What is "orestias"

Orestias may refer to:

• Orestiada, a town in the Evros regional unit, Greece
• the ancient Greek city of Orestias, now in Turkey
• Orestias (fish), a genus of South American fishes in the Cyprinodontidae family
• Orestias (plant), a genus of African plants in the Orchidaceae family

Orestias is a genus of pupfish. Older systematics classified them into the own family Orestiidae. They are carnivorous plankton feeders and can reach a length between . Their most characteristic feature is the absence of the ventral fin. They are endemic to freshwater habitats in the Andean highlands in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. The majority of the species are endemic to Lake Titicaca (Maldonado et al. gives only 15 species—i.e., not a majority—endemic to the lake), but some species are from other Altiplano lakes or rivers. Many species of the genus became rare in recent decades due to competition with introduced fish species, pollution, and human activities at the lakes. One species—the Titicaca Orestias (Orestias cuvieri)—was last seen in 1939 and is probably extinct; several others are known to have highly restricted ranges (Parenti 1984). Several species are colloquially known as carache.

Orestias was an ancient Greek settlement next to the Maritsa (or Evros) river, near or at the site of present-day Edirne, and close to the current border between Turkey and Greece.

Legends claim that Orestias was founded by Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Orestias or Orestia is thought to have been the same town as Uscudama (other variants: Uskudama, Uskadama, Uskodama) or Odrysa (other variants: Odrysia, Odrysos, Odrysus) which was the first Odrysian capital. Orestias took its name by the Greeks, at least from the time Philip II of Macedon took over the town. The Roman emperor Hadrian expanded the town into a city, gave it a strong fortification and renamed it to Hadrianopolis. However the name Orestias for the city of Hadrian, was still used by many writers at the Byzantine era, along with Adrianoupolis. During the Ottoman period the name of Adrianou(polis) was paraphrased by the Turks and eventually became Edirne.

In 1920 when the Greeks took over most of Eastern Thrace including Edirne, they restored the city's Roman name (Adrianoupolis) and not its old Greek name (Orestias), which was given to its suburb Karaağaç, in remembrance of the ancient Thracian town.

Orestiada (or Nea Orestias or New Orestias) is a modern Greek town founded in 1923 on a site 17 km to the south of Orestias, to house Greek refugees who had to abandon the latter border town, which was given to Turkey (along with two villages) instead of war reparations by the Treaty of Lausanne.

Orestias is a genus of orchids. It has 4 known species, all native to central Africa, including the island of São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea.

1. Orestias elegans Ridl. - São Tomé, Príncipe
2. Orestias foliosa Summerh. in G.M.D.Troupin - Gabon, Zaire
3. Orestias micrantha Summerh. - São Tomé, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
4. Orestias stelidostachya (Rchb.f.) Summerh. - São Tomé