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climate and geography: Greece THESSALY, PHOCIS, BOEOTIA (CENTRAL GREECE) South of Mount Olympus, on the east coast of Greece, was Thessaly Homer calls this territory “Horse-rolling Thessaly,” and its flat, grassy plains were among the relatively few areas conducive to raising horses and training cavalry The soil of Thessaly, carried down as sediment by snowmelt from Olympus, was extremely fertile, and in antiquity Thessaly was an exporter of food Between Thessaly and the area to the south, Boeotia, the mountains came close to the sea, near the gulf of Magnesia, forming a narrow pass through which ran the main road This pass was also the site of geothermal springs, giving it the name Thermopylae, or “Hot Gates.” Boeotia, the territory of the ancient cities of Thebes and Plataea, was ringed by mountains, including Mount Helicon to the west, site of an important cult of the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus and patronesses of the arts Poetry associated with this cult claims that the Muses taught the art of singing to the rustic farmer Hasid, making him an epic poet and entrusting him with agricultural and theological wisdom Boeotia was fertile, although its climate tended toward extremes of heat in the summer and damp cold in the winter Its main city, Thebes, was the home of the poet Pindar, the site of many of the myths that are the subject of Greek tragedy, and a great military power during the fourth century b.c.e under the generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas To the south of Thebes was Plataea, long an important ally of Athens, farther to the south, and famous for its participation in the Greco-Persian Wars at the beginning of the fi ft h century b.c.e West of Boeotia, in the high mountains around Mount Parnassus, was the territory of Phocis, site of Delphi The ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the world, the site where Apollo spoke to humans through his oracle The sanctuary at Delphi was considered a possession of all Greeks, was governed by an international council, and contained treasuries belonging to many individual cities, in which were stored the gifts that those cities had dedicated to the god Even non-Greek nations sent gifts to Apollo, most notably King Croesus of Lydia, whose lavish dedications are described in Herodotus’s history ATTICA (THE SOUTHEASTERN MAINLAND) The southeastern corner of the Greek peninsula, north of the Isthmus of Corinth, was Attica, the region around the city of Athens Originally a region of many independent cities, the ancient Greeks claimed that the legendary king Theseus united the area into a single unified political entity with Athens at its head Attica is bounded by the sea to the east and south It connects with Boeotia to the north To the west is Eleusis, once an independent city but said to have been conquered by Theseus Farther to the west is Megara, a neighboring state and often an enemy of Athens Just offshore to the south are the islands of Salamis, the site of the great victory of the 259 Greeks over the Persian fleet in the 480s b.c.e., and Aegina, another Athenian possession THE PELOPONNESE (THE SOUTHERN PENINSULA) The southern peninsula of Greece, the Peloponnese, is connected to the northern mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth, whose principle city, Corinth, was an important center of trade There is a canal across the Isthmus today, but in antiquity any commerce moving between east and west by sea would have either to make the (potentially dangerous) passage around the south of the Peloponnese or to stop at the Isthmus, unload cargo, and have the ships dragged across the land on rollers This enterprise was profitable for the Corinthians, not least because the crews of these ships would be tempted to spend money in the city Likewise, all north-south commerce by land, between the northern mainland and the Peloponnese, had to pass through Corinth The Isthmus lies between the Gulf of Corinth to the west and the Saronic Gulf to the east Immediately to its south is the area of the Argolid, named for its principal city of Argos The Argolid, site of the palace of Mycenae, was an important center during the Bronze Age Another Bronze Age settlement on the coast, just across the Saronic Gulf from Athens, was Troezen, legendary birthplace of the Athenian king Theseus The Argolid in antiquity was mostly self-sufficient, with access to the sea, fertile plains, and mountainous pasturelands to the west, as was its southern neighbor, Laconia, the region that included the ancient city of Sparta and the territory of Messenia The Spartans, famous for their rigorous lifestyle and warlike abilities, had by the Classical Period reduced Messenia to a client-state, its population little more than slaves for the Spartans As was often the case among ancient Greek cities, Sparta was regularly at war with its neighbor Argos, as Athens was with Megara The central Peloponnese, Arcadia, was isolated High and rocky, far from the sea, it was a relatively sparsely inhabited land of forests and pastures, and the mythological home of wild spirits of the mountains The main city of Arcadia was Megalopolis, in the south, closest to the sea, on the river Pamisus, which drained the high Arcadian plateau To the west of Arcadia were Elis and Olympia The latter was the site of the Olympic Games, in honor of Zeus, an international event founded in 776 b.c.e and held every four years until closed by Theodosius, the Christian emperor of Rome, in 393 c.e The games at Olympia are now the most famous of these ancient festivals, but there were many such events in antiquity: the Nemean Games in the Argolid, the Isthmian Games at Corinth, and the Pythian Games at Delphi in Phocis THE IONIAN ISLANDS The islands of the Ionian Sea offered protected ports; the western coast of Greece did not So, most trade between the mainland of Italy and Greece came through the islands of Cephallenia, Zacynthus, Corcyra, and Ithaca The island
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