O D I 
fuppofed to belong to this building, were recently dif- 
covered near the prefent manfion. 
Other villages and feats near Odiham are—Long Sut- 
ron, two mites fouth ; it lias a fair for (heep on the 2.5th 
of O&ober.—Upton Grey, three miles fouth-weft.—Hod-^ 
dington, near Upton Grey.—Grewell, one mile and a half 
north-weft, fituated at the foot of a hill, through which 
the Bafingftoke Canal pafles, on which hill there is a fmall 
neat hunting-feat, belonging to Jofeph Ruflel, efq.—-Til- 
ney Hall, a large mantion-lioufe, three miles north, the 
property of the Tilney family.—Mattingley, four miles 
north ; has a fair for cattle on the 26th of July.—Hart¬ 
ley Wintney, or Hartley Row, four miles' north-eaft, 
through which the great road from London to the weft 
of England pafles ; here are two fairs in the year for toys, 
Shrove-Tuefday and June 29. Beauties of England, vol. vi. 
Wilkes's Dirtdory, vol. iv. 
OD'ILO, a faint in the Roman calendar, and abbot of 
Clugny in Burgundy, was the fon of Berault, furnamed 
the Great, and born in Auvergne in the year 962. When 
very young he was placed under the inftru&ions of the 
clergy of St. Julian de Brioude, and diftinguifhed himfelf 
equally by his progrefs in learning and his virtuous man¬ 
ners. Afpiring after a life of perfection, according to 
the fuperftitious notions of the times, he determined to 
devote himfelf to the monaftic profeflion ; and in the 
year 991, after renouncing his country and relations, he 
took the habit in the celebrated benediftine abbey of 
Clugny. Here he recommended himfelf fo powerfully to 
the ancient abbot St. Mayeul, by his literary acquirements, 
his exaft obfervance of the institutions of the order, his 
extraordinary piety, and the fuperiority of his mental en¬ 
dowments, that, before he had completed his probation, 
the abbot defigned him for his fucceflor. This defigna- 
tion he foon afterwards avowed ; and it -was approved of 
and confirmed in a formal manner, at a numerous 
meeting of the parties interefted in the event, notwith- 
itanding the unaffected oppofition which Odilo made to 
that procedure. In the year 99a this charge devolved on 
him, when he was only thirty-two years of age; and he 
performed its duties in a manner worthy of the important 
truft committed to him, and that reflected the higheft 
.credit on his own character and the monaftery. He main¬ 
tained the ftriCteft obfervance of the regulations of the 
Inftitution, and that by the authority of a father rather 
than a fuperior. His charities and his benevolence were 
limited only by the means which he enjoyed ; and, as he 
was afliduous in the cultivation of literature himfelf, fo 
he excited and encouraged it in the members of his imme¬ 
diate community, and the various religious houfes that 
-were dependent on his abbey. The whole of the time 
which the duties of his ftation did not demand, he em¬ 
ployed in devotion and ftudy. The reputation which the 
monaftery of Clugny acquired by his difcipline, doCtrine, 
and fanCtity of manners, rendered it tiiemoft celebrated 
in France, or any of the adjoining countries, and induced 
the raoft exalted perfonages to cultivate the acquaintance 
of its abbot. The emperor Henry, in particular, would 
frequently fend for him to court, where he and the em- 
prefs Adelaide took the greateft delight in his pious and 
improving converfation. Hugh Capet, Robert, and 
Henry, kings of France, Rodolph king of Burgundy, 
Sancho and Garcias kings of Navarre, and Cafimir king 
of Poland, alfo entertained the higheft regard for Odilo, 
with whom they kept up a correfpondence, and to whom 
they fent frequent prelents, in teftimony of their venera¬ 
tion for his character. The emperor eyen fent to him his 
crown of gold ; which Odilo difpofed of, with the other 
ornaments of his church, in a time of fcarcity, in order to 
provide fupport for the deftitute poor. The attention 
which was paid to him by the great did not minifter to 
his pride : on the contrary, lo great was his modefty and 
humility, that he declined accepting the archbifhopric of 
Lyons, to which the clergy and people united in electing 
him; and even when pope John XIX. fent him the pall, 
VOL. XVII. No. 1186. 
