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Bistones
Bistones ( el, "Βίστονες") is the name of a Thracian people who dwelt between Mount Rhodopé and the Aegean Sea, beside Lake Bistonis, near Abdera "extending westward as far as the river Nestus". It was through the land of the Bistones that " Xerxes marched on his invasion of Greece (480 BC)". "The Bistones continued to exist at the time when the Romans were masters of Thrace". "Roman poets sometimes use the names of the Bistones for that of the Thracians in general." " Pliny mentions one town as belonging to the Bistones: Tirida; the other towns on their coast, Dicaea, Ismaron, Parthenion, Phalesina and Maronea, were Greek colonies." Mythology The Bistones were militant people who worshiped Ares, Dionysus or Bacchus, Minerva, and Bellona. In the play Alcestis by Euripides, the mythical Heracles is on his way "to the land of the Bistones" in his "labour for Tirynthian Eurystheus" "to fetch the chariot-steeds of Thracian Diomedes." The Thracian Diomedes "was ki ...
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Thracians
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area between northern Greece, southern Russia, and north-western Turkey. They shared the same language and culture... There may have been as many as a million Thracians, diveded among up to 40 tribes." Thracians resided mainly in the Balkans (mostly Present (time), modern day Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece) but were also located in Anatolia, Anatolia (Asia Minor) and other locations in Eastern Europe. The exact origin of Thracians is unknown, but it is believed that proto-Thracians descended from a purported mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers, arriving from the rest of Asia and Africa through the Asia Minor (Anatolia). The proto-Thracian culture developed int ...
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Tirida
Tirida, also known as Stabulum Diomedis or Stabulo Diomedis (both Latin for 'Diomedes's stable'), was a town of ancient Thrace. Pliny the Elder writes "Oppidum fuit Tirida, Diomedis equorum stabulis dirum." This Diomedes was the king of the Bistones who was in the habit of throwing strangers to be devoured by his savage horses, till at length he himself was punished in the same way by Heracles. Based on the passage of Pliny, William Smith identified Tirida with the town called Stabulum Diomedis in the Itineraries, that was located on the coast of Thrace on the Via Egnatia, 18 M.P. according to the Antonine Itinerary, 12 M.P. according to the Jerusalem Itinerary, from Porsula (or Maximianopolis in Rhodope). Also in the 19th century, William Hazlitt wrote that Stabulum Diomedis' site was that of the earlier Dicaea. Martial talks about Tyrida in his ''De nuptiis'', noting that it was located near ''regio Maronea''. Some have suggested the town belonged to Geto-Dacian enclave. Moder ...
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Lake Bistonis
Lake Vistonida ( el, Λίμνη Βιστωνίδα, older form: Βιστωνίς) is a lake in Porto Lagos, Xanthi regional unit, Greece. It encompasses a unique ecosystem and the local climate can be described as mid-Mediterranean. It hosts a variety of fauna, which comprise several types of fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds as well as flora. History In antiquity, the lake was called "Bistonis (Βιστονίς λίμνη), a great Thracian lake in the country of the Bistones, from whom it derived its name. The water of the lake was brackish and abounded in fish. The fourth part of its produce is said to have been granted by the emperor Arcadius to the convent of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. The river Cossinites emptied itself into the lake Bistonis, which at one time overflowed the neighbouring country and swept away several Thracian towns." See also * Bistonis, the nymph who lived in that lake with her people * Bistoni, the Thracians who lived near the lake Bibliography ...
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Mares Of Diomedes
The Mares of Diomedes ( grc-gre, Διομήδους ἵπποι), also called the Mares of Thrace, were a herd of man-eating horses in Greek mythology. Magnificent, wild, and uncontrollable, they belonged to Diomedes of Thrace (not to be confused with Diomedes, son of Tydeus), king of Thrace, son of Ares and Cyrene who lived on the shores of the Black Sea. Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's horse, was said to be descended from these mares. Mythology As the eighth of his Twelve Labours, also categorised as the second of the Non-Peloponnesian labours, Heracles was sent by King Eurystheus to steal the Mares from Diomedes. The mares’ madness was attributed to their unnatural diet which consisted of the flesh of unsuspecting guests or strangers to the island. Some versions of the myth say that the mares also expelled fire when they breathed. The Mares, which were the terror of Thrace, were kept tethered by iron chains to a bronze manger in the now vanished city of Tirida and wer ...
