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Phthia
In Greek mythology Phthia (; grc-gre, Φθία or Φθίη ''Phthía, Phthíē'') was a city or district in ancient Thessaly. It is frequently mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'' as the home of the Myrmidones, the contingent led by Achilles in the Trojan War. It was founded by Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, and was the home of Achilles' father Peleus, mother Thetis (a sea nymph), and son Neoptolemus (who reigned as king after the Trojan War). Phthia is referenced in Plato's ''Crito'', where Socrates, in jail and awaiting his execution, relates a dream he has had (43d–44b): "I thought that a beautiful and comely woman dressed in white approached me. She called me and said: 'Socrates, may you arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day. The reference is to Homer's ''Iliad'' (ix.363), when Achilles, upset at having his war-prize, Briseis, taken by Agamemnon, rejects Agamemnon's conciliatory presents and threatens to set sail in the morning; he says that with good weather he might ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peleus
In Greek mythology, Peleus (; Ancient Greek: Πηλεύς ''Pēleus'') was a hero, king of Phthia, husband of Thetis and the father of their son Achilles. This myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Biography Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. He married the sea-nymph Thetis with whom he fathered Achilles. Peleus and his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, and served in Heracles' expedition against the Amazons, his war against King Laomedon, and his quest for the Golden Fleece alongside Jason and the Argonauts. Though there were no further kings in Aegina, the kings of Epirus claimed descent from Peleus in the historic period. Mythology Peleus and his brother Telamon killed their half-brother Phocus, perhaps in a hunting accident and certainly in an unthinking moment, and fled Aegina to escape punishment. In Phthia, Peleus was purified by the city's ruler, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farsala
Farsala ( el, Φάρσαλα), known in Antiquity as Pharsalos ( grc, Φάρσαλος, la, Pharsalus), is a city in southern Thessaly, in Greece. Farsala is located in the southern part of Larissa regional unit, and is one of its largest towns. Farsala is an economic and agricultural centre of the region. Cotton and livestock are the main agricultural products, and many inhabitants are employed in the production of textile. The area is mostly famous for being the birthplace of Achilles, a mythical ancient Greek hero and the sight of a major battle between Roman generals Gaius Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius in 48 BC. Geography Farsala lies at the southern edge of the Thessalian Plain, 4 km south of the river Enipeas. The Greek National Road 3 (Larissa - Lamia) and the Greek National Road 30 (Karditsa - Volos) pass through the town. The Palaiofarsalos railway station (litt. "''Ancient Pharsalus''"), on the line from Athens to Thessaloniki and head of the branch line to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's ''Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia. Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the ''Iliad'', other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius' unfinished epic ''Achilleid'', written in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel, because when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels. Alluding to these legends, the term " Achilles' heel" has come to mean a point of weakness, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argos Pelasgikon
Argos Pelasgikon ( grc, Ἄργος Πελασγικόν) is a Homeric location of Thessaly mentioned in the "Catalogue of Ships" passage: It has been interpreted to be a city in the Pelasgiotis district or an alternative name of Phthia, the kingdom of Peleus and Achilles or pertaining to the whole Thessaly. Strabo reports that: ''Some take the Pelasgian Argos as a Thessalian city once situated in the neighborhood of Larisa but now no longer existent; but others take it, not as a city, but as the plain of the Thessalians, which is referred to by this name because Abas, who brought a colony there from Argos, so named it''. Strabo gives also the following post-classical meaning of the word 'argos': ''And in the more recent writers the plain, too, is called Argos, but not once in Homer. Yet they think that this is more especially a Macedonian or Thessalian usage''. Finally, although Homeric geography of Thessaly is not limited in this passage, the toponym "Thessalia" is absent in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andromache (play)
''Andromache'' ( grc, Ἀνδρομάχη) is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides. It dramatises Andromache's life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War, and her conflict with her master's new wife, Hermione. The date of its first performance is unknown. Some scholars place the date sometime between 428 and 425 BC. Müller places it between 420 and 417 BC. A Byzantine scholion to the play suggests that its first production was staged outside Athens, though modern scholarship regards this claim as dubious. Background During the Trojan War, Achilles killed Andromache's husband Hector. Homer describes Andromache's lament, after Hector's death, that their young son Astyanax will suffer poverty growing up without a father. Instead, the conquering Greeks threw Astyanax to his death from the Trojan walls, for fear that he would grow up to avenge his father and city. Andromache was made a slave of Achilles' son Neoptolemus. Years pass and Andromache has a child with Neoptolem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmidones
In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; el, Μυρμιδόνες) were an ancient Thessalian Greek tribe. In Homer's ''Iliad'', the Myrmidons are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis who was a son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthiotis. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology—the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as "ant-people", from ''murmekes'', "ants"—was first mentioned by Ovid, in ''Metamorphoses'': in Ovid's telling, the Myrmidons were simple worker ants on the island of Aegina. Ovid's myth of the repopulation of Aegina Hera, queen of the gods, sent a plague to kill all the human inhabitants of Aegina because the island was named for one of the lovers of Zeus. King Aeacus, a son of Zeus and the intended target of Hera along with his mother, prayed to his father for a means to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myrmidons
