LOCRIANS

The 'Locrians' (Greek: ) were an ancient greek tribe in Greece. Locrians spoke the Locrian language, a Doric-Northwest dialect, and this indicates that they must have been of doric descent. They inhabited the ancient region of Locris in Central Greece while the prehistoric residents of this region were Leleges and the latter were replaced by Locrians. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus does not separate them, mentioning that Locrians is the later name of the Leleges^[1]. Aristotle and other writers supposed the name of the Locrians to be derived from Locrus, an ancient king of the Leleges. (Aristot.; ''Hes. ap. Strabo'' vii. p. 322; Scymnus Ch. 590; Dicaearch. 71; Plin. iv. 7. s. 12.) According to some traditions, Deucalion, the founder of the Hellenic race, is said to have lived in the Locrian town of Opus or Cynus. (Pind. ''Ol.'' ix. 63, ''seq.''; Strab. ix. p. 425.)
In historical times the Locrians were divided into two distinct tribes, differing from one another in customs, habits and civilization. Of these the eastern Locrians, called the Opuntii and Epicnemidii, dwelt upon the eastern coast of Greece, opposite the island of Euboea, while the western Locrians, called Ozoli, dwelt upon the Corinthian gulf and were separated from the former by Mount Parnassus and the whole of Doris and Phocis. (Strab. ix. p. 425.) Only the Opuntian Locrians are mentioned by Homer; they were the more ancient and the more civilized. The Ozolian Locrians, who are said to have been a colony of the former, are not mentioned in history until the time of the Peloponnesian War, and are even then represented as a semi-barbarous people. (Thuc. i. 5.) It is likely that the Locrians at one time extended from sea to sea, and were torn asunder by the immigration of the Phocians and Dorians. (Niebuhr, Lectures on Ancient Ethnography, vol. i. p. 123.) The most famous settlement of the locrian tribe was the city of ''Locri'' (''Epizephyrii Locri''), founded in the 7th century BC in Magna Graecia (southern Italy), which exists until today. According to Strabo the founders were the Ozolian Locrians, from the region of Amfissa.
The national hero of the Locrians was Ajax the Locrian, who fought in the Trojan War. Locrians respected him so much, that after his death they kept a place for him in their phalanx, thinking that he will always fight with them. On the other side, Ajax's actions resulted in his death according to Greek mythology, while the locrian tribe suffered from the anger of the gods. After the fall of Troy, he raped Cassandra in the temple of Athena, where she had taken refuge as a suppliant. For this crime, Poseidon wrecked the ship of Ajax on the coast of Euboea and Ajax was killed by a lightning. For 1,000 years the Locrians had to send unmarried maidens to the temple of Athena at Ilion of Athens, where they should live until they died. After their death, they would not be given a decent burial, while for each maiden who died, another one must be sent into the temple by night, and she would be stoned to death if seen.

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References

References

1. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ‘’Roman Antiquities, Book 1, 17’’ at LacusCurtius ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html


★ On the geography of the Locrian tribes, see Leake, ''Northern Greece'', vol. ii. pp. 66, ''seq.'', 170, ''seq.'', 587, ''seq.''