Greek city of  Halos <="" font="" color="#000000"> in <="" font="" color="#000000"> Thessaly
Bronze 14mm (1.40 grams) Struck circa 302-265 B.C.
Reference: HGC 4, 8 (R1); BCD Thessaly II, lot 86.2
Laureate head of Zeus right.
AΛΕΩN, Phrixos riding ram right.

Where Halos was originally located is unknown, however it is known that to have been located in the northern Achaia Phthiotis and overlooked Crocus Field. The myth of the city starts at the Halean temple of Zeus Lpahystios where the twins Helle and Phrixos were to be sacrificed, when a golden-fleeced flying ram was sent to rescue them by their mother, the nymph Nephele. King Athamas of Boiotia, was the father of Helle and Phrixos and was believed to have been the founder of the city. At the end of the Third Sacred War, in 346 B.C. the city was destroyed by the Macedonian general Parmenion. In 302 B.C. the city was re-founded, but this time closer to the sea coast by either Kassander or his rival Demetrios Poliorketes, rivals for the Macedonian throne. By around 265 B.C. the city was abandoned ostensibly due to a bad earthquake. 

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In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε) who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology . His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia .

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea , and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona , his consort was Dione : according to the Iliad , he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena , Apollo and Artemis , Hermes , Persephone (by Demeter ), Dionysus , Perseus , Heracles , Helen of Troy , Minos , and the Muses (by Mnemosyne ); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus .

As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods , who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the thunderbolt , eagle , bull , and oak . In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East , such as the scepter . Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

In Greek mythology Phrixus (also spelt Phryxus; Greek : Φρίξος, Phrixos) was the son of Athamas , king of Boiotia , and Nephele (a goddess of clouds). His twin sister Helle and he were hated by their stepmother, Ino . Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all of Boeotia 's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle. Before they were killed, though, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying, or swimming, ram with golden wool sent by Nephele , their natural mother; their starting point is variously recorded as Halos in Thessaly and Orchomenus in Boeotia . During their flight Helle swooned, fell off the ram and drowned in the Dardanelles , renamed the Hellespont (sea of Helle), but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis , where King Aeëtes , the son of the sun god Helios , took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope , in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung in a tree in the holy grove of Ares in his kingdom, guarded by a dragon that never slept.

Phrixus and Chalciope had four sons, who later joined forces with the Argonauts . The oldest was Argos/Argus, Phrontis, Melas, and Cytisorus.

Testimonia

• Apollonius Rhodius , Argonautica
• Pseudo-Apollodorus , Bibliotheca
• Pseudo-Eratosthenes , Catasterismi 14, 19
• Hyginus , Fabulae 1–3, 12, 21, 22, 188
• Ovid , Metamorphoses 12.8ff, Fasti 3.867ff
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus , 1.281ff
• Palaephatus , Incredibilia 30

Thessaly  is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece , comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages , Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer 's Odyssey .

Thessaly became part of the modern Greek state in 1881, after four and a half centuries of Ottoman rule. Since 1987 it has formed one of the country's 13 regions and is further (since the Kallikratis reform of 2010) sub-divided into 5 regional units and 25 municipalities . The capital of the region is Larissa . Thessaly lies in central Greece and borders the regions of Macedonia on the north, Epirus on the west, Central Greece on the south and the Aegean Sea on the east. The Thessaly region also includes the Sporades islands.

History

Ancient history

Thessaly was home to an extensive Neolithic culture around 2500 BC . Mycenaean settlements have also been discovered, for example at the sites of Iolcos , Dimini and Sesklo (near Volos ). In Archaic and Classical times, the lowlands of Thessaly became the home of baronial families, such as the Aleuadae of Larissa or the Scopads of Crannon. In the 4th century BC Jason of Pherae transformed the region into a significant military power, recalling the glory of Early Archaic times. Shortly after Philip II of Macedon was appointed Archon of Thessaly, and Thessaly was thereafter associated with the Macedonian Kingdom for the next centuries. Thessaly later became part of the Roman Empire as part of the province of Macedonia . The region of Thessaly in the 7th century, experienced an influx of Slavic warlords, Perboundos the Slavic king who established permanent settlement in Macedonia also included Thessaly, as part of his Slavic realm and region. He named the region "Belzetia" and appointed a lord to govern and peacefully maintain order. The Slavic Belegezites tribes, under king Perboundos began building settlements and agricultural farms known as subsistance communal farms . The lord of Thessaly Akamir was at war with the Roman Empire , and by 700 AD a fortress was fully built. The Slavs of Macedonia had included Thessaly as part of Sklavinia , the Battle of Larissa occurred in 780 AD.

Medieval and Ottoman Thessaly

Thessaly remained part of the East Roman "Byzantine" Empire after the collapse of Roman power in the west, and subsequently suffered many invasions, such as by the Slavic tribe of the Belegezites in the 7th century AD. Following the campaigns of the Byzantine general Staurakios in 782-783, the Byzantine Empire recovered Thessaly (then known as Hellas ), taking many Slavs as prisoners.^[4] In 977 it was raided by the Bulgarians. Dissatisfaction about the taxation policy led in 1066 the Aromanian and Bulgarian population of Thessaly to revolt against the Byzantine Empire under the leadership of a local lord, Nikoulitzas Delphinas .^[5] The revolt, which began in Larissa , was soon expanded in Trikala and later northwards to the Byzantine-Bulgarian border. In 1199-1201 another unsuccessful revolt was led by Manuel Kamytzes , son-in-law of Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos .^[6] In 1204 it was assigned to Boniface of Montferrat and in 1225 to Theodore Komnenos Doukas , despot of Epirus . From 1271 to 1318 it was an independent despotate that extended to Acarnania and Aetolia , run by John I Doukas . In 1309 settled there the Almogavars or Catalan Company of the East (Societas Catalanorum Magna), which in 1310, after lifting the siege of Thessalonica, withdrew as mercenaries in the pay of the sebastokrator John II Doukas , and took over the country organized in a democracy. From there they departed to the Duchy of Athens , called by the duke Walter I . In 1318, with the extinction of the Angelid dynasty, the Almogavars occupied Siderokastron and southern Thessaly (1319) and formed the duchy of Neopatria .

