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Phlegra (mythology)

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Phlegra (Ancient Greek: Φλέγρα)[1] is both a real and a mythical location in both Greek and Roman mythology.

Phlegra is a peninsula of Macedonia (more specifically in Chalkidike) in modern Greece; it is an ancient name for Pallene in historical Thrace, the latter as per the toponymy of the ancients; Pallene – and Phlegra – is most commonly called nowadays Kassandra, or Peninsula of Kassandra.[1] In Greek mythology, it is the site of Zeus's overthrowing of the Giants (Gigantes) at the end of the Gigantomachy.[2][3]: 235 (58) 

The Greek geographer Strabo (c.63 BC – c. 24 AD) writes:

The peninsula Pallene, on whose isthmus is situated the city formerly called Potidaea and now Cassandreia, was called Phlegra in still earlier times. It used to be inhabited by the giants of whom the myths are told, an impious and lawless tribe, whom Heracles destroyed.

— Strabo, Geography. Book VII, fragment 27.[4]

Nevertheless, various places have been associated with the Gigantomachy. The presence of volcanic phenomena, and the frequent unearthing of the fossilized bones of large prehistoric animals throughout these locations may explain why such sites became associated with the Giants.[5] Pindar writes that the battle occurred at Phlegra ("the place of burning"),[3]: 235 (58)  as do other early sources.[6] Phlegra was said to be an ancient name for Pallene,[7] and Phlegra/Pallene was the usual birthplace of the Giants and site of the battle.[8] Apollodorus, who placed the battle at Pallene, says the Giants were born "as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene". But the name Phlegra and the Gigantomachy were also often associated, by later writers, with the Phlegraean Plain, the volcanic fields, at the east of Cumae.[9] Diodorus Siculus presents a war with multiple battles, with one at Pallene, one on the Phlegraean Fields, and one on Crete.[10] Even when, as in Apollodorus, the battle starts at one place, individual battles between Giant and god might range farther afield, with Enceladus buried beneath Sicily, and Polybotes under the island of Nisyros (or Kos).[11]

Strabo also refers to the Phlegraean Plain (Φλέγρας πεδίον, Phlegras pedion, or Φλεγραία πλάξ, Phlegraia plax,[1] later Campi Flegrei [2]), in Campania, "which mythology has made the setting of the story of the Giants":

This river [Liternus] flows through Venafrum and the centre of Campania. Next in order after these two cities comes Cumae [...] In earlier times, then, the city was prosperous, and so was what is called the Phlegraean Plain, which mythology has made the setting of the story of the Giants — for no other reason, it would seem, than that the land, on account of its excellence, was a thing to fight for.

— Strabo, Geography. Book V, chapter IV [12]

According to the Greek geographer, the Giants who survived, were driven out by Heracles, finding refuge with their mother in Leuca (Apulia),[13] in Italy's 'heel'. A fountain there had smelly water the locals claimed to be from the ichor of the giants.[13] Strabo also mentions an account of Heracles battling Giants at Phanagoria, a Greek colony on the shores of the Black Sea.[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c φλέγρα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ^ a b (in Italian) Ferrari, Anna. Dizionario dei luoghi del mito - Geografia reale e immaginaria del mondo classico: "Flegra". Milano: Bur, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno (commentary by Charles S. Singleton). Volumes 1-2 Princeton University Press, 1990.
  4. ^ Geography 7.Fr. 27 (in Greek). At the Perseus Project. See also 7.Fr 25. English translation
  5. ^ Mayor, p. 197 ff.; Apollodorus 1.6.1 n. 3; Frazer 1898b, note to Pausanias 8.29.1 "the legendary battle of the gods and the giants" pp. 314–315; Pausanias, 8.32.5; Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 5.16 (pp. 498–501), On Heroes 8.15–16 (p. 14).
  6. ^ Aeschylus, Eumenides 294; Euripides, Heracles 1192–1194; Ion 987–997; Aristophanes, The Birds 824; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.232–234 (pp. 210–211), 3.1225–7 (pp. 276–277). See also Hesiod fragment 43a.65 MW (Most 2007, p. 143, Gantz, p. 446).
  7. ^ Herodotus, 7.123.1; Strabo, 7 Fragment 25, 27; Philostratus, On Heroes 8.16 (p. 14); Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Παλλήνη (Hunter p. 81), Φλέγρα; Liddell and Scott, Φλέγρα;
  8. ^ Gantz, p. 419; Frazer 1898b, note to Pausanias 8.29.1 "the legendary battle of the gods and the giants" pp. 314–315; Lycophron, Alexandra 115–127 (pp. 504–505), 1356–1358 (pp. 606–607), 1404–1408 (pp. 610–611); Diodorus Siculus, 4.15.1; Pausanias, 1.25.2, 8.29.1; AT-scholia to Iliad 15.27 (Hunter p. 81).
  9. ^ Strabo, 5.4.4, 5.4.6, 6.3.5; Diodorus Siculus, 4.21.5–7, 5.71.4.
  10. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.15.1, 4.21.5–7, 5.71.2–6.
  11. ^ Hanfmann 1937, p. 475 n. 52.
  12. ^ "Strabo: The Geography, Book V Chapter IV". University of Chicago. Loeb Classical Library edition. 1923. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  13. ^ a b Smith, William (1865). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Little, Brown & Company. p. 167. Its site is clearly marked by an ancient church still called Sta. Maria di Leuca [...] Strabo tells us that the inhabitants of Leuca showed there a spring of fetid water
  14. ^ Strabo, Geography 11.2.10.
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