Olen (poet)

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Olen ( Ὠλήν ) was a legendary poet, founder of cults and priest of early Greek times.

After Pausanias , Olen was a Lycian and the author of the oldest hymns . Elsewhere, Pausanias quotes the tradition of a Delphic hymn poet named Boio , according to which Olen came to Delphi with others from Hyperborea , where he founded the oracle of Apollo and was the first to dress prophecies in the form of hexameters .

He is also mentioned as a cult founder and hymn poet in Delos , where hymns to Eileithyia , Hera and to the hyperborean virgins Opis and Arge are ascribed to him. They were still sung there at the time of Pausanias in the 2nd century.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 9.27.2
  2. ↑ Callimachos 4th Hymnos (on Delos) 304f
  3. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 10.5.7-8
  4. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 1.18.5; 2.13.3; 5.7.8; 8.21.3; 9.27.2
  5. ↑ Herodotus Histories 4.35
personal data
SURNAME Oil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek poet, cult founder and priest
DATE OF BIRTH before 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH before 5th century BC Chr.