Eutresis (Boeotia)

Eutresis (Ancient Greek: Εὔτρησις) was a town of ancient Boeotia, mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad, and said to have been the residence of Amphion and Zethus before they ruled over Thebes. In the time of Strabo it was a village in the territory of Thespiae. Stephanus of Byzantium places it on the road from Thespiae to Plataea; but William Martin Leake conjectures that there is an error in the text, and that for Θεσπιῶν (Thespiae) we ought to read Θισβῶν (Thisbe), since there is only one spot in the ten miles between Plataea and Thespiae where any town is likely to have stood, and that was occupied by Leuctra. We learn from Stephanus that Eutresis possessed a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo, who was hence surnamed Eutresites. The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, in its description of the coast of Boeotia, speaks of "ὁ λιμὴν Εὔτρητος καὶ τεῖχος τῶν Βοιωτῶν": "the harbor of Eutresis(?) with a fort of the Boiotians."