RUINS OF ORCHOMENUS. 197 
distinguished, among all the cities of Greece, as chap. 
one of the most illustrious and renowned'; and ■ /- < 
its opulence was such, as to render it, before the 
age of Homer*, the subject of a saying common 
in the country. Strabo, citing the poet's allusion 
to its riches, extols its wealth and power *, The 
Graces were said to have chosen Orchomenus for uieronf^f 
their place of residence, owing to a most antient 
Hieron founded by Eteocles, in which they were 
honoured with a peculiar veneration"; and on 
this account they were called EteocUan, by 
Th€ocritus\ It is rather extraordinary, that in 
so many examples of allusion to Orchomemis as 
it is easy to adduce from different authors, no 
instance occurs where any notice has been taken 
of the Charitesian Games that were here cele- 
brated in honour of the Graces. The MINTEIA, 
indeed, are mentioned by the Scholiast upon 
Pindar'^ ; and possibly they may have been the 
(5) Pausan. Baeot. p. 7 79. 
(4) OiS' Of \( 'Of^^^ofitvor trcrmitrffirai, x. t. X. Iliad, i. vcr. 381. 
(5) ^aivtrai S> r« waXaiif xosi trXeuffla ri( y%ytt¥7» iriXttt Mai iutuuim 
lAya,. Strabon. Geog. lib. ix. p. 601. ed. Oxon. 
(6) Ibid. p. 601, 602. 
(7) 'Xl 'Etic»X.mi XaptTti Qia), al Mivuue* 
'Qf^tfttyii ^t\Uiscci, K.r.x. T/jfocr/i, Idyll. xvi.ver. 104. 
(8) Pindari Scholiastes /s^/iw. Od.I. See also Arekaelogie^ vol. I. 
p. 414. Loud. 1751. 
