Onesilus or Onesilos ( el, Ὀνήσιλος, "useful one"; died 497 BC) was the brother of king Gorgos (Gorgus) of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

city-state of Salamis on the island of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. He is known only through the work of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...

(''Histories'', V.104–115).

Background

Cyprus was a part of the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

, but, when the Ionians rebelled from Persian rule, Onesilus captured the city of Salamis and usurped his brother’s throne. He was able to win over every city on the island except for the Graeco-Phoenician city-state of

Amathus Amathus or Amathous ( grc, Ἀμαθοῦς) was an ancient city and one of the ancient royal cities of Cyprus until about 300 BC. Some of its impressive remains can be seen today on the southern coast in front of Agios Tychonas, about west o ...

, which stayed loyal to the Persians despite being besieged by Onesilus' troops. In 497 BC, the Persians mounted an attack on Cyprus with the help of the

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

n navy. Some of the Ionian colonies sent ships to assist Onesilus, and in the ensuing battle they were able to defeat the Phoenician navy. Onesilus then led an army against the Persian general, Artybius. Although Artybius died in the battle, the Persians were victorious and Onesilus was killed. As a result, the Ionian fleet retreated from Cyprus and five months later the Persians regained control of the island. Onesilus’ brother, Gorgus Chersides, was then reinstated by the Persians as king of Salamis. Herodotus also reports that in retaliation for Onesilus' siege of Amathus, the townspeople cut off his head after his death and hung it above the town gates as a trophy, and later observed that his desiccated skull had been occupied by a swarm of bees and their honeycomb (a phenomenon similar to

bugonia In the ancient Mediterranean region, bugonia or bougonia was a ritual based on the belief that bees were spontaneously (equivocally) generated from a cow's carcass, although it is possible that the ritual had more currency as a poetic and learne ...

). To ward off the effects of this ill omen they were advised to take down the head and bury it, making sacrifice to Onesilus as a hero.

In popular culture

The story of the bees in the skull is the subject of "histories: onesilos", a poem by German poet Jan Wagner.

References

6th-century BC births 497 BC deaths Ancient Greeks killed in battle Ancient Greek rulers Kings of Salamis, Cyprus Ionian Revolt {{Cyprus-bio-stub