Hyria (Ionic Greek:Ὑρίη,Hyriē;Koine Greek:Ὑρία,Hyria[1]) is a toponym mentioned inHomer'sCatalogue of Ships, where the leading position in the list is given to the contingents fromBoeotia, where Hyria and stonyAulis, where the fleet assembled, lead the list.[2]
The site was assigned to the territory ofTanagra byStrabo,[3] who is not more precise about its location, which was apparently no longer inhabited in his time.Pausanias does not mention it. Modern identifications of the site near Aulis place it near Megalo Vouno, on a mound of the coastal plain near the beach ofDrámesi (Παραλία Αυλίδος (τέως Δράμεσι)), where the surface is strewn withLate Helladic pottery sherds[4] and excavation has revealed EarlyMycenaean pottery from a tomb.[5]
There[6] lived a childless king calledHyrieus, who had prayed to the gods for a son. Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes, visitors in disguise responded by urinating on a bull's hide and burying it in the earth which produced a child. He was namedOrion—as if "of the urine"— after the unusual event.[7]
Like some other archaic names of Greek cities, such asAthenai orMycenae, the formHyria is a plural form: its name would once had evoked the place of "the sisters of the beehive", ifHesychius'sGlossai, is correct in stating that theCretan word ὕρον -hyron (singular) meant 'swarm of bees' or 'beehive'.[8] Through his "beehive" birthplace Orion is linked toPotnia, theMinoan-Mycenaean "Mistress" older thanDemeter—who was herself sometimes called "the pure Mother Bee". Winged, armed with toxin, creators of the fermentable honey (seemead), seemingly parthenogenetic in their immortal hive, bees functioned as emblems of other embodiments of theGreat Mother:Cybele,Rhea the Earth Mother, and the archaicArtemis as honored atEphesus.Pindar remembered that thePythian pre-Olympic priestess ofDelphi remained "the Delphic bee" long afterApollo had usurped the ancient oracle and shrine. TheHomeric Hymn to Apollo acknowledges that Apollo's gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee-maidens.
Its site is located near modernTseloneri.[9][10]
38°27′25″N23°33′53″E / 38.456822°N 23.564791°E /38.456822; 23.564791