Homolium or Homolion ( grc, Ὁμόλιον) or Homole (Ὁμόλη) was a town and

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

(city-state) of Magnesia in

ancient Thessaly Thessaly or Thessalia (Attic Greek: , ''Thessalía'' or , ''Thettalía'') was one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece. During the Mycenaean period, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of the major tribes ...

, situated at the foot of Mount Homole, and near the edge of the

vale of Tempe The Vale of Tempe ( el, Κοιλάδα των Τεμπών) is a gorge in the Tempi municipality of northern Thessaly, Greece, located between Olympus to the north and Ossa to the south, and between the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. The ...

. Mt. Homole was the part of the chain of Ossa lying between Tempe and the modern village of Karitsa. Mt. Homole is sometimes used as synonymous with Ossa. It was celebrated as a favourite haunt of Pan, and as the abode of the

Centaurs A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

and the Lapithae.

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

describes it as the most fertile mountain in Thessaly, and well supplied with fountains. Ancient authors differed in their descriptions of the town's location. Both Pseudo-Scylax and Strabo seem to place it on the right bank of the

Peneius In Greek mythology, Peneus (; Ancient Greek: Πηνειός) was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers (Potamoi), a child of Oceanus and Tethys. Family The nymph Creusa bore him one son, Hypseus, who was King of the Lapi ...

near the exit of the vale of Tempe, and consequently at some distance from the sea; but in

Apollonius Rhodius Apollonius of Rhodes ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος Ῥόδιος ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; la, Apollonius Rhodius; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and t ...

and in the

Orphic Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus ...

poems Homolium is described as situated near the sea-shore, and in Apollonius even another town, Eurymenae, is placed between Homolium and Tempe. Eurymenae, however, stood upon the coast more to the south. Homolium minted coins dated to the 4th century BCE. Homolium's site is at the modern village of Laspochori, in the municipal unit of Evrymenes.

References

External links

Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean

Herakles Numismatics

NumisWiki

Strabo: Geography

Cities in ancient Greece Populated places in ancient Thessaly Ancient Magnesia Former populated places in Greece Thessalian city-states {{AncientThessaly-geo-stub