Homolium or Homolion () or Homole (Ὁμόλη) was a town and

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

(city-state) of Magnesia in

ancient Thessaly Thessaly or Thessalia (Attic Greek: , ''Thessalía'' or , ''Thettalía'') was one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece. During the Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean period, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of ...

, situated at the foot of Mount Homole, and near the edge of the

vale of Tempe The Vale of Tempe or Tembi (; ; ) is a gorge in the Tempi municipality of northern Thessaly, Greece, located between Olympus to the north and Ossa to the south, and between the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. The gorge was known to the Byz ...

. Mt. Homole was the part of the chain of Ossa lying between Tempe and the modern village of Karitsa. Mt. Homole is sometimes used as synonymous with Ossa. It was celebrated as a favourite haunt of Pan, and as the abode of the

Centaurs A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

and the Lapithae. Pausanias describes it as the most fertile mountain in Thessaly, and well supplied with fountains. Ancient authors differed in their descriptions of the town's location. Both Pseudo-Scylax and

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

seem to place it on the right bank of the Peneius near the exit of the vale of Tempe, and consequently at some distance from the sea; but in

Apollonius Rhodius Apollonius of Rhodes ( ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; ; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. The poem is ...

and in the Orphic poems Homolium is described as situated near the sea-shore, and in Apollonius even another town, Eurymenae, is placed between Homolium and Tempe. Eurymenae, however, stood upon the coast more to the south. Homolium minted coins dated to the 4th century BCE. Homolium's site is at the modern village of Laspochori, in the municipal unit of Evrymenes.

References

External links

Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean

Herakles Numismatics

NumisWiki

Strabo: Geography

Cities in ancient Greece Populated places in ancient Thessaly Ancient Magnesia Former populated places in Greece Thessalian city-states Agia, Larissa {{AncientThessaly-geo-stub