To better educate you on myth, you must know the places where the myths have taken place. Some of these places still exist, while some have become only ruins.
One of the districts in the lower Greek mainland. One of its cities is Calydon. It was named after Aetolus, son of Endymion.
The central plateau in Peloponnesus, surrounded by and dissected by mountains. The people who lived there were mostly shepherds and hunters who worshipped nature gods.
Argos - (Argolis) -
A district of the northern Peloponnesus and is today called the Argive Plain. For a long time Argos ruled the Peloponnesus, rivalling Athens, Sparta, and Corinth. It is known as Hera’s city because of her palatial temple there. It was the scene where the Danaids killed their husbands/cousins.
Asia Minor -
Asia Minor is the peninsula at the most extreme tip at at western Asia. It was surrounded by the Aegean and Black Seas. To its East was Mesopotamia and China. To the west was Europe. It was the land of Troy, Phrygia and the entrance to the Dardanelles.
Athens is the present capitol of Greece; the main city in Attica. It is named after its patron goddess, Athena. Athens is one of the oldest cities, inhabited earlier then the Bronze Age (2000-1000 B.C.). It is home to the Acropolis, is and always was “the cultural center of the Greek world”.
Attica is the triangle shaped area at the eastern end of the Greek mainland. Its main and capitol city is Athens.
Boeotia was an ancient region north of Attica. Its early settlers were from Thessaly. Its main city is Thebes, and it’s famous for the Oracle of Delphi, Mount Parnassus and Mount Helicon.
A town in Aetolia. It was founded by Aetolus and was the site of the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Corinth - (Korinth) -
A city situated in northeast Peloponnesus. Corinth was aver large and powerful city and rivaled Athens; it was allies with Sparta. It is indeed a very important city for it was where Jason and Medea fled to after they were banished from Iolcus.
Crete is an island southeast of (but part of) Greece. It was one of the earliest civilizations, and possibly the most spectacular. It was the birth place of Zeus, and was the new home of Europa. Minos (Europa’s son) founded the first kingdom there.
Dardanelles is the strait that connects the Aegean to the Black Sea. It is 40 miles long and 1-5 miles wide. By the ancients it was called Hellespoint.
Delos is the smallest of the islands in the Aegean called the Cyclades. It was a drifting island until Zeus tied it to the ocean floor so Leto could give birth to her divine twins.
Delphi was Gaia’s sacred spot and she guarded it with Python. Apollo slew Python and her soul became the oracle. Apollo made the grove sacred to him. He built and alter and found priests. It is the most famous oracle in Greece. The Pythian Games were held near the oracle. It is situated on Mount Parnassus. Research dates it back to before 1600 B.C. Its ruins are still visible and are an awesome site. Its honor started declining at the same time ancient Greece did. It was attempted to resurrect the shrine but it was abolished in A.D. 385, by Emperor Theodorus (what a grouch).
Dodona is situated in Epirus; northwestern Greece. At Dodona was said to be an oracle; inside an oak tree (or beech). It was Zeus’s sacred site, it’s to Zeus what Delphi is to Apollo.
An ancient city in Attica, famous for the Eleusian Mysteries.
Elis was in Peloponnesus.
Ephesus was an ancient city of Asia Minor, but was Greek. It is south of today’s Izmir. It is famous for its temple to Artemis, which is one of the Seven Wonder’s of the World.
An ancient country in Greece. It was west of Thessaly. It was a refuge for the vulgar centaurs after they were banished from Thessaly, it also contained Dodona.
Hades - (Underworld) -
Hades, not the god, was a dark abyss where the mortals went after they died. The Underworld’s location is a myster, as well as its appearance. Every poet had his own perception. This time I haven’t sided with Homer. I picture it as 2 parts, good(Elysium) and a place of punishment(Tartarus). As I said, Elysium was the Christian Heaven, a place that was always light but no one remembered their past. The bad people who needed to punished were sent to Tartarus, the Erinyes realm. There they were tortured or sent to horrid work. This was the Christian Hell. Cerberus gaurded the gate, and it was ruled by Hades, and dread Persephone. It was also surrounded by many rivers, e.g. Styx.
Hera’s garden in the extreme west. It contained the tree that bore golden apples (Hera’s wedding present from Gaia). Also one of the nymphs of Hesperides.
Ida, Mount -
A mountain right in the middle of Crete, it was where Zeus was hidden from crooked-minded Cronus.
Ilium - (Troy, Ilion, Ilia) -
Iolcus was the home of Pelias and Jason, it was here that the play Argonautica starts out.
Ithaca - (Ithaka, Ithaki) -
Home of Odysseus, an island off the coast of Epirus. Famous for being headquaters of the Odyssey.
The labyrinth was an impossible to escape maze built under king Minos’s palace. The engineer/craftsman Deaedalus was instructed to build it to hide the hideous Minotaur. Theseus is saved from the labyrinth by Ariadne.
A region in the south-east Peloponessus, its capital is or was Sparta. Helen was sometimes worshipped as a fertility goddess there.
A region in northern Africa. In the Odyssey, Odysseus lands there and it is the home of the Lotus Eaters.
A wealthy kingdom in western Asia Minor. It was the home of Arachne, who was turned into a spider by Athena.
The home of Agamemnon. It was situated in northern Peloponnesus. The extravagant Mycenean civilization was home to there.
Naxos is an island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous for being the place where Ariadne was abandoned by Theseus, at the request of Dionysus.
Olympus, Mount -
The tallest mountain in Greece and home of the gods. It is found in the Olympus mountain range, between Thessaly and Macedonia.
Omphalos - (Navel) -
This was the stone that Cronus swallowed thinking it was Zeus. When he threw it up it was set up at Delphi and worshipped as the center of the Earth.
An oracle was a spot where people could ask the resident god’s opinion or inquiry about an issue of theirs.
A mountain in south-central Greece. It was the home of the 9 Muses and sacred to Apollo because of Delphi. Deucalion landed his ark there after the flood.
Mount Pelion is in northern Thessaly. Her Chiron lived.
The peninsula lying to the south of the Greek mainland. It gets its name from Pelops, founder of the Atreid dynasty and son of terrible Tantalus. Some of its cities were or are : Argos, Corinth, Laconia, and Sparta.
Phoenicia - (Purple) -
An ancient kingdom in modern Lebanon and Israel. It was famous for the major goods they exported. They also invented the alphabet taken over by the Greeks.
A region in central Asia Minor. Cybele had her cult strongest here.
The most eastern of the islands in the Aegean Sea. It was the home of Helios whose wife was Rhodos. Their children populated the island.
Sparta - (Lacedaemon) -
The capital of Laconia in Peloponnesus. They were famous for their cruelty to slaves and their war like features.
The city founded by Cadmus in Boeotia. It had the famous seven gates and was the scene of “Oedipus Rex” and “The Seven Against Thebes”.
The largest division of Greece. It is on the eastern mainland and was inhabited by the Lapiths and Centaurs.
Troy - (Ilium, Ilion, Ilia) -
Troy was founded by Dardanus, a son of Zeus. It was later ruled by his descendant, Priam. During Priam’s rule his son, Paris abducted Helen of Sparta. The Trojan War occured and Troy was sacked. It is located in modern Turkey.