Capture of Oechalia

Ancient Greek: Οἰχαλίας Ἅλωσις) is a fragmentary Greek epic that was variously attributed in Antiquity to either Homer or Creophylus of Samos; a tradition was reported that Homer gave the tale to Creophylus, in gratitude for guest-friendship (xenia), and that Creophylus wrote it down.^[1]

Creon may have been another feature,^[2] which Franz Stoessl suggested will have been a comparative aside in the telling of Deianira,^[3] in her original guise as the "man-destroyer" of her etymology: "the innocent Deianeira, whose murder of Heracles is tragically inadvertent, will be a later invention," Malcolm Davies asserts,^[4] "perhaps the brain-child of Sophocles."^[5]

The Women of Trachis, Sophocles however seems to locate the city of Oechalia on the island of Euboea, making reference to the fact that Heracles, who had sacked the city all for the love of Eurytus's beautiful daughter Iole, had just returned from the island after having taken her, as well as other Oechalians, captive in the opening scenes of the play. When the wife of Heracles, Deianira, asks who this beautiful woman is who has been brought to her home, Lichas responds by telling her that "she's a Euboean".^[7]