Places

The Places section describes the cities, islands, regions and realms where Greek myths are set. Some are real places that kept their legends for centuries, such as Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Corinth, Delphi and Troy; others, such as the Underworld, Elysium, Aeaea and Ogygia, exist only in the poets.

Cities and sanctuaries

Thebes was founded, according to Apollodorus, by Cadmus, who followed a cow after consulting the oracle at Delphi and sowed the dragon’s teeth from which armed men sprang. Delphi itself was the oracle of Apollo: in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo the god comes to Crisa beneath Mount Parnassus, kills a she-dragon, and names the place Pytho, then recruits Cretan sailors as his priests. Troy is the setting of the Iliad and of the story of the wooden horse, which Apollodorus attributes to Odysseus and the builder Epeius. Crete belongs to King Minos and the labyrinth where the Minotaur lived. Athens is the city of Theseus and of the contest between Athena and Poseidon for its patronage; Sparta is the home of Menelaus and Helen, where Odysseus’ son Telemachus visits them in the Odyssey (book 4); Corinth, called Ephyre by Homer, was the city of Sisyphus and Bellerophon (Iliad 6.152–155) and the place where Medea took her revenge on Jason.

Regions and mythical realms

Colchis is the destination of the Argonauts, who set out from Iolcus, where Pelias was king, to fetch the Golden Fleece (Apollodorus 1.9.16). Arcadia is the mountain country of Pan and Hermes, Calydon the scene of the great boar hunt, Nemea and Lerna the haunts of the lion and the Hydra that Heracles killed. Ithaca is the home of Odysseus, and Aeaea and Ogygia the islands of Circe and Calypso where he was delayed. Mount Olympus is the home of the gods, and the Underworld and Elysium are the realms of the dead.

See Also: Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Delphi, Troy, Crete, The Underworld, Mount Olympus