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obelisk - four sided shafts of stone that were cult objects or monuments originating in the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt; for the ancient Egyptians, the obelisk represented rays of sun; obelisks could be made of pink granite, for example, and have a pyramid-shaped top often covered with a gold and silver alloy to scatter the sun's rays.

• A Guided Tour of Ancient Egypt: The Obelisk

obequito - (Latin) to ride up to something.

obstetrix - (Latin) midwife; for more about midwives in antiquity, click here.

obverse - the side of a coin on which the main design appears, heads.

Oceanus - the eldest of the Titans, son of Gaia and Uranus; father of the Oceanids (Styx, Asia, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Metis, etc.) by his sister Tethys; Oceanus is represented as a river flowing around the a flat disk, 'the world' though eventually, more precisely, Oceanus was the Atlantic Ocean; in his Theogony, Hesiod says that Oceanus fathered over 3,000 rivers by Tethys.

Octavia - sister of Octavian; she married Mark Antony in 40 BCE but they divorced in 32; she died in 11 BCE.

Octavius - grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar who became the first Roman emperor; praised by Vergil as the savior of Rome (Aeneid); See Augustus.

ode - a lyric song, the same as a stasimon.

odeon - (also, odeum; plural odea) a covered theater used especially for musical performances.

odium - (Latin) Hatred; this Latin word has become an English word also meaning hatred.

Odysseus (Ulysses) - son of Laertes and Antcleia, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus; hero of Homer's Odyssey; on Louvre F 342, Odysseus and his men blind the cylops, Polyphemus (image).

• The Aftermath: Post Iliad through the Odyssey

Oedipus - son of Laius and Jocasta, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother who bore him four children, Ismene, Antigone, Eteocles and Polynices; Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx saving Thebes and becoming its king; on the vase Boston 06.2447, Oedipus talks to the Sphinx (image).

• Netshot: Oedipus the King

oikos - 'household'; for more information, see the Perseus Historical Overview "5.27. Women and the Household."

Old Comedy - form of comedy popular at Athens during the fifth century, characterized by the prominence of the chorus and political and social satire; the only extant Old Comedy playwright is Aristophanes.

oligarchy - a form of government in which 'rule is by the few'; from the Greek word oligarchia.

omphalos - navel; refers to a round stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi which was said to be the middle of the earth.

onomatopoeia - a word or expression which resembles the sound which it represents, like the meow of a cat or the quack of a duck. [Contributor: Dr. Ismail S. Talib, National University of Singapore.]

opifex - (Latin) artisan; this word refers to a person who makes something; it is linked to the Latin words opus, thing, and facio, to make.

Opimius, Lucius - a Roman politician; in 125 BCE, the senate refused to grant Opimius a triumph, despite the fact that he had successfully defeated a revolt in Fregellae; he continued in Roman politics and gained consular power in 121 BCE; he sought and was granted the first senatus consultum ultimum in order to suppress a revolt led by C. Sempronius Gracchus; he was later exiled from Rome because of pressure by Gracchi supporters.

oporotheca - (Latin) place to keep fruit.

oppidum - (Latin) a Roman urban center or fortified city; according to the lex Rubria in 49 BCE, oppida could have three subdivisions: municipium, colonia, and praefectura.

oppugno - (Latin) to compete against, to fight against.

opus craticum - in Roman tenements, wall material woven from a mixture of cane and mortar that was neither waterproof nor fireproof.

• Roman Living

ora - (Latin) edge or border; takes on the significance of coast or coastline.

oraculum - (Latin) an oracle; some of the most famous ancient oracles and prophets were the Pythia at the Delphic oracle and the Sybil in the Oracle at Cumae.

• Delphi's Role in Greek History

oral poetry - poetry composed by improvisational techniques involving stock phrases, lines and passages called formulas (e.g., Iliad and Odyssey).

oratio - (Latin) oration.

orchestra - : in ancient Greek, "dancing place"; circular dancing area for the chorus in the Greek theater (image); the area between the skene and the slope where the spectators sat.

