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Λοκρίδες (Lokrides)
(‘Locrian Women’)

Discussion Meineke 18391.371; 1840 III. 172; 1847. 579; Bothe 1855. 422; Kock
1884 11.144; Edmonds 1959 11.54—5; Kassel-Austin 1991 11.250; Sanchis Llopis
et al. 2007. 251
Title Posidippus wrote a Λοκρίδες and Alexis and Menander Λοκροί, although
none of these are sufficiently well-preserved to give any indication of the plot,
adesp. trag. TGrFF 5f is a putative tragedy of this name, based on the story of
the Locrian maidens (see below) combined with evidence from vase-painting
(see ad loc. for references). For a title formed from an ethnic, see above on
Θετταλοί. For the character Locris in Plautus Persa, see Fontaine 2010. 624.
Locris was divided into two distinct territories: the coastal plains
along the Euboean strait north of Lake Copais (Epicnemidian Locris to the
north and Opuntian Locris to the south) and the region along the northern
edge of the Corinthian Gulf between Aetolia to the west and Phocis to the
east (Ozolian Locris). The Locrians allied themselves with Boeotia during the
period of Theban hegemony (371-362 BC), and in the middle of the century
were heavily involved in the Third Sacred War (357-346 BC), during which
they suffered two serious defeats at the hands of the Phocians; an alliance
with Athens followed. The basic account of the region remains Oldfather 1926.
For eastern Locris, see Nielsen in Hansen and Nielsen 2004. 664-73; Fossey
1990. For western Locris, see Rousset in Hansen and Nielsen 2004. 391-8;
Pharaklas 2004.
In terms of mythology, Locris is the home of Oilean Ajax (the ‘lesser’
Ajax), known for his rape of Cassandra; see Gantz 1993. 651-5. The Locrians,
faced with a plague, received an oracle instructing them to send maidens every
year to the shrine of Athena in Ilium in expiation for the rape (e. g. Aen. Tact.
31.24; Timae. FGrHist 566 F 146; Apollod. epit. 6.20-2 [see Frazer 1921 ad loc.
for further references]). The practice apparently ceased in 346 at the end of the
Third Sacred War (thus Apollod.; Timae. FGrHist 566 F 146b), but was revived
(if it ever ceased) by the early third century (cf. IGIX2.1 706 [= StV 472]). For
more on the Locrian maidens, together with the allegation that the Locrians
were a matrilinear society, see Plb. 12.5.6-9 with Walbank 1957-1979 ad loc.
Content of the comedy An obvious possibility is that the plot concerned
the Locrian maidens, but the choice of topic might be more pointed if the
play dates to ca. 346 BC, the end of the Third Sacred War, when the custom
of sending girls to Ilium ceased. The action may have involved a conflation of
myth and present day reality, perhaps drawing parallels between the Trojan