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Greece and the Balkans

Greece, Balkans
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) Title: Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends Date 1868 Medium oil on canvas

The northern Balkans were ravaged by the orcs with Hungary and Bulgaria being particularly hard hit. Now the Ottoman Turks have begun spreading through the region.

The Byzantines, who had regained their capital of Constantinople and partially restored their empire are the first to feel the Ottoman onslaught. Although they retain Constantinople, they have lost alot of territory to the Ottomans, who have also turned north and conquered the Bulgarians and the Serbs. The Ottomans are currently besiging Constantinople. They now pose an even graver threat to the independence of the remaining Hellenic states in the Balkans, and beyond.

The Peloponnese

Mount Olympus

(Settlement) Sparta City, (Settlement) Argos City, (Settlement) Corinth City, (Settlement) Epidaurus Small City, (Settlement) Olympia , (Wilderness Area) Arcadia , (Wilderness Area) Mount Parnassus, Delos

Attica

Athens, Eleusis, Marathon, Piraeus

Macedon

Aegae

Thrace

Founded by Thrax, son of Ares, who resided in Thrace. The Thracians were Trojan allies, led by Acamas and Peiros. Thrace stretches from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east. Thracian kings, include Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus (father of Orpheus). In addition to the Thracians, Thrace is home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltes, Cicones, and Bistones.

The mountainous regions are home to various warlike and ferocious tribes, while the plains peoples are more peaceable. Seen as barbarian and rural by their refined and urbanized neighbors, they had developed advanced forms of music, poetry, industry, and artistic crafts. Aligning themselves in petty kingdoms and tribes, but never achieved any form of national unity beyond short, dynastic rules. Most people lived simply
in small fortified villages on hilltops. Larger fortifications which also serve as regional market centers are numerous. Yet, despite Greek colonization in such areas as Byzantium, Apollonia or Tomi, the Thracians avoided urban life.

Thracian tribesmen are much used as mercenaries by the kings of Syria, Pergamum, Bithynia, and other regions. Thracian mercenaries are always in demand, as they were fierce fighters. They were however expensive and liable to switch sides. The principal Thracian weapons are the spears and the knife and axes, while their leaders ride chariots. Thracian light infantry is armed with javelins, slings, or bows, with javelins predominating. Thracian warriors are especially famous for an unusual weapon which combined elements of sword, sickle and polearm, which was called the Rhomphai. Cavalry armament for all Thracians except the Getae consisted of javelins, plus the kopis. The Getae use bows instead of javelins, and the akinakes instead of the kopis. Thracian tribes also used more exotic weapons such as spiked axles, or carts rolled down steep hills. Thracians are known for their hit and run tactics. The backbone of the Thracian military are the Thracian Peltast, light infantry that was equally at home fighting hand-to-hand and at a distance (throwing javelins). Peltast are unarmoured except for their curved shields. They carried some form of short sword or melee weapon and an assortment of javelins. The wealthy nobility wore helmets with pointed tops in order to accommodate their top-knot hairstyles.

Ismara

Ismara is a Ciconian town on the Aegean coast of Thrace, known for it high Cyclopean built walls.

After their departure from Troy, Odysseus and his companions stop at Ismaros. They sack the town, situated on an island, and then engage in a fierce battle with the Cicones, the inhabitants of the adjacent region. They kill the men and divide the women and treasures among themselves and after that start to feast, although Odysseus proposes to leave. The Cicones, who in the meantime go for help, come back in the morning in great quantities. Odysseus manages to escape after heavy losses and embarks with the survivors to continue towards his homeland, Ithaca, but shortly after sailing they are caught in a northerly storm.

Cicones

The Cicones are a Thracian tribe, whose stronghold in the time of Odysseus was the city of Ismara, located at the foot of mount Ismara, on the south coast of Thrace. They joined the war on the side of the Trojans, led by Euphemos.

Odysseus and his men take Ismara by surprise and slay most of the Ciconian men they come across, while burning Ciconian towns and taking Ciconian women but later Ciconian reinforcements arrive and attack the invading Achaeans, slaying so many of them that Odysseus and his men are forced to flee in their ships, with the numbers of their shipmates greatly reduced. After their departure they were ran off course for nine days by a fierce storm. After being held off course they land on the island of the Cyclops Simply put, this is where they raped and pillaged.

Cilician Thebe

Cilician Thebe is a city located in or near the Troad, in a region termed Cilicia and received the epithet Cilicianto distinguish it from the Boeotian city of Thebes.

The city of Thebe was founded by the hero Heracles after his sack of Troy during the reign of King Laomedon and named after his birthplace, Thebes in Boeotia.

At the time of the Trojan War, Hypoplacian Thebe was in the hands of a people known as the Cilicians, and ruled by King Eetion. Eetion’s daughter Andromache was given in marriage to Hector, son of King Priam of Troy.

