Attica Although Orthanes is attested in Attic authors, his worship seems to have been insignificant.
Strabo wrote that Orthanes was an Athenian god like Conisalus and Tychaon, and that he resembled the phallic Priapus. He was probably honoured only in unofficial thiasoi. In the fragmentary old comedy
Phaon by comic playwright
Plato, the titular character (who is using his god-given attractive sexual power over women) says that three pecks of bulbs (perhaps onions) are to be sacrificed to Orthanes. The poet
Eubulus also wrote a lost play
Orthanes, of which one of the few surviving fragments apparently describes the preparations of a celebration and feast in honour of Orthanes.
Imbros By contrast Orthanes seems to have been a lot more important in
Imbros, an island in the northeastern
Aegean Sea. In Imbros he had a public cult with processions, sacrifices, and a priest as late as the second century BC. An ancient Greek honorary decree of the second century BC from Imbros mentions a procession and sacrifice to Orthanes with expenses covered by the city, and a priest by the name Calliades, who also provided funds. Even though Imbros was a colony of Athens and earlier scholars suggested Orthanes was a local Athenian god brought to Imbros, it is unlikely that of all Athenian gods it was a marginal one that the settlers introduced to the Imbriots and achieved great importance in a clerurchy. It is more probable that an important god of the new colony was taken back to Athens, but failed to gain much recognition outside of his homeland and could only take a minor position. There is abdundant evidence of the Athenian empire adopting cults from their allies and subjects. == Iconography ==