Greek
Iolcos
The Thessalian city of King Pelias on the Gulf of Pagasae, from which Jason set out in the Argo to win the Golden Fleece, and to which he returned with Medea (Pindar, Pythian 4; Argonautica).
Sacred Geography
Locations
Temples, realms and sacred sites, on the map and by tradition, type or era.
Catalog pictures are illustrations, not historical artworks. About our images
Greek
Samothrace
The northern Aegean island of the Great Gods, whose mystery rites promised safety at sea; in Apollonius's Argonautica the Argonauts stop there to be initiated.
Greek
Cyzicus
The city of the Doliones on the Propontis, where in Argonautica Book 1 the Argonauts, blown back by night, fought their former hosts unrecognised and killed the young king Cyzicus.
Greek
Land of the Bebryces
The Bithynian land of the Bebryces, whose king Amycus forced strangers to box with him until Polydeuces defeated him for the Argonauts (Argonautica 2; Theocritus, Idyll 22).
Greek
Symplegades (Clashing Rocks)
The Clashing Rocks at the entrance to the Black Sea, which crushed anything passing between them until the Argo, following Phineus's advice and a dove, slipped through and fixed them in place.
Greek
Libyan Desert Shore
The desert coast of North Africa where, in Argonautica Book 4, the Argonauts were stranded in the shallows of the Syrtis and carried the Argo overland for twelve days before Triton showed them the sea.
Mythic realm
Norse
Nidavellir
Niðavellir, 'dark fields', named in the Völuspá as a place of the dwarves and a hall of gold; modern retellings often treat it as the dwarves' forge-realm and equate it with Svartalfheim.
Mythic realm
Egyptian
Western Horizon
The akhet of the west, where the sun god sets each evening to enter the Duat, and the direction of the dead, whom Egyptian texts call 'westerners' under the rule of Osiris.
Mythic realm
Egyptian
First Gate of the Duat
The first of the gates the sun god's night barque passes in the New Kingdom underworld books such as the Book of Gates, each guarded by serpents and doorkeepers whose names must be known.
Mythic realm
Egyptian
Hall of Ma'at
The Hall of the Two Truths, where the heart of the dead is weighed against the feather of Maat before Osiris and forty-two judges, as described in Book of the Dead Spell 125.
Mythic realm
Egyptian
Lake of Fire
A lake of flame in the Egyptian underworld books and Book of the Dead, which destroys the enemies of the sun god and the unjust dead while refreshing the justified.
Egyptian
Throne of Osiris
The throne of Osiris as king of the dead and ruler of the West, the goal of the justified dead in the Egyptian afterlife texts, and in cult associated above all with Abydos.
Greek
Nemea
The valley in the northeast Peloponnese where Heracles performed his first labour, strangling the Nemean lion whose hide no weapon could pierce; later the site of the Nemean Games.
Greek
Lerna
The spring-fed marsh near Argos where Heracles and Iolaus killed the many-headed Hydra in the second labour, burning each neck and burying the immortal head under a rock.
Greek
Ceryneia
The Arcadian hills of the Ceryneian hind, the golden-horned deer sacred to Artemis that Heracles pursued for a year in his third labour and brought back alive.
Greek
Mount Erymanthos
The Arcadian mountain of the Erymanthian boar, which Heracles drove into deep snow and captured alive in his fourth labour, after a fatal fight with the centaurs on the way.
Greek
Augean Stables
The cattle stables of King Augeas of Elis, uncleaned for years, which Heracles cleared in a single day in his fifth labour by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus through them.
Greek
Lake Stymphalus
The Arcadian lake and marsh of the Stymphalian birds, which Heracles startled into flight with a bronze rattle from Athena and shot down in his sixth labour.
Greek
Thrace
The wild northern land of the Thracians, home of King Diomedes, son of Ares, whose man-eating mares Heracles captured in his eighth labour after feeding the king to them.
Greek
Themiscyra
The Amazon city on the river Thermodon on the southern Black Sea coast, where Heracles went in his ninth labour for the war-belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta.
Greek
Erytheia
The red island of the far west, beyond the Ocean, where the three-bodied giant Geryon kept his cattle; Heracles sailed there in the Sun's golden cup for his tenth labour.
Greek
Garden of the Hesperides
The garden at the western edge of the world where the Hesperides and the serpent Ladon guarded Hera's golden apples, which Heracles obtained, with or without Atlas's help, in his eleventh labour.
Mesopotamian
Eridu
The ancient city in southern Iraq that the Sumerian King List names as the first seat of kingship, home of Enki's temple the E-abzu over the freshwater deep, and one of the oldest settlements in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamian
Nippur
The holy city of Enlil in central Mesopotamia, whose Ekur temple conferred divine approval on kingship over Sumer and Akkad, and whose scribal schools preserved much of Sumerian literature.
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