O D I 
401 
together with his commands that he fliould yield to the 
wifhes of the church of Lyons, he fteadily perfevered in 
his difinterefted refulal of that valuable benefice. Odilo 
died at Souvigny in 1048, in the eighty-feventh year of 
his age. This abbot was the founder of the annual fer- 
vice of the church of Rome in commemoration of the 
dead. He was the author of 1. The Life of St. Mayeul, 
his predeceflor in the abbacy, which is inferted in Surii 
Vit. SanCt. under May 11. 2. The Life of St. Adelhaide 
the Emprefs, Confort to the Emperor Otho I. which is 
given in the fifth volume of Canifii Antiq. Left. 3. Ser¬ 
mons on different fubjeCts. 4. Letters. 5. Hymns. 
Thefe pieces w'ere collected together, and publifhed by 
Duchefne, in his Bibliotheca Cluniacenfis, 1614; and 
were from thence copied into the leventeenth volume of 
the Bibl. Patr. Cave's Hi ft. Lit,. 
O'DIN, in mythology, a name given by the ancient 
Scythians to their fupremegod, and affirmed, about 70 
years before the Chriliian era, by Sigge, a Scythian prince, 
who conquered the northern nations, made great changes 
in their government, manners, religion, and enjoyed 
great honours, and had even divine honours paid him. 
According to the account given of this conqueror by 
Snorro, the ancient hiftorian of Norway, and his com¬ 
mentator Torfseus, Odin w>as a Scythian, who withdrew 
himfelf, w-ith many others in his train, by flight, from 
the vengeance of the Romans, under the conduct of 
Pompey; and, "having officiated as a prieft in his own 
country, he affumed the direction of the religious wor- 
fhip, as well as the civil government, of the nations which 
lie.conquered. Having fubdued Denmark, Sweden, and 
Norway, he retired to Sweden, where he died. There is 
nothing certain in this account; but it is probable, that 
the god, wffiofe prophet or prieft this Scythian pretended 
to be, was named Odin, and that the ignorance of fuc- 
ceeding ages confounded the deity with his prieft, cora- 
poiing out of the attributes of the one, and the hiftory 
of the other, the character of the northern conqueror. 
He deluded the people by his enchantments and ikili in 
magic : having cut oft the head of one Mimer, who in his 
lifetime was in great reputation for wifdom, he caufed it 
to be embalmed, and perfuaded the Scandinavians that he 
had reftored it to the ufe of fpeech ; and he caufed it to 
pronounce whatever oracles he wanted. The Icelandic 
chronicles reprefent Odin as the raoft eloquent and per- 
fuafive of men ; they afcribe to him the introduction of 
the art of poetry among the Scandinavians, and likewile 
the invention of the Runic characters. He had alfo the 
addrefs to perfuade his followers that he could run over 
the world in the twinkling of an eye ; that he had the di¬ 
rection of the air and tempefts; that he could transform 
himfelf into all forts of fhapes, could raife the dead, could 
foretel things to come, deprive his enemies, by enchant¬ 
ment, of health and vigour, and difcover all the treafures 
concealed in the earth. They add, that, by his tender and 
melodious airs, he could make the plains and mountains 
open and expand with delight; and that the ghofts, thus 
attracted, would leave their infernal caverns, and ftand 
motionlefs about him. Nor was he lefs dreadful and fu¬ 
rious in battle ; changing himfelf into the ffiape of a bear, 
a wild bull, or a lion, and amidft ranks of enemies com¬ 
mitting the raoft horrible devaftation, without receiving 
any wound himfelf. 
Dr. Henry gives this account of him: “ Odin is believed 
to have been the name of the one true God among the 
firft colonies who came from the Eaft and peopled Ger¬ 
many and Scandinavia, and among their pofterity. for fe- 
veral ages. But at length a mighty conqueror, the leader 
of a new army of adventurers from the eaft, overran the 
north of Europe, ereCted a great empire, affumed the name 
of Odin, and claimed the honours which had been for¬ 
merly paid to that deity. From . thenceforward . this 
deified mortal, under the name of Odin, became- the 
chief objeCt of the idolatrous worfiiip of the Saxons 
and Danes in this ifland, as well as of many other 
5 K. nations. 
