oinoe. Finally, when war broke out, Thucydides (
2.18）
shows King Archidamos invading Attica by way of
Oinoe, the first point of contact between the Peloponnese
and Attica—which is unexpected, to say the least, seeing
that the direct route went through Megara and Eleusis
and along the coast. Thucydides notes unmistakably:
“Oinoe, which is on the frontier of Attica and Boiotia,
was in fact fortified, and Athens used it as an advance
post in time of war. They therefore organized these assaults and, in this way among others, lingered there”
(
Thuc. 2.18.2). “The Athenians, as is well known, took
advantage of this delay to carry all their possessions in
to safety, and the Peloponnesians grew impatient at this
period of waiting imposed on them by their king, Archidamos.” In spite of the pessimism of one scholar: “Its site
is uncertain; for we have no specific archaeological evidence, and the literary evidence is vague,” this important
text allows us to select a site from those that have been
suggested. Oinoe is clearly in the region of Boiotia and
Attica, belonging now to one, now to the other (
Strab.
9.2.31). Myoupolis, slightly E of Eleutheres, meets the
topographical qualifications and possesses some notable
ruins; it seems likely to be the site of Oinoe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) G. J. Frazer,
Pausanias II (1898)
438-39; Philippson,
Gr. Landschaften I, 3 (1952) 787;
J. Wiesner,
RE Suppltbd. 8 (1956) s.v.; R. Hope Simpson,
A Gazetteer and Atlas of Mycenaean Sites (1965)
108-9, no. 379; W. K. Pritchett,
Studies in Ancient Greek
Topography I (1965) 83-88; II (1969) 9-11 and map
p. 10, fig. 1; J. R. McCredie,
Hesperia Suppl. 11 (1966)
37 n. 58.
2) Frazer 517; L. Chandler,
JHS 44 (1926) 8-9, 15,
figs. 4-5; Wrede,
AthMitt (1933) 25; A. W. Gomme,
A
hist. Comm. to Thuc. I (1945) 341; 11 (1956) 66-69; III
(1956)
MP; Philippson I, 2 (1950) 525-26 (site of Mazi);
I, 3, 975-76; W. Wallace,
Phoenix Suppl. 1 (1952) 80-84;
N.G.L. Hammond,
BSA 44 (1954) 103-22 esp. 120-22
MIP; J. de Romilly, ed. & trans. Thuc. (1962); id.,
REA 64 (1962) 287-98; E. Meyer,
Der kleine Pauly (1970) s.v. Oinoe, 3.
Y. BÉQUIGNON