In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; el, Μυρμιδόνες) were an ancient Thessalian Greek tribe. In Homer's ''Iliad'', the Myrmidons are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis who was a son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthiotis. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology—the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as "ant-people", from ''murmekes'', "ants"—was first mentioned by Ovid, in ''Metamorphoses'': in Ovid's telling, the Myrmidons were simple worker ants on the island of Aegina. Ovid's myth of the repopulation of Aegina Hera, queen of the gods, sent a plague to kill all the human inhabitants of Aegina because the island was named for one of the lovers of Zeus. King Aeacus, a son of Zeus and the intended target of Hera along with his mother, prayed to his father for a means to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Briseis
Briseis (; grc, Βρῑσηΐς ''Brīsēís'', ) ("daughter of Briseus"), also known as Hippodameia (, ), is a significant character in the ''Iliad''. Her role as a status symbol is at the heart of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that initiates the plot of Homer's epic. She was married to Mynes, a son of the King of Lyrnessus, until Achilles sacked her city and enslaved her shortly before the events of the poem. Being forced to give Briseis to Agamemnon, Achilles refused to reenter the battle. Description Briseis receives the same minimal physical description as most other minor characters in the ''Iliad''. She is described with the standard metrical epithets that the poet uses to describe a great beauty, though her appearance is left entirely up to the audience's imagination. Her beauty is compared to that of the goddesses. Briseis was imagined about two millennia later by the Byzantine poet John Tzetzes as: Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian (b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catalogue Of Ships
The Catalogue of Ships ( grc, νεῶν κατάλογος, ''neōn katálogos'') is an epic catalogue in Book 2 of Homer's ''Iliad'' (2.494–759), which lists the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy. The catalogue gives the names of the leaders of each contingent, lists the settlements in the kingdom represented by the contingent, sometimes with a descriptive epithet that fills out a half-verse or articulates the flow of names and parentage and place, and gives the number of ships required to transport the men to Troy, offering further differentiations of weightiness. A similar, though shorter, Catalogue of the Trojans and their allies follows (2.816–877). A similar catalogue appears in the Pseudo-Apollodoran ''Bibliotheca''. Historical background In the debate since antiquity over the Catalogue of Ships, the core questions have concerned the extent of historical credibility of the account, whether it was composed by Homer himself, to what extent it reflec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andromache
In Greek mythology, Andromache (; grc, Ἀνδρομάχη, ) was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means 'man battler' or 'fighter of men' or 'man fighter' (note that there was also a famous Amazon warrior named ''Andromache'', probably in this meaning) or 'man's battle' (that is: 'courage' or 'manly virtue'), from the Greek stem 'man' and 'battle'. After the Trojan War, following Hector's murder by Achilles and the city's capture and sacking by the Greeks, the Greek herald Talthybius informed her of the plan to kill Astyanax, her son by Hector, by throwing him from the city walls. This act was carried out by Neoptolemus who then took Andromache as a concubine and Hector's brother, Helenus, as a slave.Euripides, ''Trojan Women'' By Neoptolemus, she was the mother of Molossus, and according to Pausanias,Pausanias, 1.11.1 of Pielus and Pergamus. When Neopt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phthiotis
Phthiotis ( el, Φθιώτιδα, ''Fthiótida'', ; ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Φθιῶτις) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia. It is bordered by the Malian Gulf to the east, Boeotia in the south, Phocis in the south, Aetolia-Acarnania in the southwest, Evrytania in the west, Karditsa regional unit in the north, Larissa regional unit in the north, and Magnesia in the northeast. The name dates back to ancient times. It is best known as the home of Achilles. Geography Phthiotis covers the northern and southern shorelines of the Malian Gulf, an inlet of the Aegean Sea. It stretches inland towards the west along the valley of the river Spercheios. In the south it covers the upper part of the Cephissus valley. There are several mountain ranges in Phthiotis, including the Othrys in the northeast, the Tymfristos in the west, the Vardousia in the southwest, Oeta in the south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alope (Thessaly)
Alope ( grc, Ἀλόπη, Alópē) was a town of Phthiotis in Ancient Thessaly, placed by Stephanus of Byzantium between Larissa Cremaste and Echinus. There was a dispute among the ancient critics whether this town was the same as the Alope in Homer's Catalog of Ships. Strabo distinguishes the town from two others of the same name, Alope in the area of Opuntian Locris and Alope in that of Ozolian Locris. The editors of the ''Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World'' tentatively locate Alope with the modern village of Fournoi in the municipality of Echinaioi Echinaioi ( el, Εχιναίοι) is a former municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Stylida, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 133.052 km2. Pop .... References Former populated places in Greece Populated places in ancient Thessaly Locations in the Iliad Achaea Phthiotis {{AncientThessaly-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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