Dryopes (/ˈdraɪəpiːz/; Ancient Greek: Δρύοπες) or Dryopians (/draɪˈɒpiənz/) were one of the aboriginal tribes of ancient Greece. According to Herodotus, their earliest abode is said to have been on Mount Oeta and its adjacent valleys, in the district called after them, Dryopis (Δρυοπίς). The Dorians settled in that part of their country which lay between Oeta and Parnassus, and which was afterwards called Doris; but Dryopis originally extended as far north as the river Spercheius.[1] The name of Dryopis was still applied to the latter district in the time of Strabo, who calls it a tetrapolis, like Doris.[2]

Dryopian language
RegionMount Oeta, Spercheios, Hermione (Argolis), Ambracia, Ambracia
Erac. 2400-1200 BCE (North), 1200-700 BCE
Language codes
ISO 639-3–

Heracles, in conjunction with the Malians, is said to have driven the Dryopes out of their country, and to have given it to the Dorians; whereupon the expelled Dryopes settled at Hermione and Asine in the Argolic peninsula, at Styrus and Carystus in Euboea, and in the islands of Cythnus and Cyprus.[3][4] These are the six chief places in which we find the Dryopes in historical times.[5][6][7] Later, Thucydides identifies Carystus as Dryopian, but nearby Styria as Ionian.[8] Dicaearchus gives the name of Dryopis to the country around Ambracia, from which we might conclude that the Dryopes extended at one time from the Ambraciot Gulf to Mount Oeta and the Spercheius.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 1.56, 8.31.
  2. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.434. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  3. ^ Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 8.43, 8.36, 8.73.
  4. ^ Apollodorus, Library (ed. Sir James George Frazer), Book 2, chapter 7.
  5. ^ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 4.57.
  6. ^ Pausanias (1918). "34.9". Description of Greece. Vol. 4. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., et seq.
  7. ^ Pausanias (1918). "1.2". Description of Greece. Vol. 5. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
  8. ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 7.57.
  9. ^ Dicaearchus, 5.30, p. 459, ed. Fuhr.
  10. ^ Public Domain Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Dryopes". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Dryopes". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.


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