It stood at the head of the Opuntian Gulf,[2][3] a little inland, being 15 stadia from the shore according to Strabo,[4] or only a mile according to Livy.
It was said to have been founded by Opus, a son of Locrus and Protogeneia; and in its neighbourhood Deucalion and Pyrrha were reported to have resided.
[6] It was the native city of Patroclus,[7] and it is mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships as one of the Locrian towns whose troops were led by Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus the king of Locris, in the Iliad[1] There were games called Aiantea and an altar at Opus in honor of Ajax.
[8] During the flourishing period of Greek history, it was regarded as the chief city of the eastern Locrians, for the distinction between the Opuntii and Epicnemidii is not made either by Herodotus, Thucydides, or Polybius.
Even Strabo, from whom the distinction is chiefly derived, in one place describes Opus as the capital of the Epicnemidii;[9] and the same is confirmed by Pliny[10] and Stephanus of Byzantium.