Ortygius, a Rutulian killed by Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 573.
Orus, or Horus, one of the gods of the Egyptians, son of Osiris and Isis. He assisted his mother in avenging his father, who had been murdered by Typhon. Orus was skilled in medicine, he was acquainted with futurity, and he made the good and the happiness of his subjects the sole object of his government. He was the emblem of the sun among the Egyptians, and he was generally represented as an infant, swathed in variegated clothes. In one hand he held a staff, which terminated in the head of a hawk, in the other a whip with three thongs. Herodotus, bk. 2.—Plutarch, Iside et Osiride.—Diodorus, bk. 1.——The first king of Trœzene. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 30.
Oryander, a satrap of Persia, &c. Polyænus, bk. 7.
Oryx, a place of Arcadia on the Ladon. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 25.
Osaces, a Parthian general, who received a mortal wound from Cassius. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, ltr. 20.
Osca, a town of Spain, now Huesca, in Arragon. Livy, bk. 34, ch. 10.
Oschophŏria, a festival observed by the Athenians. It receives its name ἀπο του φερειν τας ὀσχας, from carrying boughs hung up with grapes, called ὀσχαι. Its original institution is thus mentioned by Plutarch, Theseus. Theseus, at his return from Crete, forgot to hang out the white sail by which his father was to be apprised of his success. This neglect was fatal to Ægeus, who threw himself into the sea and perished. Theseus no sooner reached the land, than he sent a herald to inform his father of his safe return, and in the mean time he began to make the sacrifices which he vowed when he first set sail from Crete. The herald, on his entrance into the city, found the people in great agitation. Some lamented the king’s death, while others, elated at the sudden news of the victory of Theseus, crowned the herald with garlands in demonstration of their joy. The herald carried back the garlands on his staff to the sea-shore, and after he had waited till Theseus had finished his sacrifice, he related the melancholy story of the king’s death. Upon this, the people ran in crowds to the city, showing their grief by cries and lamentations. From that circumstance, therefore, at the feast of the Oschophoria, not the herald but his staff is crowned with garlands, and all the people that are present always exclaim ἐλελευ, ιου, ιου, the first of which expresses haste, and the other a consternation or depression of spirits. The historian further mentions that Theseus, when he went to Crete, did not take with him the usual number of virgins, but that, instead of two of them, he filled up the number with two youths of his acquaintance, whom he made pass for women, by disguising their dress, and by using them to the ointment and perfumes of women, as well as by a long and successful imitation of their voice. The imposition succeeded; their sex was not discovered in Crete, and when Theseus had triumphed over the Minotaur, he, with these two youths, led a procession with branches in their hands, in the same habit which is still used at the celebration of the Oschophoria. The branches which were carried were in honour of Bacchus or of Ariadne, or because they returned in autumn when the grapes were ripe. Besides this procession, there was also a race exhibited, in which only young men whose parents were both alive were permitted to engage. It was usual for them to run from the temple of Bacchus to that of Minerva, which was on the sea-shore. The place where they stopped was called ὀσχοφοριον, because the boughs which they carried in their hands were deposited there. The reward of the conqueror was a cup called τεντα πλοα, five-fold, because it contained a mixture of five different things—wine, honey, cheese, meal, and oil. Plutarch, Theseus.
Osci, a people between Campania and the country of the Volsci, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. Some suppose that they are the same as the Opici, the word Osci being a diminutive or abbreviation of the other. The language, the plays, and ludicrous expressions of this nation, are often mentioned by the ancients, and from their indecent tendency some suppose the word obscænum (quasi oscenum) is derived. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 4, ch. 14.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 7, ltr. 1.—Livy, bk. 10, ch. 20.—Strabo, bk. 5.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 730.
Oscius, a mountain, with a river of the same name, in Thrace. Thucydides.
Oscus, a general of the fleet of the emperor Otho. Tacitus, bk. 1, Histories, bk. 17.