Places in Ancient Greece

Colchis

Colchis was located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered on present-day western Georgia.

Aulis

A Greek port-town, located in Boeotia in central Greece, at the Euripus Strait, opposite of the island of Euboea. It is identified with the modern Avlida.

Maeander

A celebrated river of Caria in Asia Minor.

Sidon

A city on the Mediterranean coast, in modern-day Lebanon, about 40 kilometers north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut.

Troy

A city situated in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey (but which was known in Classical sources as Asia Minor), located south of the southwest end of the Dardanelles/Hellespont and northwest of Mount Ida at Hisaronu.

Liguria

A crescent-shaped region in northwest Italy, with the capital Genoa.

The Gulf of Corinth

A deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece.

Epirus

A geographical and historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania.

The Vale of Tempe

A gorge between northern Thessaly, Greece and southern Macedonia (now part of Greece), located between Olympus to the north and Ossa to the south. Contains the Peneus river. Home for a time to Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Cyrene, and it was here that he chased Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, who, in her flight, was bitten by a serpent and died.

Attica

A historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea.

Mount Parnassus

A mountain in Phocis. The only place spared by the great deluge of Zeus.

Mount Ossa

A mountain in the Larissa regional unit, in Thessaly, Greece, located between Pelion to the south and Olympus to the north, separated from the latter by the Vale of Tempe.

Mount Pelion

A mountain in the Southeastern part of Thessaly, forming a hook-like peninsula between the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea. (Cave of Chiron.)

Mount Helicon

A mountain in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, located approximately 10 kilometers from the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. (Spring created by Pegasus, sacred to the Muses, where Narcissus fell in love with his reflection.)

Mount Kyllini or Mount Cyllene

A mountain on the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece, famous for its association with the god Hermes. It rises to 2,376 m above sea level, making it the second highest point on the peninsula. It is located near the border between the historic regions of Arcadia and Achaea.

Maenalus

A mountain range in Northern Arcadia.

Kithairon

A mountain range in central Greece, standing between Boeotia in the north and Attica in the south.

Pindus

A mountain range on the border of Thessaly and Epirus. Referred to as the spine of Greece.

Aetolia

A mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth.

Peloponnese

A peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the central part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth.

Thrace

A region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east.

Lerna

A region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. Its site near the village Mili at the Argolic Gulf is most famous as the lair of the Hydra.

Pylos

A town in Messenia, location of the palace of Nestor.

Scythia

According to the ancient greeks, all the lands north-east of Europe and the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Laconia

Also known as Lacedaemonia, a region in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula

Calydon

An ancient Greek city in Aetolia, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus, 7.5 Roman miles (approx. 11 km) from the sea. (Boarhunt.)

Thespiae

An ancient Greek city in Boeotia, between Mount Helicon and Thebes.

Paeonia

An ancient Greek kingdom roughly corresponding to modern-day Macedonia.

Pitane

An ancient Greek town of the ancient region of Aeolis, in Asia Minor.

Tyre

An ancient Phoenician city and the legendary birthplace of Europa and Dido (Elissa). Today it is the fourth largest city in Lebanon and houses one of the nation's major ports.

Pleuron

An ancient city in Aetolia, Greece, a few kilometers north of the modern-day city of Missolonghi, and just west of the ancient city of Calydon.

Nonakris

An ancient city in Arcadian Azania, said to be named after the wife of Lycaon.

Aeolis

An ancient district on the western coast of Asia Minor. It extended along the Aegean Sea from the entrance of the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) south to the Hermus River (now the Gediz River).

Lemnos

An island in the Northeast Aegean sea, sacred to Hephaestus. Also where Philoctetes was abandoned by Odysseus.

Tenedos

An island off the coast of ancient Troy. It is mentioned in both the Iliad and the Aeneid, in the latter as the site where the Greeks hid their fleet near the end of the Trojan War in order to trick the Trojans into believing the war was over and into taking the Trojan Horse within their city walls.

Naxos

An island upon which the princess Ariadne of Crete was abandoned after she helped Theseus kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth. Dionysus (god of wine, festivities, and the primal energy of life) who was the protector of the island, met Ariadne and fell in love with her.

Salamis

An island west of Athens, where Ajax the Great is from.

Arcadia

Geographically, occupied the highlands at the center of the Peloponnese.

Achaea

Geographically, the northernmost region of the Peloponnese, occupying the coastal strip north of Arcardia.

Mount Othrys

The base of Kronos and the Titans during the ten-year war with the Olympian Gods known as the Titanomachy. It was also the birthplace of the elder gods, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. It was assaulted by the Olympians, led by Kronos' son Zeus.

Larissa

The capital city of Thessaly. Legend has it that Achilles was born here, and that Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, died here.

Mount Ida

The highest summit of Crete, sacred to the Goddess Rhea, and wherein lies the legendary cave in which baby Zeus was concealed from his father Cronus. It is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of Zeus.Hymen The god of weddings, or more specifically of the wedding hymn which was sung by the train of the bride as she was led to the house of the groom. Hymenaios was numbered amongst the Erotes, the youthful gods of love.

Delos

The island where Apollo and Artemis were born.

Thebes

The largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a major rival of ancient Athens.

Crete

The largest island in Greece and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea.

Anatolia

The westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of the Republic of Turkey, also known as Asia Minor.

Megara

It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis.

Boeotia

Lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. Many ancient stories took place here, Oedipus, Cadmus, Diana & Actaeon, Contains the mountains Helicon, Kithairon, etc.

Mount Oeta

Mountain where Hercules died.

Argolis

Occupied the eastern part of the Peloponnesus, primarily the Argolid peninsula, together with the coastal region to the east of Arcadia, and north of Laconia.

Corinthia

On the northern side of the Isthmus, bounded by Mount Geraneia, which separated it from Megaris. On the Peloponnesian side of the Isthmus, bounded by Achaea to the west, and to the south by the territory of Argolis.

Tauris

The Crimean Peninsula (formerly Tauric peninsula), also known simply as Crimea, is a major land mass on the northern coast of the Black Sea that is almost completely surrounded by water.

Ortygia

Island where Diana was born. Either an earlier name for Delos or a separate island.

Samos

Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the 1.6-kilometre (1.0 mi)-wide Mycale Strait.

Phrygia

In antiquity, a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, centered on the Sakarya River.

Thessaly

Region in central Greece, that borders the regions of Macedonia on the north, Epirus on the west, Central Greece on the south and the Aegean Sea on the east.