One of the flags used in Thessaly during the Greek War of Independence (designed by Anthimos Gazis ).

In 1348, it was invaded and occupied by the Serbs under Preljub . After the latter's death in 1356, the region was conquered by Nikephoros Orsini , and after his death three years later, it was taken over by the self-proclaimed Serbian emperor Simeon Uroš . Simeon's son John Uroš succeeded in 1370 but abdicated in 1373, and Thessaly was administered by the Greek Angeloi-Philanthropenoi clan until the Ottoman conquest c. 1393. Ottoman control was disputed by the Byzantines until the 1420s, when it was consolidated by Turahan Bey , who settled Turkomans in the province and founded the town of Tyrnavos .

In 1821, parts of Thessaly and Magnesia participated in the initial uprisings in the Greek War of Independence , but these revolts were swiftly crushed. Thessaly became part of the modern Greek state in 1881, after the Treaty of Berlin .

Geography

Volos view from Pelion mountain.

Thessaly occupies the east side of the Pindus watershed, extending south of Macedonia to the Aegean Sea . The northern tier of Thessaly is defined by a generally southwest-northeast spur of the Pindus range that includes Mount Olympus , close to the Macedonian border. Within that broken spur of mountains are several basins and river valleys. The easternmost extremity of the spur extends southeastward from Mt. Olympus along the Aegean coast, terminating in the Magnesia Peninsula that envelops the Pagasetic Gulf (also called the Gulf of Volos), and forms an inlet of the Aegean Sea. Thessaly's major river, the Pineios , flows eastward from the central Pindus Range just south of the spur, emptying into the Thermaic Gulf .

The Trikala and Larissa lowlands form a central plain which is surrounded by ring of mountains. It has a distinct summer and winter season, with summer rains augmenting the fertility of the plains. This has led to Thessaly occasionally being called the "breadbasket of Greece".

The region is well delineated by topographical boundaries. The Chasia and Kamvounia mountains lie to the north, the Mt. Olympus massif to the northeast. To the west lies the Pindus mountain range, to the southeast the coastal mountains of Óssa and Pelion .

Several tributaries of the Pineios flow through the region.

Demographics

According to the census conducted by ESYE in 2011, the population of the region of Thessaly is 732,762 and represents 6.8% of the total population of the country.

It has noted a 2.8% decrease in the population since 2001 and remains the third largest region in the country population-wise.

The population break-down is 44% urban, 40% agrarian and 16% semi-urban with the agrarian population having noted a decline which has been paralleled with an increase in the semi-urban.

The metropolitan area of Larissa, the capital of Thessaly, is home to more than 230,000 people, making it the biggest city of the region.

Major communities

Litheos river flowing through city of Trikala .

Economy

The alluvial soils of the Pineios Basin and its tributaries make Thessaly a vital agricultural area, particularly for the production of grain , cattle , and sheep . Modernization of agricultural practices in the mid-20th century has controlled the chronic flooding that had restricted agricultural expansion and diversification in the low-lying plains. Thessaly is the leading cattle-raising area of Greece , and Vlach shepherds shift large flocks of sheep and goats seasonally between higher and lower elevations. The last decades, there is a rise in cultivating dried nuts such as almonds , pistachios and walnuts especially in the region of Almyros . Rise in the number of olive oil trees have been also observed. The nearly landlocked Gulf of Pagasai provides a natural harbor at Volos for shipping the agricultural products from the plains just to the west and chromium from the mountains of Thessaly.

Transport

There are a number of highways E75 and the main railway from Athens to Thessaloniki (Salonika) crosses Thessaly. The region is directly linked to the rest of Europe through International Airport of Central Greece located in Nea Anchialos in a small distance from Volos and Larisa . Until today charter flights links the region and brings tourists to the wider area, mainly in Pelion and Meteora . The new infrastructure includes a brand new terminal ready to serve 1500 passengers per hour and new airlanes.

Administration

The Thessaly region was established in the 1987 administrative reform. In everyday use, "Thessaly" is identified with the administrative region, although the historical region extended south into Phthiotis and at times north into West Macedonia as well.

With the 2010 Kallikratis plan , the powers and authority of the region were redefined and extended. Along with Central Greece , it is supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Thessaly and Central Greece, based at Larissa . The region is based at Larissa and is divided into five regional units (four were pre-Kallikratis prefectures ), Karditsa , Larissa , Magnesia , the Sporades and Trikala , which are further subdivided into 25 municipalities .

The region's governor is, since 1 January 2011, Konstantinos Agorastos , who was elected in the November 2010 local administration elections for the New Democracy party.

Mythology

In Homer 's epic, the Odyssey , Odysseus visits the kingdom of Aeolus, and this is the old name for Thessaly.

The Plain of Thessaly, which lies between Mount Oeta /Othrys and Mount Olympus , is the site of the battle between the Titans and the Olympians .

According to legend, Jason and the Argonauts launched their search for the Golden Fleece from the Magnesia Peninsula.