ORCHIL. See ARCIIIL.
( hat.. from (:k. 'clpxogee6s, Orchonwnos). A famous ancient city of Deotia, situated on a spur of Mount Aeontium. on the northwest shore of Lake Collis. it seems to have played a great r5le in legendary times as capital of the Minyte and chief city of Theotia. A relic of this early age is the bee-hive tomb, or ury of Minyas, a work of the tion, and but little smaller than the 'Treasury of at (See Ancii.Eotca; V. ) was excavated by Schliemann in 1850 and 1886. After the Ihrotian conquest Orchomenns was it member of the confederacy, and second only to Thebes. In the fourth century B.C. it appears as bitterly' hostile to Theban supremacy and in close alliance with Sparta. In consequence after the battle of Leuctra (me. :371) the Thebans de stroyed the city and sold the inhabitants into slavery (n.c. 368); restored by the Phocians, it was again destroyed in B.C. 346. Rebuilt by Philip or Alexander of Macedon, it continued to exist in Homan times. Orchomenus was chiefly noted for its worship of the Charites or Graces, here ancient and powerful goddesses of light and bringers of fruitfulness. Their festival, the Chari
lesia, was accompanied by muSical and poetic contests, of which records are preserved in in scriptions containing the names of the victors. The remains of the ancient walls and the small castle which crowned the Acropolis are still well pre served, and arc fine examples of the best period of Greek fortification. Consult: K. O. \Hiller, OrchomeHos end die Minim. (Breslau, 1844) ; Leak,', Travels in \'orther•n Greece, ii. (London, 1835) ; Leipzig, 1881; translated in Journal of Hellenic ,tituclies, 1881) : Schuchhardt, Sehliemann's Excara/ions (London, 1891) : Frazer, Pausnnias, v. 1898). (2) ttrehomonus was also the 11:1111C of a town iu Northeastern Arcadia, represented in the legends as of much importance during the heroic age, lint of little importance in later times. Its situation on a lofty hill commanding the roads from Mantinea to the north made it a position of sonic strategical value during the time of the Macedonian WarS and the Aclnut League.