According to the founding myth of Orchomenos, its royal dynasty was established by the Minyans, who had followed their eponymous leader Minyas from coastal Thessaly to settle the site.

In the Bronze Age, during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC, Orchomenos became a rich and important centre of civilisation in Mycenaean Greece and a rival to Thebes.

[3] Although their rivals Thebes confirmed their supremacy by the end of the century reflected by inscriptions, Orchomenos joined the Theban-led Boeotian League in c. 600 BC.

[4] Classical Orchomenos was known for its sanctuary of the Charites or Graces, the oldest in the city[5] (the 9th century Byzantine monastery church of Panagia Skripou probably occupies the same spot[6]).

Here the Charites had their earliest veneration, in legend instituted by Eteocles; musical and poetical agonistic games, the Charitesia,[7] were held in their honour, in the theatre that was discovered in 1972.

In 480–479 BC, the Orchomenians joined their neighbouring rivals the Thebans to turn back the invading forces of Xerxes in the Greco-Persian Wars.

[citation needed] Most excavations have focussed on the early and Mycenean areas of the lower town, while the later Hellenistic city on the acropolis remains largely unexplored.

In 1903–05, a Bavarian archaeological mission under Heinrich Bulle and Adolf Furtwängler conducted successful excavations at the site.

Research continued in 1970–73 by the Archaeological Service under Theodore Spyropoulos, uncovering the Mycenaean palace, a prehistoric cemetery, the theatre and other structures.

In 1994, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture undertook restoration work consisting mainly of drainage and strengthening of the walls of the side chamber.

The fortification walls of Orchomenos were built in the 2nd half of the 4th century BC under the Macedonians and crown the east end of mount Akontion.

The slight protrusions of flanks are sometimes prolonged into a girdle-like ridge, the sculptor occasionally marks the anterior spine of the crest.

[13] Well-preserved inscriptions date the church securely to 873/4, naming its sponsor as the Protospatharios Leon, who served as a senior official of the emperor Basil I during the period of his joint reign with his sons Constantine and Leo.