Nireus. A Greek at the siege of Troy, famous for beauty.
Numa. Second king of Rome; his reign was marked by peace and the founding of religious institutions.
Odysseus. Son of Laertes, king of Ithaca. To escape joining the Greeks against Troy, simulated madness by driving a plough for a chariot, with one ox and one horse. Palamedes exposed him by threatening Odysseus's son Telemachus with a sword, when he confessed. In revenge, he ruined Palamedes at Troy, convicting him by forged evidence of treacherous dealings with the enemy. When Agamemnon lost heart, and was for returning, Odysseus prevailed on the Greeks not to give up. Took ten years getting home, detained by Calypso, by Circe, and otherwise. Circe enabled him to visit Hades and consult Tiresias. Escaped the Sirens by stopping his crew's ears with wax, and having himself bound to the mast.
Oeneus. See Meleager.
Olympia. In Elis; the Olympic games took place every four years, and, starting from 776 B.C., from which time a record of them was kept, were used for dating events, under the name of Olympiads. The games were the occasion of the largest gatherings of Greeks that took place.
Olympias. Wife of Philip of Macedon and mother of Alexander.
Olympiēum. A temple of Zeus at Athens, begun by the tyrant Pisistratus (560-527 B.C.), but not finished till the time of Hadrian (117-138 A.D.).
Olympus (1). A mountain separating Macedonia and Thessaly, the summit of which was the residence of the Gods.
Olympus (2). A celebrated flute-player of Phrygia.
Omphale. See Heracles.