Editing Phthia

{{short description|In Greek mythology city or district in ancient Thessaly}}
{{Other uses}}

'''Phthia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|aɪ|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Φθία}} or Φθίη ''Phthía, Phthíē'') was a city or district in [[ancient Thessaly]] according to [[Greek mythology]].<ref>"It looks as though [by Phthia] the Epic meant a district, which was contracted to a single occupied place (Pharsalos) by the opinion of the Greeks in historical times." Page, Denys (1959), ''History and the Homeric Iliad'', p. 161.</ref> 

==In Literature==
It is frequently mentioned in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' as the home of  the [[Myrmidons]], the contingent led by [[Achilles]] in the [[Trojan War]]. It was founded by [[Aeacus]], grandfather of Achilles, and was the home of Achilles' father [[Peleus]], mother [[Thetis]] (a [[Nereids|sea nymph]]), and son [[Neoptolemus]] (who reigned as king after the [[Trojan War]]).

Phthia is referenced in [[Plato|Plato's]] ''[[Crito]]'', where [[Socrates]], in jail and awaiting his execution, relates a dream he has had (43d–44b):<ref name="Crito">{{cite book|title = Plato: Complete Works|editor-last = Cooper|editor-first = John M.|others = Associate editor, D. S. Hutchinson. Translation of Crito by [[G. M. A. Grube]]|year = 1997|publisher = Hackett|location = Indianapolis/Cambridge|isbn = 0-87220-349-2|page = [https://archive.org/details/completeworks00plat/page/39 39]|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/completeworks00plat/page/39}} [http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html Translated by Benjamin Jowett on the MIT website.]</ref> "I thought that a beautiful and comely woman dressed in white approached me. She called me and said: 'Socrates, may you arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day.{{'"}} The reference is to [[Homer|Homer's]] ''Iliad'' (ix.363), when [[Achilles]], upset at having his war-prize, [[Briseis]], taken by [[Agamemnon]], rejects Agamemnon's conciliatory presents and threatens to set sail in the morning; he says that with good weather he might arrive on the third day "in fertile Phthia"—his home.<ref name="Crito"/> 

Phthia is the setting of [[Euripides]]' play ''[[Andromache_(play)|Andromache]]'', a play set after the Trojan War, when Achilles' son Neoptolemus (in some translations named Pyrrhus) has taken [[Andromache]], the widow of the Trojan hero [[Hector]] as a slave.

Mackie (2002) notes the linguistic association of Phthia with the Greek word ''phthisis'' "consumption,  decline; wasting away" (in English, ''phthisis'' has been used as a synonym for [[tuberculosis]]) and the connection of the place name with a withering death.{{clarify|date=April 2023}} This suggests the possibility of a wordplay in Homer, associating  Achilles' home with such a withering death.<ref>Mackie, C. J., "Homeric Phthia", ''Colby Quarterly'', Volume 38, no. 2, June 2002, pp. 163–173. [http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3455&context=cq]</ref>

==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>

==See also==
*[[Phthiotis]] (modern Greece)

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{ancient Greece topics}}

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[[Category:Achaea Phthiotis]]
[[Category:Locations in the Iliad]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Thessaly]]
[[Category:Thetis]]
[[Category:Achilles]]