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{{Short description|Greek epic attributed to either Homer or Creophylus of Samos}}
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'''''The Capture of Oechalia''''' (traditionally '''''The Sack of Oechalia''''', {{lang-grc|Οἰχαλίας Ἅλωσις}}) is a [[Lost literary work|fragmentary]] Greek [[Epic poetry|epic]] that was variously attributed in Antiquity to either [[Homer]] or [[Creophylus of Samos]]; a tradition was reported that Homer gave the tale to Creophylus, in gratitude for [[Xenia (Greek)|guest-friendship (''xenia'')]], and that Creophylus wrote it down.<ref>[[Strabo]], 14.18 reports the tradition but also quotes an [[epigram]] of the Alexandrian scholar-poet [[Callimachus]] in which the poem is made to speak, owning Creophylus for its begetter. The poem seems to exist in order to refute an ascription to Homer himself.</ref>
Oechalia (also known as the "city of [[Eurytus]]") was an ancient Greek city whose capture by [[Heracles]] was said to be the main subject of the epic. It is debated, based on a [[scholium]] from a line in [[Medea (Euripides)|Euripides' ''Medea'']] whether [[Medea]]'s poisoning of [[Creon of Corinth|Creon]] may have been another feature,<ref>''Medea'' 264.</ref> which [[:de:Franz Stoessl|Franz Stoessl]] suggested will have been a comparative aside in the telling of [[Deianira]],<ref>Stoessel, ''Der Tod des Heracles'' (Zurich, 1945:16ff), noted in Malcolm Davies, "Deianeira and Medea: A foot-note to the pre-history of two myths", ''Mnemosyne'', Fourth Series, '''42'''.3/4 (1989:469-472) p. 469 note 6.</ref> in her original guise as the "man-destroyer" of her etymology: "the innocent Deianeira, whose murder of Heracles is tragically inadvertent, will be a later invention," [[Malcolm Davies (classicist)|Malcolm Davies]] asserts,<ref>Davies 1989:469; Davies raises doubts about the use of Medea as a parallel in {{lang|grc|Οἰχαλίας Ἅλωσις}}.</ref> "perhaps the brain-child of [[Sophocles]]."<ref>In Sophocles' ''[[Women of Trachis]]''.</ref>
The ancient Greek geographer [[Strabo]] noted in his ''[[Geographica (Strabo)|Geographica]]'' that the true location of the city was unknown even to him, saying that various sources referred to Oechalia by many different names and placed it in various locations around [[Greece]]. Further complicating the factual details behind the epic is the fact that there seemed to have been several different cities called Oechalia, only one of which was discussed in it.<ref>Strabo. ''Geography'', 9.301.</ref> In his play ''[[The Women of Trachis]]'', [[Sophocles]] however seems to locate the city of Oechalia on the island of [[Euboea]], making reference to the fact that [[Heracles]], who had sacked the city all for the love of [[Eurytus]]'s beautiful daughter [[Iole]], had just returned from the island after having taken her, as well as other Oechalians, captive in the opening scenes of the play. When the wife of [[Heracles]], [[Deianira]], asks who this beautiful woman is who has been brought to her home, [[Lichas]] responds by telling her that "she's a Euboean".<ref>Sophocles. "The Women of Trachis".</ref>
==References==
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{{Homer}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek poems]]▼
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[[Category:Epics]]▼
▲[[Category:Ancient Greek epic poems]]
[[Category:Lost poems]]
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