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Diomedes Of Thrace
In Greek mythology, King Diomedes of Thrace (Ancient Greek: Διομήδης) was the son of Ares and Cyrene. He lived on the shores of the Black Sea ruling the warlike tribe of Bistones. He is known for his man-eating horses, which Heracles stole in order to complete the eighth of his Twelve Labours, slaying Diomedes in the process. Mythology Heracles encounters King Diomedes through performing his eighth labour. Eurystheus, King of Tiryns and Heracles' cousin, had sent Heracles to capture the Mares of Diomedes after he had completed his seventh labour, capturing the Cretan Bull. Heracles travelled to the shores of the Black Sea to meet King Diomedes. He was said to have been the son of the god Ares and Cyrene, who is said to be the daughter of Hypseus, King of the Lapiths. King Diomedes was a savage; he enjoyed feeding strangers and prisoners to his mares. They did not like the taste of oats and grain; instead they feasted on human flesh, which their master gave them will ...
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Dicaea (Thrace)
Dicaea or Dikaia ( grc, Δικαία or Δίκαια), also called Dikaiopolis ( grc, Δικαιόπολις) was a Greek port town on the coast of ancient Thrace on Lake Bistonis, in the country of the Bistones. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that it took its name from the Dicaeus ( grc, Δίκαιος) who was son of Poseidon. The place appears to have decayed at an early period. In the 19th century, William Hazlitt wrote that its site was that of the later Stabulum Diomedis ('Diomedes's stable'), where Theodoric Strabo died in 481 CE. However, modern scholarship rejects this identification and identifies Stabulum Diomedis with Tirida. The site of Dicaea is located about west of Mese. References See also *Greek colonies in Thrace Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ance ...
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Tirynthian
Tiryns or (Ancient Greek: Τίρυνς; Modern Greek: Τίρυνθα) is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese, and the location from which the mythical hero Heracles performed his Twelve Labours. It lies south of Mycenae. Tiryns was a hill fort with occupation ranging back seven thousand years, from before the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its height of importance between 1400 and 1200 BC, when it became one of the most important centers of the Mycenaean world, and in particular in Argolis. Its most notable features were its palace, its Cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city its Homeric epithet of "mighty walled Tiryns". Tiryns became associated with the myths surrounding Heracles, as the city was the residence of the hero during his labors, and some sources cite it as his birthplace. The famous megaron of the palace of Tiryns has a large reception hall, the main room of which had a throne placed against the righ ...
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Eurystheus
In Greek mythology, Eurystheus (; grc-gre, Εὐρυσθεύς, , broad strength, ) was king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid, although other authors including Homer and Euripides cast him as ruler of Argos. Family Eurystheus was the son of King Sthenelus and Nicippe (also called Antibia or Archippe), and he was a grandson of the hero Perseus.Apollodorus, 2.4.5 His sisters were Alcyone and Medusa, and he married Antimache, daughter of Amphidamas of Arcadia. Their children were Admete, Alexander, Iphimedon, Eurybius, Mentor, Perimedes and Eurypylus.Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophistae'4.158(p. 219) Mythology Labours of Heracles In the contest of wills between Hera and Zeus over whose candidate would be hero, fated to defeat the remaining creatures representing an old order and bring about the reign of the Twelve Olympians, Eurystheus was Hera's candidate and Heracles—though his name implies that at one archaic stage of myth-making he had carrie ...
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Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' ( el, Ἀργοναυτικά , translit=Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''Argonautica'' tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times. It was the age of the great Library of Alexandria, and his epic incorporates his research in geography, ethnography, comparative religion, and Homeric literature. However, his main contribution to the epic tradition lies in his development of the love between hero and heroine – he seems to have been the first narrative poet to study "the pathology of love". His ''Argonautica'' had a profound impact on Latin ...
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Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and even descended into the Underworld of Hades, to recover his lost wife Eurydice. Ancient Greek authors as Strabo and Plutarch note Orpheus's Thracian origins. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music (the usual scene in Orpheus mosaics), his attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and his death at the hands of the maenads of Dionysus, who tired of his mourning for his late wife Eurydice. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular ...
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Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ... of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the ''Suda'' says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (''Rhesus (play), Rhesus'' is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedMoses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. ixhe became, ...
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Pieria (regional Unit)
Pieria ( el, Πιερία) is one of the regional units of Greece located in the southern part of the Region of Central Macedonia, within the historical province of Macedonia. Its capital is the town of Katerini.The name Pieria originates from the ancient Pieres tribe. In Pieria, there are many sites of archeological interest, such as Dion, Pydna, Leivithra and Platamonas. Pieria contains Mount Pierus, from which Hermes takes flight in order to visit Calypso, and is the home of Orpheus, the Muses, and contains the Pierian Spring. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and throne of the ancient Greek gods, is located in the southern part of Pieria. Other ancient cities included Leibethra and Pimpleia. Geography The Pieria regional unit is bordered by Imathia to the north, Kozani to the west, and to the south and west by the region of Thessaly's regional unit Larissa. The Pierian Mountains lie to the west; the Thermaic Gulf lies to the east. It also has a valley by ...
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