It lay in the middle of a long narrow plain, situated upon a small stream of the same name, bounded on the east by the heights of Haliartus, on the west by the mountain Tilphossium, on the south by a range of low hills, and on the north by the Lake Copais.
[3][4] Most sources that discuss the origin of the town's name explain it as coming from the Greek adjective ὠκύς, "quick".
[6] The Library falsely attributed to Apollodorus of Athens tells the story of how when Heracles fought the Minyans of Orchomenus, his foster-father Amphitryon was killed.
After this Zeus' son Rhadamanthys, who had been exiled from Crete, married Amphitryon's widow, Alcmene, and they settled in Ocalea.
[8] The Homeric Iliad mentions Ocalea in the Catalogue of Ships as one of the towns that contributed to the Boeotian contingent of the Greek army in the Trojan War.