The Achaians, led by Achilleus, sacked the city during the latter part of the war, killed King Eetion, his wife and his sons. They also carried off several women, including Chryseis, who became the concubine of Agamemnon. While Chryseis’s father attempt to ransom his daughter.

The Dodecanese Islands

Kingdom of Candia (Crete)

Cyprus

The Cyclades

The Peloponnese

Sparta, Argos, Arcadia, Corinth, Epidaurus, Olympia

Thessalia

Larissa

Larissa is the capital city of Thessaly, the area around Larissa is extremely fruitful and is agriculturally important and is known for its horses.

Pherai

Aganippe

Aganippe was the name of both a fountain and the naiad associated with it. Aganippe was the daughter of Ternessus. The well is in Boeotia, near Thespiae, at the base of Mount Helicon. It was created by the hooves of pegasus and was associated with the Muses as a source of poetic inspiration. The nymph is called a daughter of the river-god Permessus. The Muses are sometimes called Aganippicles.

Thebes

Chief city of Boeotia

The Colossus

Rest of the World

Aeaea

Aeaea is the island home of the sorceress Circe.

Argyre

Mythical island of silver, located in the east.

Atlantis

Colchis

Colchis is a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of the war god Ares,
King Aeëtes hung the Golden Fleece until it was seized by Jason and the Argonauts. Colchis is also the land where Prometheus was punished
by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing to humanity the secret of fire. Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis. The main characters from Colchis are Aeëtes, Medea, Absyrtus, Chalciope, Circe, Eidyia, Pasiphaë.

The residence of king Aeëtes. The main river is the Phasis The chief towns were Dioscurias on the seaboard of the Euxine, Sarapana (now Shorapani), Phasis (now Poti), Pityus (now Pitsunda), Apsaros (now Gonio), Surium (now Surami), Archaeopolis (now Nokalakevi), Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium (now Kutaisi), the traditional birthplace of Medea.

Ethiopia

Aethiopia, is the name given to Africa, and to lands outside Africa that were settled by black Africans. Primarily Aethiopia referred to the Kushite Empire which in the early phase of Greek state formation included all of Africa, parts of present-day Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

There are several notable personalities identified as Ethiopian, including several rulers, male and female, including Memnon the King of Persia whose capital was Susa, and his brother Emathion, king of Arabia. Other Ethiopians, include Epaphus and Phineus and Belus, Cadmus, Memphis, Libya, Nilus, Agenor, Europa, Aegyptus, Cilix, Danaus, Diana, Egeria and Io. Kilimanjaro is where the gods live when they are not in Greece.

Another notable Ethiopian is Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, who was king at Joppa, in Canaan. Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Aethiopia, were the parents of Andromeda, wife of the hero Perseus. Andromeda and Perseus, through their son Perses, were ancestors of the Mycenaen rulers, including the great hero Heracles.

Ophiussa

Ophiussa, means Land of Serpents has been sacred ground since the Neolithic times, with standing menhirs.

The expulsion of the Oestrimni

peopled by the Oestrimni, a people that had been living there for a long time; they had to flee their homeland after an invasion of serpents. These people could be linked to the Saephe or Ophis (“People of the Serpents”), who came to those lands and built the territorial entity the Greeks termed Ophiussa.

The “serpent people” of the semi-mythical Ophiussa in the far west are noted in ancient Greek sources.

Land of the Ophi

The Ophi people lived mainly in the inland mountains of Northern Portugal (and Galicia). Others say they lived mainly by the estuaries of the rivers Douro and Tagus. The ophiduan worship serpents, hence Land of Serpents.

Ophi legend

On the summer solstice a maiden-serpent, a chthonic goddess, reveals hidden treasures to people journeying through forests. This maiden would live in the city of Porto. Festivities related to this goddess occurred during the solstice. During the rest of the year, she would change into a snake living under or among rocks, and shepherds would set aside some milk from their flocks as an offering to her.

Corfu

The island is connected to Poseidon, god of the sea and Asopos. Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopus and river nymph Metope, and abducted her. Bringing her to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to the place: Korkyra. Together, they had a child they called Phaiax, after whom the inhabitants of the island are named: Phaiakes.

Hyperborea

Libya

Libya, is one of the mythic outlands that encircles the familiar Greek world of the Hellenes and their “foreign” neighbors.

Personified as an individual, Libya was the daughter of Epaphus — a son of Zeus and King of Egypt — and Memphis. Libya was ravished by the god Poseidon to whom she bore twin sons, Belus and Agenor.

Nysa

The mountainous district of Nysa, is the place where the rain nymphs, the Hyades, raised the infant Dionysus, the “god of Nysa”.

Groups

Characters

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