Editing Phthia (section)

==Location of Phthia==
The Homeric [[Catalogue of Ships]] speaks of Achilles' kingdom as follows (Hom. Il. 2.680-5):

<blockquote><poem>Now again all those who dwelt in [[Argos Pelasgikon|Pelasgic Argos]]:
those who dwelt in [[Halos (Thessaly)|Alos]] and [[Alope (Thessaly)|Alope]] and [[Trachis]]
and those who held Phthia and Hellas with its fair women,
and who were called [[Myrmidons]] and Hellenes and [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaians]];
of those fifty ships the leader was [[Achilles]].</poem></blockquote>

These names are generally believed to have referred to places in the [[Spercheios]] valley in what is now [[Phthiotis]] in central Greece.<ref>Allen, T. W. (1906) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/694919 "Μυρμιδόνων Πόλις"] ''The Classical Review'', Vol. 20, No. 4 (May, 1906), pp. 193-201; cf. p. 196</ref><ref>[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/phthia-e924400 Phthia] in Brill's new Pauly; cf. Strabo 9.5.8.</ref> The river Spercheios was associated with Achilles, and at ''Iliad'' 23.144 Achilles states that his father Peleus had vowed that Achilles would dedicate a lock of his hair to the river when he returned home safely.

However, a number of ancient sources, such as Euripides' ''Andromache'', also located Phthia further north in the area of [[Farsala|Pharsalus]].<ref>These include the [[Little Iliad]] fragment 19; Euripides ''Andromache'' 16ff; Strabo, ''Geography'', 9.5.6.</ref> Strabo also notes that near the cities of Pharsalus and [[Palaepharsalus]] there was a shrine dedicated to Achilles' mother Thetis, the [[Thetidion|Thetideion]].<ref>This appears from a passage in Polybius to have been situated between [[Eretria (Thessaly)]] and [[Scotussa]]; cf. Perrin, B. (1885). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/287135 "Pharsalia, Pharsalus, Palaepharsalus"]. ''The American Journal of Philology'', Vol. 6, No. 2 (1885), pp. 170-189; p. 179.</ref> Mycenean remains have been found in Pharsalus, and also in other sites nearby,<ref>Morgan, John D. (1983). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/504663?seq=1 "Palae-pharsalus – the Battle and the Town"], ''The American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 87, No. 1, Jan. 1983.</ref> but according to Denys Page, whether the Homeric Phthia is to be identified with Pharsalus "remains as doubtful as ever".<ref>Page, Denys (1959), ''History and the Homeric Iliad'', p. 161.</ref>

It has been suggested that "Pelasgic Argos" is a general name for the whole of [[northern Greece]], and that line 2.681 of the ''Iliad'' is meant to serve as a general introduction to the remaining nine contingents of the Catalogue.<ref>Loptson, Peter (1981). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4431019 "Pelasgikon Argos in the Catalogue of Ships"] ''Mnemosyne'', Fourth Series, Vol. 34, Fasc. 1/2 (1981), pp. 136-138.</ref>