Orestes - (see entry (3) in Perseus Encyclopedia) son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra who avenges his father's death.

organicus - (Latin) a musician, related to the word organum.

organum - (Latin) a musical instrument.

ornatrix - (Latin) a woman's hairdresser, responsible for the combing, coloring, and cutting of hair; an ornatrix would also remove gray hairs and apply make-up (ochre or winelees for blush and ash to line the eyes) and, using a mixture of lead and chalk, would whiten the face and arms; when needed an ornatrix would fashion wigs and hair extensions (corymbia, crines, galeri); she also aided in the selection of jewelry for all occasions

Orpheus - musician and son of Apollo and a Muse; he was an expert lyre player; the most famous story about Orpheus concerns his wife Eurydice who died shortly after their marriage; Orpheus entered Hades and convinced Hades to allow Eurydice to return to life by means of his beautiful song on the lyre; the condition which Hades required was that Orpheus not turn around to look at his wife who would be following him out of Hades until after returning to earth; however, Orpheus looked back and lost his wife forever.

Orsippus - Orsippus of Megara, a Greek athlete who, in 720 BCE, ran and won a footrace at Olympia while naked; according to ancient custom, competitors in ancient athletic competitions wore girdles but after Orsippus' victory competitors competed naked; Pausanias believed that Orsippus intentionally allowed his girdle to slip off because Orsippus realized that "a naked man can run more easily than one girt."

• The Ancient Olympics

orthia pale - upright wrestling in ancient Greek athletics in which opponents tried to throw the other to the ground three times during a match; a match did not end until this occurred; the victor of the othia pale was known as the triakter.

• The Ancient Olympics

Oschophoria - an autumn festival in honor of Dionysus that involved cross-dressing and ritual feasting.

Osiris - an ancient Egyptian god, Osiris held an important role in ancient Egypt; his death at the hand of his brother Seth represented the yearly Egyptian drought, while his miraculous rebirth represented the flooding of the Nile Valley and its nourishment by the silt left on the land after the flood; Osiris’ parents were Nut and Geb; his sister and wife was Isis; he also had another sister, Nephthys, and a brother, Seth; Osiris was the father of Horus by Isis and of Anubis by Nephthys, who seduced Osiris to conceive Anubis.

Ancient Egyptian Gods - Osiris

ostracism - the temporary banishment of a Greek citizen considered "dangerous to public welfare"; according to Aristotle, Cleisthenes promulgated the law of ostracism in 510 BCE but it was not used until 487 BCE against Hipparchus, a relative of Hippias, the tyrant of Athens; an annual vote among the Athenian assembly by a show of hands decided upon which citizen(s) would be up for ostracism by public vote; by writing the name of a person they wished to be exiled on a pottery sherd, an ostrakon, each citizen voted; any citizen receiving a minimum of 6,000 votes had to leave Athens within ten days and was in exile for ten years; ostracized citizens did not lose any property or civil rights and could be recalled by a vote of the Athenian assembly.

• The Ostracisms at Athens
• Perseus Historical Overview: Ostracism

Ostia - a port city located on the Mediterranean coast near Rome; at this port, trading goods were easily loaded and unloaded at Ostia; from there, ships moved the goods to and from Rome on the Tiber River.

Otho - Marcus Salvius Otho, emperor; 32 CE- 69 CE; initially Otho was a friend to Nero but in 68 CE joined with Galba in a conspiracy against him; he ascended to the emperorship in 69 CE after bribing members of the praetorian guard who then helped him murder Galba and his adopted heir Piso; Otho was emperor for only three months before he committed suicide after a military defeat by Vitellius who had himself been declared emperor.

Ovid - major Roman poet; Publius Ovidius Naso, born in 43 BCE at Sulmo; before becoming a poet, Ovid served in the Roman government but quit to write love poetry; Ovid enjoyed great literary success during his life in Rome, his exile in Tomi, and after his death influencing writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton; Ovid died ca. 17.

• Ovid's Amores
• Ovid's Metamorphoses
• The Ovid Project

 ovilius - (Latin) shepherd; the term ovilius refers to the person in charge of tending to sheep, known in Latin as ovis.

 ovis - (Latin) sheep.