opus

/oh"peuhs/, n., pl. opuses or, esp. for 1, 2, opera /oh"peuhr euh, op"euhr euh/.

1. a musical composition.

2. one of the compositions of a composer, usually numbered according to the order of publication.

3. a literary work or composition, as a book: Have you read her latest opus? Abbr.: op.

[1695-1705; < L: work, labor, a work]

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▪ ancient city, Greece

also spelled  Opous 

      in ancient Greece, the chief city of the Locri Opuntii. Its site may have been at modern Atalándi or at Kiparíssi. Homer in his Iliad mentioned Opus, and Pindar devoted his ninth Olympian ode mainly to its glory and traditions. By the 5th century BC, Opus gave its name to some of the eastern Locrians. Locri Opuntii fought with the Greeks at Thermopylae but surrendered and joined the Persians; later they supported Sparta during the Peloponnesian War. Opus went over to the Romans in 198 BC.

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