Opus, Greece

Opus or Opous (Ancient Greek: Ὀποῦς) in Ancient Greece was the chief city of Opuntian or Eastern Locris. It was located on the coast of mainland Greece opposite Euboea, perhaps at modern Atalandi. Its harbor was at Kynos.

In the Iliad, Homer mentions Opus as one of the Locrian cities whose troops were led by Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus the king of Locris (Homer, Iliad, 2.525–530). There were games called Aiantea and an altar at Opus in honor of Ajax.^[1] Pindar's ninth Olympian ode, concerns Opus. Opus fought on the Greek side at Thermopylae, but surrendered, joining the Persians, and on the Spartan side during the Peloponnesian War. In 198 BC, during the Second Macedonian War they went over to the Romans.

References

• Smith, William, "Opus" in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LLD. London. Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street.